Most finance and accounting candidates who reach the offer stage will ask for something. Controllers, senior accountants, FP&A analysts and AP leads all know that a first offer is often a starting point. The employers who lose good people at this stage are rarely the ones who say no. They are the ones who have not decided what they can say yes to.
Here is how to prepare before the offer goes out.
Know your real range before you open the conversation
If the posted band is 10 percent wider than what you can actually pay, candidates will find out the first time they push. Settle three numbers before the offer: the figure you will open at, the figure you will stretch to, and the figure where you stop.
Check those numbers against the market, not against what the last person in the seat earned. That person may have been hired in a different year, or promoted into the role slowly. Job Bank in Canada and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US both publish wage data by occupation and region, and they are a sensible starting point before you speak to a recruiter about what is moving locally.
What candidates commonly ask for
Expect requests in a handful of areas. Think about each one ahead of time.
- Base salary. The most common ask. A candidate with a CPA designation or CPA-equivalent credential, or one who has run a full budgeting cycle, has a fair case for the upper part of your range.
- Signing bonus. Useful when the base is fixed, especially if the person is leaving an unpaid year-end bonus behind. It costs you once and does not reset your pay structure.
- An early review. A written commitment to revisit pay at 6 months, tied to clear goals, can close a gap without raising the base today. Only offer it if you will honour it.
- Title. Titles in finance follow people for years. Match the title to the actual scope. Giving a Senior Accountant the title of Manager without the reporting lines creates a problem for both sides later.
- Flexibility. Hybrid days, compressed hours and remote work during close are often cheaper to grant than salary, and many candidates value them more than a small raise.
- Start date and vacation. Easy to accommodate when the role is not in the middle of a close or audit.
Where to hold the line
You do not need to say yes to everything. Hold firm when:
- The ask would put the new hire above peers with more tenure and similar scope, and you would have to fix it within a year.
- The candidate wants a senior title for a role that is not senior.
- Several large asks arrive together. Ask the candidate which one matters most, then work on that.
A clear no with a reason is respected. A vague no, or a slow reply, is what sends candidates back to the other offer.
Competing offers are normal
A finance professional who tells you they are weighing another offer is being honest, not hostile. Most strong candidates in the market have more than one conversation going, especially in the weeks after year-end bonuses are paid and hiring picks up.
Answer it directly. Say what you can do on pay, what you cannot, and what the role offers that the other one may not: scope, a clear path to controller, a better team, a shorter commute. Do not match a number you cannot sustain. A hire who joins on a stretched package and finds out six months later that the budget will not move on the next review is a resignation waiting to happen.
Speed matters as much as money
Qualified finance candidates rarely sit on the market for long. Every extra day between a verbal yes to the interview and a written offer is a day for someone else to call. Get sign-off on the range before the final interview, not after. If the answer to a counter will take 3 days because the CFO is travelling, tell the candidate that up front.
A short checklist before you send the offer
- Confirm the range with whoever approves it, in writing.
- Decide which items are open: salary, signing bonus, review timing, flexibility, start date.
- Check the title against scope and against current team members.
- Prepare the reasons behind anything you will not move on.
- Set a clear expiry date, and a person the candidate can call with questions.
What to do next
Look at your last 3 finance offers. Note how many were countered, what was asked for, and what was agreed. That tells you where your first offer sits against the market, and whether your range needs to move before the next search starts. If you are hiring in accounting or finance and want a second view on the offer before it goes out, a Traverse recruiter can help with that.