An interim COO for a firm with a gap to cover or a deadline to hit.
Two or three days a week in the firm, for a fixed term, on a day rate. A seat that has emptied, a practice-management migration that has stalled, an acquired firm that needs integrating by a date: senior operating cover from the first week, and a handover designed in from the start.
Three situations where a retainer is too slow.
A seat has emptied
The practice manager or operations director has resigned, and a permanent replacement is three to six months away. Someone senior needs to hold workflow, capacity and the team in the meantime, and leave the seat in better shape than they found it.
A programme has stalled
The move to new practice-management software was meant to be live by the spring. It is not, because nobody inside the firm has two clear days a week to own it. The interim owns it to completion, trains the team and hands it over embedded.
An acquisition needs integrating
The deal has completed, and now two firms have two ways of doing everything. Client onboarding, workflow, systems, roles and pricing need bringing onto one operating model, to a date, without losing the people or the clients who came with it.
What a fixed term looks like from day one to handover.
An interim engagement has an end date before it has a start date. Everything between the two is arranged so the firm keeps what was built.
In the seat
Systems access, the team met, the live issues listed and owned. A handover brief from the owner sets out what is covered, who reports where and which decisions the interim can take alone.
The plan is fixed
A 30, 60 and 90 day plan agreed with the owner, with the workstreams, owners inside the firm and the definition of done. Weekly operating log started and shared.
The work is landing
The gap is covered or the programme is most of the way through. Processes are written into the firm’s SOP library as they change, not afterwards. Monthly progress report to the partners.
Handover, not a finish line
Every workstream has a named owner inside the firm, the operating plan is theirs, and a handover pack records what was done, what is open and what to watch. Then the seat is handed back, or the Monthly COO takes over at lower intensity.
Two days a week is enough to change how a firm runs, if they are the right two days.
An interim COO is not a project manager with a Gantt chart. On the days in the firm Andy chairs the operations meeting, unblocks the work that is stuck between people, makes the decisions the owner has agreed to hand over, and sits with the team while the new way of working becomes the normal one.
- Decision rights agreed in writing at the start: what the interim decides, what the owner decides, what the partners decide together.
- A weekly operating log the owner can read in five minutes: decisions taken, fires put out, risks, and what needs them.
- Days in the office where the work is, not remote by default. Video for the in-between.
Someone who has integrated firms, migrated systems and covered seats before.
Andy has built an accountancy group from scratch, acquired and integrated firms through Practice Group, and run operating-model rebuilds and system migrations as a fractional COO. The interim role is the same work at higher intensity, with a date on it.
It is also the same person throughout. There is no bench, no associate, and no handover to someone you have not met.
Interim cover is
- Senior operating leadership in the firm two or three days a week
- A defined brief, a fixed term and a designed handover
- Decisions taken, not just recommended
- Processes written into the firm as they change
Interim cover is not
- A permanent hire by another name
- Open-ended: it ends on the date agreed
- A consultancy report
- Bookkeeping, accounts or compliance work
- Employment, an umbrella or an agency placement
What owners ask about interim cover.
How many days a week is an interim COO in the firm?
Two or three, agreed at the start and fixed for the term. Two days covers a seat and keeps a programme moving; three is right where a migration, an integration or a restructure has a hard deadline. Fewer than two and it stops being interim cover and becomes the Monthly COO, which is a different product.
How long does an interim engagement last?
Three to six months is typical, and it is fixed from the outset. The end date is agreed before the first day, and the last month is the handover. If the work genuinely needs longer the term can be extended by agreement, but an interim engagement that quietly rolls on is a sign the firm needed a permanent appointment or a fractional retainer instead.
What does it cost?
From £1,200 + VAT a day, invoiced monthly on days worked. Two days a week for three months is roughly 26 days, so about £31,000 + VAT; three days a week for six months is roughly 78 days, so about £94,000 + VAT. There is no agency margin, because there is no agency: you contract with Optivo directly, business to business, under an ordinary service contract.
What happens to the knowledge when the interim leaves?
It is written down as we go, not on the last day. Every decision, process and system change is documented in the firm’s own operating plan and SOP library from week one, an owner inside the firm is named for each workstream, and the final month is spent handing over rather than finishing. That is the difference between interim cover that leaves a gap behind it and interim cover that leaves a function.
Is this an employee, an umbrella or a contractor arrangement?
None of those. Optivo supplies a service under a business-to-business contract and invoices monthly plus VAT. The firm does not run PAYE, there is no umbrella company and no recruitment agency in the chain. Andy is a director of several businesses and the engagement is a genuine service, not disguised employment.
Can it become the Monthly COO afterwards?
Yes, and it often should. The interim term finishes the acute piece of work; the Monthly COO retainer keeps the operating rhythm in place afterwards at a fraction of the intensity. It is a step down in days and cost, not a new engagement, and the handover is simpler because the same person stays involved.
Got a gap, a deadline, or both?
Tell me what has prompted it and when it needs to be done by. If interim is the wrong shape, I’ll say so and point you at the right one.
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