Building an 87-Member Finance Team for a New GCC in Mumbai in 120 Days

 

Project Overview

Industry: Global Capability Centre (GCC)
Function: Finance & Accounting
Location: Mumbai, India
Service: GCC Recruitment / Finance Hiring
Total Hires: 87 Professionals
Timeline: 120 Days
Hiring Levels: Analyst to Senior Manager
Functions Covered: R2R, P2P, O2C, FP&A, Financial Reporting, Tax, Treasury, Audit, Risk & Controls and Finance Transformation

 

Client Overview

A global organisation was setting up a new Global Capability Centre in Mumbai, part of a wider strategy to centralise and strengthen its finance operations in India. This wasn't hiring into an established GCC, it was a greenfield requirement, which meant the client needed to build several finance teams almost at once, spanning everything from transactional accounting to specialist finance and leadership positions.

The new GCC needed talent across Record to Report (R2R), Procure to Pay (P2P), Order to Cash (O2C), FP&A and Business Finance, Financial Reporting, Controllership, Tax and Compliance, Treasury, Internal Audit, Risk and Controls, and Finance Transformation. And the hiring had to keep pace with the client's transition and operational-readiness timelines. Prism HRC was brought in for our GCC recruitment services. The mandate to us was clear: hire 87 finance professionals in Mumbai within 120 days.

 

The Business Challenge

This was never a case of simply producing 87 CVs. The client needed an operational finance workforce, built within a fixed window.

1. Multiple Finance Functions Had to Be Built Simultaneously

The GCC was being established from scratch, and different functions called for completely different candidate profiles. The program spanned high-volume transactional finance roles, specialist finance positions, managerial roles, senior finance professionals, and people capable of handling global stakeholders. There was no way one common sourcing strategy could cover all of that.

2. 87 Hires Within 120 Days

The client was working to a defined GCC ramp-up schedule, and any serious hiring delay risked knocking on to process migration, knowledge transfer, training, team formation, operational readiness and the transition timelines themselves. So Prism HRC had to run several hiring pipelines at once, rather than finishing one finance function before starting the next.

3. Finding Candidates Suitable for a GCC Environment.

For many of these roles, strong accounting experience on its own simply wasn't enough. Depending on the position, candidates needed real exposure to global stakeholders, shared services or GCC environments, multinational organisations, large-scale finance processes, process migration and transition, ERP environments, international accounting processes, financial controls and global reporting. That meant the recruitment team had to understand what candidates were actually doing in their current roles, rather than screening only by designation and years of experience.

4. Competition for Finance Talent in Mumbai.

Mumbai has one of India's deepest finance talent pools, but that cuts both ways, it also means competing against a huge range of employers for experienced people. Relevant candidates could already be working with banks and financial institutions, GCCs, Shared Service Centres, Big 4 firms, consulting companies, multinationals, large Indian enterprises, or finance and accounting outsourcing companies. And for niche finance and managerial positions, that competition only got fiercer.

 

The Hiring Requirement

The 87 positions covered transactional, analytical, specialist and leadership finance roles. A representative hiring mix looked like this:

Finance Function Approx. Hiring 

R2R / General Accounting	18
P2P / Accounts Payable	12
O2C / Accounts Receivable	10
FP&A / Business Finance	10
Financial Reporting / Controllership	8
Tax & Compliance	6
Treasury	5
Internal Audit / Risk & Controls	6
Finance Transformation / Analytics	5
Managers / Senior Managers	7
Total	87

 

The function-wise distribution is representative and should be replaced with exact client-approved figures before publication.

 

Prism HRC's Recruitment Strategy

Prism HRC treated the mandate as a GCC workforce ramp-up project rather than 87 unrelated vacancies.

Step 1

Workforce & Requirement Mapping. Before any large-scale sourcing began, the team mapped each requirement by finance function, role and designation, mandatory skills, years of experience, professional qualifications, process expertise, industry exposure, GCC/shared-services experience, ERP and technology exposure, compensation range, notice period and hiring priority. The positions were then split into three broad hiring categories.

Volume Finance Hiring covered mainly R2R, P2P, O2C and General Accounting, roles that needed larger candidate pipelines and faster interview cycles. Specialist Finance Hiring took in FP&A, Controllership, Financial Reporting, Tax, Treasury, Internal Audit, Risk & Controls and Finance Transformation, which called for more targeted talent mapping and sourcing. And Leadership Hiring, the Manager and Senior Manager positions, needed candidates capable of building and managing teams, handling global stakeholders, managing transitions, establishing processes, driving controls, and managing performance and delivery. This segmentation let Prism HRC allocate recruiter capacity according to the complexity and priority of each position.

Step 2

Dedicated Finance Recruitment Team. Rather than scattering vacancies randomly among recruiters, Prism HRC built a focused structure, aligning recruiters with particular finance processes so they'd understand the terminology, responsibilities and candidate profiles tied to each function.

The R2R Recruitment Focus screened for General Ledger, month-end and year-end close, journal entries, balance sheet reconciliations, intercompany accounting, fixed assets, consolidation and financial reporting. The P2P & O2C Recruitment Focus looked for experience across Accounts Payable, invoice processing, vendor management, payments, Accounts Receivable, billing, collections, cash application and credit management. And the FP&A & Specialist Finance Focus centred on budgeting and forecasting, variance analysis, management reporting, financial modelling, business partnering, tax, treasury, controls, audit and finance transformation. That specialisation lifted both the quality and the relevance of the profiles submitted to the client.

Step 3

Mumbai Finance Talent Mapping. With all 87 positions based in Mumbai, local talent mapping became a big part of the strategy. Prism HRC identified relevant pools across existing GCCs, Shared Service Centres, banks, financial institutions, Big 4 organisations, consulting companies, multinationals, large Indian companies and finance outsourcing organisations. The pool was then segmented by finance function, experience, qualification, current compensation, expected compensation, notice period, current location and preferred work location. For specialist positions, the team also mapped organisations where comparable finance processes were already being run.

Prism HRC's Mumbai Advantage

One genuine advantage in delivering this mandate was Prism HRC's own presence and deep recruitment experience in Mumbai. When it comes to Mumbai recruitment, understanding the geography matters more than people assume. Labelling a candidate "Mumbai-based" doesn't actually tell you whether they'll be comfortable travelling to the client's office.

Things like daily travel time, Western, Central and Harbour railway connectivity, metro connectivity, distance from railway or metro stations, office location, working hours, hybrid or work-from-office requirements, and the candidate's own residential location can all sway their interest and their joining decision. Prism HRC's familiarity with Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and the wider Mumbai Metropolitan Region helped the team weigh these practical considerations early on.

How Local Knowledge Helped

First, it meant better talent targeting, since recruiters could pinpoint candidate pools that were geographically practical for the client's office location. Second, it led to reduced location-related dropouts, because commute concerns could be raised during initial screening rather than surfacing after selection. Third, it gave the team a better understanding of talent clusters, as they already knew where finance, banking, consulting, shared-services and GCC talent was concentrated across the region. Fourth came local compensation understanding, with Mumbai experience helping the team gauge pay expectations across different finance functions and levels. And fifth, it delivered stronger passive candidate reach, since existing local networks and relationships helped Prism HRC reach professionals who weren't necessarily actively looking.

For an 87-person program, these advantages really added up. Prism HRC wasn't only judging whether a candidate could do the role, it could also assess whether the opportunity actually made sense for them on location and commute.

Step 4

Multi-Channel Candidate Sourcing. Recruitment on this scale couldn't rely on job advertisements alone, so Prism HRC ran several channels at once. It drew on its internal talent database of finance professionals already mapped by the firm; job portals, with targeted searches by process, qualification, experience and location; professional networks of people working in similar GCC and finance environments; referrals from finance professionals and existing industry networks; target company mapping of professionals in organisations with comparable finance processes; and passive candidate outreach, engaging suitable people directly even when they weren't searching. For specialist and leadership positions, the approach grew steadily more targeted rather than volume-driven.

Step 5

Finance-Specific Candidate Screening. Prism HRC deliberately avoided one generic screening process for all finance candidates. R2R candidates were screened on month-end closing, General Ledger, journal entries, reconciliations, intercompany transactions and financial reporting. P2P candidates on Accounts Payable, invoice processing, vendor management, payments and expense management. O2C candidates on Accounts Receivable, billing, collections, cash application and credit management. FP&A candidates on budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, management reporting, financial modelling and business partnering. And Managers & Senior Managers had additional screening on team management, global stakeholder management, process migration, transition experience, controls, transformation initiatives and leadership responsibilities. The aim throughout was to send candidates whose actual process experience matched the requirement, not just profiles carrying similar keywords.

Step 6 

Interview & Recruitment Funnel Management. With 87 positions to close in four months, pipeline visibility was essential. Every candidate moved through a structured funnel:

Sourced → Screened → Submitted → Shortlisted → Interviewed → Selected → Offered → Documentation → Joined

This made issues easy to spot early. A low shortlist ratio meant reviewing the sourcing criteria; low interview success meant improving candidate screening; high offer rejection meant looking again at compensation or candidate expectations; and high post-offer dropout meant strengthening engagement and backup pipelines. That approach turned the assignment into a measurable recruitment operation rather than a loose collection of independent vacancies.

Step 7: Offer-to-Joining Management. A candidate being selected didn't automatically close the vacancy. Prism HRC kept engaging through the notice period, tracking offer acceptance, notice period, compensation, counter-offer risk, competing offers, documentation, joining date, location concerns and candidate queries. Backup pipelines were kept for critical positions wherever possible, which mattered especially for specialist and leadership roles, where a last-minute dropout could throw off the GCC's ramp-up schedule.

 

The 120-Day Hiring Plan

Days 1–30: Leadership & Critical Roles. The early focus fell on Managers and Senior Managers, critical finance specialists, and positions important for process transition, while larger pipelines were built up in parallel for R2R, P2P and O2C.

Days 31–60: Core Finance Ramp-Up. Hiring accelerated across R2R, P2P, O2C, General Accounting and Financial Reporting, with multiple interview cycles running at the same time.

Days 61–90: Specialist Finance Hiring. Attention shifted toward FP&A, Controllership, Tax, Treasury, Audit, Risk & Controls and Finance Transformation.

Days 91–120: Final Ramp-Up. The closing phase concentrated on the difficult-to-close requirements, senior positions, offer-to-joining management, candidate replacements and any remaining workforce gaps.

By the end of the 120-day program, 87 finance professionals had been hired for the client's new Mumbai GCC.

 

Key Results

87 Finance Professionals Hired. A multi-functional finance team was built across transactional, analytical, specialist and leadership positions.

120-Day Ramp-Up. The complete mandate was executed within roughly four months.

Multiple Finance Functions Covered. Hiring spanned R2R, P2P, O2C, FP&A, financial reporting, tax, treasury, audit, controls and transformation.

Analyst to Senior Manager Hiring. Prism HRC supported both high-volume recruitment and specialised senior-level searches.

Mumbai Talent Market Expertise. Local knowledge helped identify relevant candidates while factoring in location, connectivity and commute feasibility.

One Recruitment Partner. The client had a single central partner managing hiring across multiple finance functions and seniority levels.

 

Business Impact

The engagement helped the client move from GCC planning to workforce readiness inside 120 days. Rather than building each finance team one after another, Prism HRC ran parallel recruitment pipelines that let transactional finance, specialist functions and leadership hiring all progress at once. Its Mumbai presence strengthened delivery further, pairing recruitment capability with a real understanding of the local talent market and geography.

The project showcased Prism HRC's capability across high-volume finance hiring, GCC recruitment, R2R, P2P & O2C hiring, FP&A & specialist finance recruitment, finance leadership search, Mumbai talent mapping, and rapid workforce ramp-up.

 

Building or Scaling a Finance GCC in India?

Prism HRC supports Global Capability Centres with recruitment across Finance & Accounting, R2R, P2P, O2C, FP&A, Tax, Treasury, Audit, Risk, Controllership, Finance Transformation and Leadership roles.

Whether you're establishing a new GCC or scaling an existing centre in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Delhi NCR or elsewhere across India, Prism HRC can build dedicated recruitment teams for both large-volume and specialised hiring requirements.

Planning to build or scale your Finance GCC in India? Talk to Prism HRC about your hiring requirements.