How to become a Management Controller: Job description

Becoming a Management Controller

The Management Controller is a specialist in planning and management. They assist the company's transversal functions such as general management, finance or sales in making decisions thanks to a detailed analysis of budgets.

What is a Management Controller’s role?

The role of the Management Controller is mainly to ensure the good health of the company.

To do this, they prepare budget forecasts that are as close to reality as possible and implement control procedures. Then, they continuously examine the performance and carry out regular reports thanks to their good mastery of the results monitoring tools. Finally, they use their analyses to detect deviations and suggest solutions for improvement.

Working closely with the board of directors, the Financial Controller plays an important role in defining strategy and optimizing the financial profitability of the company.

There are several categories of Management Controllers:

• The Industrial Management Controller
• The Commercial Management Controller
• The Project Management Controller
• The Budget Management Controller

Where does the Management Controller work?

The Management Controller works in a company and is generally part of the accounting and finance department. In small companies, their functions are more generalist, they ensure for example accounting, financial or administrative missions beside management control.

On the other hand, in large groups, the Management Controller is often specialized. They are also required to visit the various subsidiaries in order to establish a global analysis.

Their position vary according to the size of the company, the sector of activity and their hierarchical attachment.

What qualities and skills should a Management Controller have?

• Mastery of general accounting
• Appetence for numbers
• Mastery of office automation tools
• Analysis and data processing
• Rigor and organization
• Autonomy
• Ability to listen and communicate with others

Their mastery of general accounting and their interest in numbers make the Management Controller a reliable source of information for managers. They analyze the results with rigor and have a well-developed ability to synthesize information, which enables them to produce clear and effective reports.

The Management Controller must master office automation tools, which they use on a daily basis. It is also a finance job that requires both a great capacity of autonomy and an ability to work in a team. Indeed, a sense of listening and relational skills are very useful to the Management Controller who collaborates with many actors in the company.

What is the typical salary of a Management Controller?

The inexperienced Controller earns a salary of around 25k per year. With time and experience, they can expect to increase their salary to over 50k per year.

After several years of practice, the Management Controller can move up to positions with higher responsibilities such as Director of Management Control or Administrative and Financial Director.

Which qualifications do you need to become a Management Controller?

Train to become a Management Controller in 2 years by joining the ESDES Master in International Business Administration, as part of the Grande École Program, which allow you to graduate with an EFMD accredited Master’s degree.

The specialization is designed to gain a solid perspective on the nature of business competitiveness and acquire skills to evaluate the complexity of the international business arena by mastering analytical tools for key decision-making processes.

This course is offered as a full-time program.