Manager Accounting & Controlling (m/w/d)

Role Summary

In most medium-sized companies, no one explains the numbers. They are created, sent and filed - and the owner continues to make decisions based on his gut because no one is translating what is written in his own accounting system.

Vogel is one of the most successful medium-sized consulting companies in Germany - several thousand medium-sized companies entrust us with their tax, commercial and strategic issues. We take over the complete accounting for these companies: ongoing processing with a high degree of automation, commercial accounting and, based on this, evaluation, planning and controlling. You lead your clientele along this entire route - and don't give up on the conversation about it.

For several years you have been responsible for the financial statements of medium-sized clients - in a tax consulting or auditing firm or in the accounting department of a company. You know the situation: The closing is finished, clean and on time - and the conversation about it is held by someone else, or it doesn't take place at all. At Vogel you will find the opposite: structures that support - established clients, long experience, strong growth base - and at the same time a setup that moves forward every day. No corporate corset, no inherited farm without growth aspirations.

From day one you will take on an existing clientele and provide professional guidance to three to four associates from day one. You report to the Senior Manager Accounting & Controlling, who is responsible for the standard of the line. After 24 to 36 months, the natural progression leads to a senior manager role with an independently developed portfolio of mandates.

What you delivered after 6 months

• You take full responsibility for the transferred client group, including the annual financial statements.
• You conducted the first ten BWA or control discussions without senior supervision.
• You know your associates personally and have conducted the first performance discussions yourself.

What you delivered after 12 months

• You have made at least ten of your mandates measurably more efficient in ongoing accounting.
• You have established a control service beyond financial accounting for at least five mandates - forecast, contribution margin or liquidity planning, which the entrepreneur uses on an ongoing basis.
• You have transferred at least three issues into other areas - tax planning, financing, succession or valuation.

What you delivered after 24 months

• You have developed your clientele independently and expanded it with your own acquisition or cross-sell.
• You have developed a recognizable depth of your own - an industry, a planning methodology, an automation topic.
• You are the escalation endpoint of your line for standard cases and a candidate for the senior manager level.

Where the position is developing

The next step is Senior Manager Accounting & Controlling (management career) - but this requires an independently developed portfolio of mandates, not just additional years of professional experience. We don't know the automaticity of "more experience equals higher level". The senior manager level opens up the director path along our career framework.

Responsibilities

YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

Clientele and degree

1. Take over an existing clientele and manage it independently - ongoing accounting, monthly and annual financial statements, contact person for owners and managing directors.
2. Responsible for the commercial conclusion of your mandates as an independent result for the entrepreneur. You prepare the commercial law part, our tax advisor is responsible for the tax part and the declaration.
3. Drive the level of automation of your mandates instead of managing manual work. Your benchmark is not whether the numbers are correct in the end, but rather how little manual effort was necessary.

Control and advice for the entrepreneur

1. Conduct the BWA or quarterly discussion with your clients yourself and translate the numbers into a line of action. Your benchmark: He can then make a decision, not just repeat a number.
2. Build planning and control on current accounting - forecast, liquidity planning, cost and performance accounting, contribution margin - and turn these into services that are recurring instead of being reinvented for each mandate.
3. Recognize the occasions when another area is needed - tax planning, financing, succession, valuation - and actively bring them together instead of waiting for the client to ask.

Team leadership

1. Provide professional guidance to your three to four associates — reviewing their work, mentoring, escalation decisions, performance discussions in coordination with the senior manager.
2. Get the associates to the point where they can lead the client discussion themselves - not just provide the numbers.
3. Actively participate in hiring at associate level and set the tone in the team: hierarchical in decision-making, flat in communication, autonomous in execution. We celebrate performance, not hide it - anyone who is good will find the space for it here, without political camouflage and without consensus theatre.

WHAT YOU WON'T FIND WITH US

1. No numbers without conversation. Anyone who builds the degree and then gives it away is in the wrong place. You represent your numbers yourself to the entrepreneur.
2. No pure controlling without responsibility for the balance sheet. You are responsible for the conclusion yourself. Interpreting numbers without standing up for them is not possible here.
3. No accounting back room without design input. Recording and coordination are largely done by machine. What remains is assessment, advice and the question of how far automation can go.
4. No corporate corset in which you wait for promotions. Growth here comes from contributions, not from years worked.
5. No partnership with competing interests. We are a company with one-firm logic — one brand, one culture, one hiring bar. No management by committee, no consensus as an end in itself.

FAQ

1. WHAT IS BIRD — AND WHERE DO YOU WORK?

Vogel is one of Germany's leading medium-sized business consultancies - a family business since 1959, based in Aalen - and is building the leading consulting platform for medium-sized businesses. We are growing at several locations: in Aalen/East Württemberg as an established headquarters and in Munich as a new hub.

In both, we look across functions — from tax advice to consulting to the strategic teams that build the platform.

1. HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE SALARY BANDS?

Deliberately wide - and identified at every point. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not on degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the top end, less scarce ones at the bottom. We calibrate exclusively to the market - two people with similar experience can earn different things with us.

1. HOW MUCH — AND HOW — DOES VOGEL WORK?

It's measured by what you move, not by hours. But it's also honest: If you're looking for 9-to-5, we're not the first place to go. We are looking for people who work intensively on their own initiative because the tasks are worth it. How you distribute your time is largely up to you. What we share: We work together face-to-face - culture, sparring and the best ideas arise in daily proximity. We are not a remote company and do not have major home office policies; Individual remote days are no problem.

1. HOW DOES THE APPLICATION PROCESS?

Slim, fast, transparent — and graded according to profile. For entry-level roles (internship, work study, career entry), two interviews and a short work sample are usually sufficient; experienced roles are a little more detailed. For selected senior roles, we are looking into incorporating a joint working day in the future so that both sides get to know each other better. The following always applies: scheduled deadlines, quick decisions, substantial feedback - regardless of the outcome.

1. HOW DOES VARIABLE PAY WORK?

Linked to performance on a quarterly basis and assessed qualitatively. The scale increases with the level: up to 20% Associate, 27.5% Manager, 35% Senior Manager, 42.5% Director, 50% VP. Expected value with good performance - you meet the requirements, set your own accents, pass the keeper test - is around 50% of the maximum; the maximum bonus is not the norm. The focus is on a holistic assessment by your manager: ownership, quality, learning curve, collaboration, impact.

1. HOW DO I DEVELOP MYSELF - WHAT CAREER PATHS ARE THERE?

Two active paths: Mastery (technical depth, expert career) and Pioneer (leadership, management). You choose the direction after onboarding, usually in years 1-3. Starting a career is not a special path, but rather the early part of the same route - from working student or intern to associate, for the best ones without having to reapply.

1. TEAM, CULTURE, HOLIDAY?

A shared lunch is an open daily option - not an obligation; If you like, you can join us; anyone can eat at any time. Plus dinners, social events and offsites on a regular basis - not as a mandatory program, but because a good team also shares time outside of work. Benefits: thoughtful and substantial, not symbolic. Vacation: 28 days.

1. I KNOW SOMEONE - IS THERE A REFERRAL BONUS?

Yes — EUR 2,500 for each successfully filled position (no internships). A short context is enough: who you are thinking about, for what role, why. Doesn't have to fit perfectly, but has to be substantial.

Requirements

THIS IS WHAT YOU BRING WITH YOU

Experience & track record

• You have prepared and been responsible for the financial statements of medium-sized corporations and partnerships for several years - in a tax consulting or auditing company or in the accounting department of a company.
• You were not only involved in the figures, but also represented the results yourself to the client or to the management.
• A professional exam is expressly not a requirement - this role is accounting and economic, not tax. If you are aiming for the auditor exam, we will support you.
• Profiles that do not fit into the above grid, but have their own final responsibility with a consulting component, are expressly invited - we judge on the contribution, not on the label. Specifically: an accountant who has been responsible for financial statements for several years and is already conducting the client discussion; Controller from upper medium-sized companies with reliable accounting practices; Tax advisor whose work is in fact predominantly accounting. The range shown is not a room for negotiation, but rather a profile scale. The lower end represents the move to the first role with its own clientele and management responsibility. Anyone who already fully supports a comparable group of clients and leads a team professionally starts in the top third. The range shown above applies to the primary profile. Anyone who brings a different background starts at a different market price and converges to the role level after twelve months of proven performance - the logic behind this is in our compensation principles https://www.vogel-beratung.com/culture/verg%C3%BCtungsgrunds%C3%A4tze.

Skills & way of working

• You have mastered HGB accounting in medium-sized businesses with its real points of contention - inventory valuation, work in progress, provisions, shareholder accounts.
• You read a company from its numbers and translate that into a line of action that an owner understands and follows.
• You master the mechanics of planning and forecasting — scenarios, liquidity, contribution margin — and can build them up in a company that previously had none.
• You work with AI as a natural tool - plausibility checks, analysis of account movements, setting up planning logic, drafting. Repetitive evaluations are an incentive for automation, not a fate.

Mindset & personality

• You are a numbers person and a relationship person in one person - you gain the trust of an entrepreneur and back it up with reliable analysis.
• You enjoy developing younger colleagues and see their progress as part of your own results.
• You have the humility to learn from practitioners. The entrepreneur who has been in the market for thirty years knows things about his business that are not included in any model.
• You aspire to set the highest standard in everything you deliver — not because someone controls it, but because mediocrity bothers you personally.