Associate Accounting & Controlling (m/f/d)

Full Time Senior

Job description

Your Role

Most medium-sized companies receive their figures months too late and in a form they cannot use. Not because no one is calculating, but because accounting is treated as a mandatory exercise instead of a basis for decisions.

Vogel is one of the most successful medium-sized consulting firms in Germany – thousands of medium-sized companies entrust us with their tax, commercial, and strategic issues. For these companies, we take over accounting completely: from ongoing processing and statutory balance sheet preparation to analysis, planning, and the discussion where the entrepreneur makes their decisions. You will work on this entire process from the beginning, not just one part of it.

You have completed your studies or are about to – Business Administration, Economics, or a comparable field, ideally with a focus on accounting, controlling, or auditing. You want to understand companies through their figures and speak directly with the people who produce these figures – instead of working in a corporate reporting line where you never get to see the company. At Vogel, you will find both: structures that support you – established clients, extensive experience, strong growth base – and at the same time a setup that is forward-looking every day.

From day one, you will take on your own clients: You will clarify what doesn't fit, prepare the financial statements, and produce the analyses that we discuss with the entrepreneur. You will work under the guidance of an experienced colleague who will provide technical direction. Vogel will support you in your next qualification step – financially and timewise. The path leads from technical responsibility for your own clients to leading your own team.

Your Responsibility

Ongoing accounting with a high degree of automation

Be responsible for the ongoing accounting of your clients – processing is largely automated; your work begins where the system reaches its limits.
Investigate anomalies that emerge over time and in comparison with other clients – with a focus on the cause within the company, not on the correct booking.
Be responsible for the monthly closing of your clients and the sales tax advance return, and identify cases that require tax consultation before they become a problem.

Closing, Analysis, and Forecast

Participate in the preparation of the statutory annual financial statements – accruals, provisions, inventory changes – and gradually take over responsibility for them.
Prepare the P&L discussion with the entrepreneur: analysis, key figures, the points that need to be addressed. Your benchmark: they can make a decision afterwards, not just repeat a number.
Develop forecasts, cost and performance calculations, and liquidity analyses for your clients – where the figures start to answer entrepreneurial questions.

Tools and Automation

Work in a modern environment: digital document flows, automated processing, AI-supported plausibility checks. We consciously go beyond DATEV-plus-Excel.
Naturally use AI for research, analysis, drafting, and checking anomalies.
Contribute your own ideas on how to make your client work faster and better – and implement them. How far automation goes is not a foregone conclusion with us.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

You are responsible for the ongoing accounting of several clients and independently clarify anomalies with the company.
You have completed the first monthly closings under your responsibility, with a review by an experienced colleague.
You have participated in initial P&L discussions – preparation, your own contributions, follow-up.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

You are independently responsible for the monthly closings of several clients – independent preparation, initial technical review, escalation only for special topics.
You prepare the P&L discussion yourself and present parts of it to the entrepreneur yourself.
You have participated in the statutory annual financial statements of several clients and have concretely started your next qualification step.

What you will have delivered after 24 months:

You independently manage a partial client base and prepare the statutory financial statements under review.
You have developed a forecast or a contribution margin calculation for several clients that is continuously used.
You conduct the P&L discussions for your clients yourself.

Where the position is developing:

The next step leads to the Manager level in Accounting & Controlling – with a development path in both directions, a technical expert career or a management career. The path there is created by contribution, not by years of service; we do not have an automatic process of 'more experience equals higher level'.

What you bring

Experience & Track Record

Completed or soon-to-be-completed studies in Business Administration, Economics, or a comparable field – ideally with a focus on accounting, controlling, or auditing.
Initial practical experience in tax consulting, auditing, or corporate accounting – dual study program, internships, or student work. If you have seen financial statements from the inside before, even better.
You have once followed up yourself because a figure was not plausible – and sought the answer within the company, not in the booking entry.
Profiles that do not fit the above description but have substantial access to company figures are expressly invited – we evaluate based on contribution, not label. Specifically: tax clerks with completed studies; career starters who managed the commercial side in a family business; graduates with their own startup or student work experience where they planned liquidity themselves. The stated range is not a negotiation margin but a profile scale. The lower end represents entry directly after studies. Those who independently handle ongoing accounting and monthly closing start in the upper third. The range shown above applies to the primary profile. Those with a different background will start at a different market price and converge after twelve months of proven performance to the role level – the logic behind this is in our compensation principles.

Skills & Work Style

You work analytically and structurally – you break down a task into sub-steps before you start, and deliver results that are clearly structured.
You communicate clearly and reliably – in writing as well as in your first conversation with an entrepreneur. You are not afraid of topics you do not yet fully master.
You use AI as a standard tool – research, analysis, drafting, plausibility checks. Repetitive analyses are an incentive for you to automate, not a fate.

Mindset & Personality

You want to understand how a company works – the figures are your access, not the goal.
You have the humility to learn from practitioners. The entrepreneur with thirty years in the market and the colleague with many years of client experience know things about the business that are not in any model.
You have the ambition to set the highest standard in everything you deliver – not because someone is checking, but because mediocrity personally bothers you.
You are willing to engage in independent work on client accounts and learn every day. Those looking exclusively for 9-to-5 are looking elsewhere.

What you will NOT find with us

No document entry job. Entry is largely automated. Your work begins where the result needs to be assessed – and goes up to the conversation with the entrepreneur.
No controlling in the corporate engine room. You do not produce reports for management you never meet. You sit at the table with the entrepreneur.
No tax career path. This role is commercial and financial. Those seeking tax advisor certification and tax structuring will find that in our Tax line – with its own job posting.
No pre-planned desk. How far automation goes and what the analyses look like is not set in stone with us – you develop along, rather than operating a finished machine.
No corporate corset where you wait for promotions. Growth here comes from contribution, not from years of service.

FAQ

1. What is Vogel – and where do you work?

Vogel is one of Germany's leading medium-sized consultancies – a family business since 1959, based in Aalen – and is building the leading consulting platform for the medium-sized sector. We are growing at several locations: in Aalen/Ostwürttemberg as our established headquarters and in Munich as a new hub. At both, we are looking for people across all functions – from tax consulting and general consulting to the strategic teams building the platform.

2. How should the salary bands be understood?

Deliberately broad – and specified at each level. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not on degrees: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce ones at the lower end. We calibrate exclusively based on the market – two people with similar experience can earn different amounts with us.

3. How much – and how – do you work at Vogel?

Measurement is based on what you achieve, not on hours. However, it is also true: those looking for 9-to-5 are not our first choice. We are looking for people who work intensively on their own initiative because the tasks are worthwhile. How you manage your time is largely up to you. What we share: we work in person together – culture, sparring, and the best ideas emerge from daily proximity. We are not a remote company and do not have extensive home office policies; individual remote days are not a problem.

4. How does the application process work?

Lean, fast, transparent – and tiered by profile. For entry-level roles (internship, working student, career entry), typically two interviews and a short work sample are sufficient; experienced roles are a bit more extensive. For selected senior roles, we are exploring incorporating a joint working day in the future so that both sides can get to know each other better. Always applicable: scheduled appointments, swift decisions, substantial feedback – regardless of the outcome.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Tied to performance quarterly, evaluated qualitatively. The scale increases with the level: up to 20% Associate, 27.5% Manager, 35% Senior Manager, 42.5% Director, 50% VP. The 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.

6. How do I develop – 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. Career entry is not a separate path, but the early part of the same journey – from working student or intern to Associate, for the best without a new application process.

7. Team, culture, vacation?

A shared lunch is an open daily offer – not mandatory; whoever wants to join, joins, anyone can eat anytime. In addition, dinners, social events, and offsites at regular intervals – not as a mandatory program, but because a good team also shares time outside of work. Benefits: well-thought-out and substantial, not symbolic. Vacation: 28 days.

8. I know someone – is there a referral bonus?

Yes – €2,500 for every successfully filled position (no internships). A brief context is enough: who you are thinking of, for which role, why. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it needs to be substantial.

Compensation: €61.2K – €79.2K • Fixed: €51k – €66k · Bonus: €10.2k – €13.2k · EV: €58.14k – €75.24k

• OTE €61.2K – €79.2K • Fix: €51k – €66k · Bonus: €10.2k – €13.2k · EV: €58.14k – €75.24k

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