Your Role

When acquiring consulting firms, you acquire consolidation circles – and in most medium-sized structures, the accounting department was never built for this but grew over years.

Vogel is one of the most successful medium-sized consulting firms in Germany – several thousand medium-sized companies trust us with their tax, commercial, and strategic matters. We are growing organically and through acquisitions, building the leading consulting platform for the German mid-market. Each acquisition brings a new company, an opening balance sheet, a purchase price allocation, and an expanded consolidation circle. For this to work, you need someone for whom no one has to re-calculate whether the consolidated financial statements are complete.

You are a certified auditor or are about to take the exam, with four or more years of auditing experience at one of the Big Four or the next largest audit firms and genuine depth in consolidated financial statements. You are making a change because the next level in the audit hierarchy means more review and less hands-on work – and because you prefer to be responsible for the numbers rather than auditing them. At Vogel, you will find structures that support growth, and at the same time, a setup that moves forward every day.

You will be responsible for Vogel's accounting – consolidation and consolidated financial statements, ongoing accounting across all companies, its automation, and external reporting to banks and stakeholders. You will report directly to Joachim and Moritz Vogel; the Finance function is currently being established at the Munich location, and you will be its technical anchor. The natural development leads to the senior level of the technical expert career path – or, if you wish, to building your own team.

Your Responsibility

Consolidation and Consolidated Financial Statements

• You are responsible for the consolidated financial statements according to HGB across all companies – capital and debt consolidation, elimination of intercompany profits, expense and revenue consolidation.

• You integrate every acquisition into the consolidation circle – opening balance sheet, purchase price allocation, ongoing integration. Your standard: the process must support the next acquisition without anyone having to set up a special run.

• You make the consolidation logic understandable and documented, instead of carrying it in your head – audit-proof, even when you are on vacation.

Ongoing Accounting and Automation

• You manage ongoing accounting across all companies and are responsible for monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements – on time and without emergency action before the audit.

• You consider every recurring manual task as an automation candidate – booking, reconciliation, closing preparation – and build the solutions together with our automation team.

• You manage the interfaces with DATEV, the financial audit, and external consultants so that queries are rare and answers are quick.

External Reporting and Bank Communication

• You are responsible for reporting to our financing partners – covenants, key figures, reporting obligations – and deliver in such a way that no further questions arise.

• You prepare figures for addressees who have their own interests, and you know which message a figure conveys and which it does not.

• You work in an environment that is hierarchical in decision-making, flat in communication, and autonomous in execution. Performance is celebrated here, not hidden – those who want to advance because they are good will find the space for it, without political disguise and without consensus theater.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You will have fully taken over the consolidated financial statements and consolidation circle, and the consolidation logic will be documented in a way that is understandable.

• You will have delivered the first monthly and quarterly financial statements independently – on time and audit-proof.

• Reporting to our financing partners will pass through your desk and be completed without management inquiries.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• You will have fully integrated at least one acquisition into the consolidation circle – from the opening balance sheet to ongoing integration.

• Manual processes in booking, reconciliation, and closing preparation will have measurably decreased because you have automated them.

• The annual financial statement audit will proceed without emergency action – working papers and evidence will be available before the auditor asks.

What you will have delivered after 24 months:

• Several acquired entities will be running in regular operation within the consolidation circle, and the process will support the next acquisition.

• Accounting issues will be resolved internally by you and not by external consultants.

• You will have built the accounting department so that it scales with growth without proportionally engaging more people.

How the position will develop:

The next step is the senior level of the technical expert career path – more depth, more methodological authority, more reach within the company, without needing direct reports. If you find over time that you prefer to build a team, the management career path is equally open to you; you make the choice upon the first promotion, not upon entry. What you receive is created by your contribution, not by your years of service.

What You Bring

Experience & Track Record

• You are a certified auditor or are about to take the exam.

• You have worked four or more years in financial statement auditing – at KPMG, EY, Deloitte, PwC, BDO, Baker Tilly, Rödl, or Ebner Stolz – and have been responsible for consolidated mandates with genuine consolidation depth.

• You master HGB consolidation in practice, not just as an audit topic: capital consolidation, eliminations, purchase price allocation after an acquisition.

• You have not only audited financial statements but also understand how they are created – and want to switch to this side.

• Profiles that do not fit the above description but bring substantial consolidation depth are explicitly invited – we evaluate based on contribution, not label. The indicated range is not a negotiation margin but a profile scale: the lower end is for the professional newly qualified after the exam, the upper end for someone who already independently manages consolidated financial statements and has shaped the methodology in their own specialization. Those with a different background will start at a different market price and converge after twelve months of proven performance to the role's level – the logic behind this is outlined in our compensation principles.

Skills & Working Method

• You work cleanly and understandably. Anyone looking at a file after you will understand it without inquiry.

• You master Excel beyond Pivot Tables – consolidation logics, reconciliation bridges, robust structures without hard codes. SQL or Python are a plus.

• You use AI as a standard tool for reconciliation, research, documentation, and multiplying your own output frequency. Repetitive work is a stimulus for automation for you, not a destiny.

• You explain an accounting matter in such a way that management recognizes the consequences without having to read the commentary.

Mindset & Personality

• You want responsibility for the numbers, not the distance of auditing.

• You have a natural aversion to inaccuracy – no reliable decisions can be made on unreliable figures.

• You bring the humility to learn from practitioners. The accountant with twenty years of experience knows things about ongoing operations that are not in any audit program.

• You are prepared to stand alone technically. You are the head of accounting in this company – you get sparring from management and from the auditor network, but no one will re-calculate for you.

• You strive to set the highest standard in everything you deliver – not because someone is checking it, but because mediocrity personally bothers you.

What You Will Not Find With Us

• No client business. You will not manage mandates or build a client base. You will be responsible for Vogel's own accounting. Those seeking client work will find it in other roles with us – not here.

• No personnel responsibility. "Lead" here means technical leadership, not disciplinary. You grow through depth and methodology, not through personnel span. Those who want to lead a team belong in one of the roles on the management career path.

• No audit mandate and no rotation. You will no longer change clients annually. You will build an accounting department over years and live with the consequences of your own decisions.

• No pure accounting backroom. You will work visibly with management, Corporate Development, and our automation team. What you deliver goes into bank discussions and investment decisions.

• No exit from auditing into a 45-hour week. The intensity remains high – directed differently, with significantly more ownership, but not less.

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, from Aalen – and is building the leading consulting platform for the German mid-market. We are growing at several locations: in Aalen/Ostwürttemberg as our established headquarters and in Munich as a new hub. At both locations, we are looking for people across all functions – from tax consulting and advisory to the strategic teams building the platform.

2. How are the salary bands to be understood?

Consciously broad – and indicated at every point. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not by degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce ones at the lower end. We calibrate exclusively on the market – two people with similar experience can earn differently with us.

3. How much — and how — is worked at Vogel?

We measure by what you achieve, not by hours. But it's also true: those looking for a 9-to-5 are not our first choice. We are looking for people who work intensely on their own initiative because the tasks are worth it. How you allocate your time is largely up to you. What we share: we work together in person – 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 according to profile. For entry-level roles (internship, working student, career starter), two interviews and a short work sample are usually sufficient; experienced roles are a bit more extensive. For selected senior roles, we are considering 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, substantive feedback – regardless of the outcome.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Linked quarterly to performance, qualitatively assessed. The scale increases with the level: up to 20% Associate, 27.5% Manager, 35% Senior Manager, 42.5% Director, 50% VP. The expected value for 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 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. Career entry is not a special path but the early part of the same track – 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, comes, everyone can eat at any time. 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 each 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 substantive.

Compensation: €114,750 – €153,000 • Fix: €90k – €120k · Bonus: €24.75k – €33k · EV: €105.3k – €140.4k

• • OTE €114,750 – €153,000 • Fix: €90k – €120k · Bonus: €24.75k – €33k · EV: €105.3k – €140.4k

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