Questions to Ask a Controller in an Interview
Questions to ask a controller in an interview, written for the CFO, owner or hiring manager on the employer's side of the table. The 68 questions start with openers on scale, background and motive, then go by subject: the close and reporting, controls and audit, cash and planning, process and team, and judgment and fit. Spread through those groups are the interview questions to ask for a VP of finance and corporate controller role, where the hire will have other controllers, a board and outside investors to answer to. The notes say what a strong or a weak answer sounds like, and several tell you to skip a question that does not apply to your company. The guide covers deciding which kind of controller you need, choosing questions for each round, setting a work exercise and checking references. If you are the candidate, you want the questions to ask the employer during a controller interview instead.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Openers
How big is the business you are in now: revenue, number of entities and locations, and who do you report to?
Why ask it
Scale is the fastest way to tell whether their experience maps onto your job. Someone who ran a single entity under an owner can still be the right hire for something larger, but then the rest of the interview has to test the stretch and not assume it.
Walk me through the close you run today: how many days does it take, and who owns each piece?
Why ask it
The day count is something a reference can confirm. The ownership is what you cannot get anywhere else, so listen for named roles and handoffs: who reconciles cash, who books payroll, who reviews. "I close the books" with nobody else in the story usually describes a one-person close, which is fine at a small company and a problem if you are hiring someone to lead a team.
What condition were the books in when you started your last job, and what did you fix first?
Why ask it
This sorts people who have done a cleanup from people who inherited a tidy ledger and kept it tidy. If you hear "everything was in good shape", ask which reconciliations they opened in their first month, because sometimes that sentence means nobody looked.
Which ERP and reporting tools have you worked in day to day, and which one would you choose again?
Why ask it
Listing systems is easy, and choosing one and defending the choice is not. A preference with reasons behind it, such as the bank feeds, the consolidation module or how hard it was to lock a period, points to someone who administered the system. Six platforms and no opinion about any of them more often means they pulled reports.
Why are you leaving, and what do you want from this job that the last one did not give you?
Why ask it
Compare the reason with what the recruiter told you and what the references say later. The other part is about fit: if they are after planning work or systems ownership that this job cannot offer, say so now, because that mismatch is a common reason a controller is looking again within a year or two.
What do you already know about how a business like ours makes money, and where would you expect the accounting to get difficult?
Why ask it
A prepared candidate has read what is public about you and can guess at the hard parts: deferred revenue for subscriptions, job costing for a contractor, inventory for a distributor. Decide beforehand whether you need industry experience or only someone who learns a business quickly, and judge the guess on its reasoning.
Are you a CPA or do you hold an equivalent qualification, and when has it made a practical difference to your work?
Why ask it
Whether a license is required is your call, and what it permits differs by country and state, so verify it with the issuing body. The useful part of the answer is the example: a technical memo they wrote, or an audit argument they won, shows the training in use. A candidate without the letters who has done the same work deserves the same hearing.
Close and reporting
Before the monthly statements leave your desk, what do you check yourself, and what do you rely on the team for?
Why ask it
This is the accuracy question, asked so that "I am very detail oriented" will not do as a reply. Good answers are routines: comparing each line with last month and with budget, tying cash and debt to outside statements, reading the journal entries above a set size. Ask what that review last caught.
Tell me about a reconciliation that would not tie. How did you track down the problem?
Why ask it
You are listening for method: subledger against general ledger, a timing difference against a real one, halving the population until the break shows up. An answer that goes straight to "I asked the auditors" or "we wrote it off" skips the part you are hiring for.
How do you decide what goes into the monthly reporting package, and what you leave out?
Why ask it
A reporting package tends to grow a page every time someone asks a question. A good answer starts with who reads it and names the two or three exhibits that get talked about in the meeting. The sharper test is what they last took out.
How do you explain a bad month to someone who does not read financial statements?
Why ask it
Have them do it on the spot with a real example, with you playing the head of sales. You want plain cause and effect in a minute or two, without jargon and without talking down. A controller who can only explain variances to other accountants leaves the CFO to translate everything.
When a transaction comes along that the team has never booked before, how do you work out the right treatment under GAAP or whichever framework applies?
Why ask it
"We follow GAAP" is not an answer. Listen for a routine: reading the guidance themselves, writing a short memo, running it past the auditors before year end instead of during fieldwork. If your company reports under IFRS or another framework, ask how much of their experience is in it.
How was revenue recognized at your last company, and which contracts gave you the most trouble?
Why ask it
A controller should be able to explain the revenue policy in two minutes without notes, since lenders, auditors and buyers tend to start with that line. The troublesome contracts are the test of depth: bundled services, usage billing, returns, milestone payments. A candidate whose last business sold one simple product can still be right for you, provided they can say how they would learn your contracts.
Which accruals or reserves did you estimate at month end, and how did you check afterward whether the estimates were any good?
Why ask it
Estimating is routine. Going back to compare the estimate with what the invoice or the write-off turned out to be is rarer, and a candidate who does it knows which of their numbers are soft. An estimate that has never been compared with the outcome is last month's guess carried forward.
What is the biggest accounting judgment call you have personally owned?
Why ask it
Revenue timing, capitalizing a project, the size of a reserve: whatever they pick, ask who prepared the analysis and who challenged it. That separates technical weight they carried themselves from work they signed after someone else had done the thinking, and it shows how they behave when the answer moves profit.
Have you prepared consolidated statements across several entities or currencies? What went wrong in intercompany?
Why ask it
Skip this one if you have a single entity. If you have several, it is close to a hard requirement, and the intercompany half sorts people quickly: balances between entities that do not agree, eliminations done in a spreadsheet, transfer pricing nobody documented. Somebody who has lived it will sigh before answering.
Have you owned inventory or cost accounting? How did you find out that a standard cost or a count was wrong?
Why ask it
Only worth the time if you make, hold or ship things. Good answers involve the warehouse: cycle counts, variances by product line, a margin that looked too good. An accountant who has only seen inventory as a number handed over by operations will struggle the first time the count and the ledger disagree.
Have you ever found a material error after the numbers were already reported? What happened next?
Why ask it
Over a long career it is hard to avoid, so a flat "never" deserves a second question about how they would know. In the story itself, follow the bad news upward: who they told first, how soon, and whether the correction reached everyone who had been sent the wrong number.
How do you keep up with changes in accounting standards and tax rules, and what was the last change that made you alter a policy or a schedule?
Why ask it
Newsletters and continuing education are the expected first half and tell you little. The example shows whether any of it reaches the ledger: a new lease schedule, a changed disclosure, a revised capitalization threshold. If nothing in their books has changed for years, ask who was watching on their behalf.
Who wrote the accounting policies your business units followed, and how did you find out when one of them was doing it another way?
Why ask it
Setting policy for a group is what separates the corporate seat from running one set of books. Look for a manual they owned or rewrote, and a way of checking it that did not wait for year end, such as reviewing each unit's revenue cutoff or capitalization calls. A policy nobody tested is only a document.
Have you prepared or signed off on statements that went to public shareholders, a regulator or bondholders? Which parts of the filing were yours?
Why ask it
Titles hide a lot here: one corporate controller drafts the whole report and another hands a trial balance to a reporting team. Ask about the footnotes, the disclosure checklist and the review with outside counsel. Filing rules differ by country and by exchange, so describe your own and ask what would be new to them.
Controls and audit
Which controls did you design yourself, rather than inherit?
Why ask it
Signing off on an existing control matrix is very different from noticing an exposure and building the check. Ask what prompted it, whether a near miss, an audit comment or a new bank account, since that detail is hard to invent on the spot.
Where is segregation of duties hardest to keep on a small team, and what do you do when you cannot add a person?
Why ask it
On a team of three, one person often enters the bill, approves it and pays it. A practical controller talks about compensating checks: an owner reviewing bank statements, system permissions, a second approver for new vendors. Be wary of an answer that only works with headcount you are not going to give them.
How does a vendor payment get approved and released where you work now, and where could a bad one get through?
Why ask it
Payables is where money leaves, so the walk-through should be exact: who sets up the vendor, who matches the invoice, who releases the payment run. The honest candidates name the weak point themselves, often a change to a vendor's bank details. A flat "there is no gap" is less reassuring than it sounds, since it can simply mean nobody has gone looking.
Did payroll sit under you, and what did you look at before each run was released?
Why ask it
At a smaller company payroll often lands on the controller whether or not the job description says so, so find out early if it would be new to them. A careful answer compares the run with the previous one and checks starters, leavers and rate changes before anything is paid. Keep it brief if payroll belongs to HR at your company and will stay there.
Who could see payroll and compensation data on your team, and how did you keep it that way?
Why ask it
Confidentiality is easy to promise in an interview. Access is easier to check: named people, system roles, where the files lived, what happened when someone left. A candidate who speaks loosely here about a former employer's salaries or deal terms has just answered the question another way.
Have you ever uncovered fraud, theft or a serious policy breach? What did you do in the first twenty-four hours?
Why ask it
Not everyone has, and a calm "no, but here is where I would look" is a fine answer. If they have, listen to the order of events: securing the records, who they told and who they deliberately did not tell, when lawyers or the board came in. A story that begins with confronting the person, before anything was secured, is the one to worry about.
Describe your last external audit. What did the auditors push back on?
Why ask it
Specific pushback, on revenue cutoff, an accrual or an inventory count, puts them in the room. "It went smoothly" with no detail may mean somebody else dealt with the auditors. If their company was never audited, ask about a bank review, a tax examination or a buyer's diligence instead.
How do you get ready for an audit during the year, so that fieldwork is not a scramble?
Why ask it
Controllers who treat the audit as a year-end event pay for it in overtime and fees. Listen for work spread across the year: reconciliations kept current, memos written when the transaction happens, a request list started from last year's. Then ask how many adjustments the auditors proposed last time, and how many were repeats.
How do you split tax work between your own team and an outside firm?
Why ask it
The split shows what they can do in house and what they will ask you to pay a firm for. Notice who they say owns the numbers the firm files: reviewing the return and being able to explain the provision is a different job from forwarding the trial balance and waiting. Which taxes apply depends on where you operate, so describe yours and ask what is new to them.
Which filings and deadlines were yours to hit, such as sales tax, payroll returns, annual reports or lender certificates, and have you ever missed one?
Why ask it
The list shows how wide their job really was, and it will differ from yours because the obligations depend on where a company operates. A missed deadline is not disqualifying. What you want is the calendar or tracker they built afterward, and whether they told anyone before the notice arrived.
Have you run a formal internal control program that management had to certify, such as Sarbanes-Oxley in the United States? What failed testing, and how was it fixed?
Why ask it
Whether a certification regime applies depends on where a company is listed and how large it is, so say what yours requires and ask how much of that they have done. A candidate who ran one can name a control that failed, the reason, and how long the fix took to retest. If you are private with no such duty, ask instead how they would choose which controls deserve testing at all.
What have you presented to a board or an audit committee yourself, and what was the hardest question a director put to you?
Why ask it
In a VP of finance and corporate controller job, the audit committee often hears from this person directly, especially on estimates and audit findings. Having sat in the room while the CFO spoke is not the same experience. The hard question, and whether they had the answer or promised one by a date, shows how they hold up without their team beside them.
Cash and planning
Walk me through how you build an annual budget: where does it start, and who has to agree to it?
Why ask it
Some controllers hand each department last year plus a percentage; others start from a sales plan and headcount and build up. Either can work. The part to listen for is the negotiation, because a budget the department heads never signed up to is one nobody feels bound by in March.
How involved are you in the forecast, and where do your numbers usually disagree with the sales team's?
Why ask it
At some companies the controller only reports against the forecast and at others they help build it, so first find out which they have done. Then ask for one disagreement with sales and how it was settled. Having none to describe suggests the forecast was set without them.
How far out does your cash forecast go, and how far out do you actually trust it?
Why ask it
The gap between the two numbers is the honest part. Thirteen weeks built from receivables and payables is a common format, and trusting the first four of them is a believable reply. Trust in a full year deserves one follow-up: how did last year's forecast compare with what happened?
Tell me about a time cash got tight. What did you change in receivables and payables first?
Why ask it
Working capital is where a controller can find money without borrowing it. Specifics count: calling the largest overdue accounts personally, changing payment terms, holding a payment run and telling the vendors why. If they have only worked at companies with plenty of cash, say so plainly and ask how they would rank the levers.
Outside the financial statements, which numbers did you watch every week, and which one gave you the earliest warning?
Why ask it
Days sales outstanding, backlog, payroll as a share of revenue, cash in the bank on Friday: the list shows whether they watch the business or only close it. The early warning is harder to bluff, because it needs a story about a number that moved before the income statement did. What matters differs by industry, so compare their list with the one you would give.
What do you do when a department is running over budget halfway through the year?
Why ask it
The weak answer is a report sent to the department head with the CFO copied. A better one starts by finding out whether the overrun is timing, a one-off or a real change, followed by a conversation before the next month closes. Notice whether they see themselves as the person who flags it or the person who helps fix it.
What has your part been in dealing with a bank or lender: covenant reporting, the borrowing base, the relationship itself?
Why ask it
At many companies the CFO owns the relationship and the controller owns the compliance certificate. Ask who calculated the covenants and what happened the quarter one came close. If you carry no debt this can be brief, though a candidate who has never had a lender reading their numbers has had a more forgiving audience.
Where have you found cost savings, and how did you confirm they showed up in the numbers?
Why ask it
Claimed savings are common and verified ones are not. Renegotiated software contracts, duplicate vendors and forgotten subscriptions are typical honest answers. Stay on the confirmation, because a saving that never appeared as a lower expense line was a forecast, not a result.
Have you been through an acquisition, a fundraise or a sale from the finance seat? What did the other side ask for that you could not produce quickly?
Why ask it
Relevant if a transaction is anywhere on your horizon, and you do not have to say that it is. Diligence exposes whatever was never documented: customer contracts, revenue by customer, support for old balances. A controller who remembers exactly what was missing will keep your records ready for the same test.
Tell me about bringing an acquired company onto your close calendar and chart of accounts. How long was it before you trusted its numbers?
Why ask it
Integration is a different skill from diligence, and it lands on the corporate controller once the deal is signed. A real account names what was mapped first, what stayed on the old system for a while and which balances had to be rebuilt. Drop this one if you do not expect to buy anything.
Have you run planning and analysis as well as accounting? Which of the two got less of your attention, and who covered it?
Why ask it
This is where a VP of finance differs from a controller with a bigger title. Accountants who take on planning often keep closing the books themselves and leave the forecast to an analyst, and planners who take on accounting can do the reverse. An honest answer names the weaker side and the person they leaned on for it.
Have you reported to private equity owners, outside investors or a parent company's finance team? What did they keep asking for that the monthly accounts did not show?
Why ask it
Owners of this kind tend to want their own cut of the numbers: adjusted earnings, a bridge from last quarter, covenant headroom. Someone who has served them knows the requests come with short deadlines and little patience for restated figures. Leave it out if your only shareholder is the person conducting the interview.
Process and team
Which part of your current close is still manual, and why has it stayed that way?
Why ask it
Nearly every close has one, so a blank is its own answer. The reason is the tell: a manual step kept because fixing it would cost more than it saves is good judgment, while "nobody has looked at it" after three years says something about their appetite for unglamorous work.
What have you done to shorten a close, and what did it cost in effort or accuracy?
Why ask it
Naming the tradeoff is the point. Days usually come out of a close through materiality thresholds, estimated accruals in place of waiting for invoices, or automation that took months to build. A faster close that supposedly cost nothing deserves a question about what the auditors or the CFO made of the first one.
Have you led an accounting system implementation or migration? What would you do differently next time?
Why ask it
There is a wide gap between leading one and being a user while it happened, so ask what they decided: the chart of accounts design, how much history to convert, when to cut over. Everyone who has really run one has regrets about data cleanup or testing. A story with no regrets usually belongs to the consultant.
Which spreadsheet at your last company would have done the most damage if it broke, and what did you do about it?
Why ask it
Most finance teams have one: the revenue waterfall, the commission file, the consolidation workbook. A good controller can tell you who else understood it, how it was checked and whether it has since moved into a system. Not being able to name one is more worrying than naming three.
If you had been out for a month with no warning, what would not have been done?
Why ask it
This is a documentation question in disguise. Written procedures, a close checklist and a trained backup mean the answer is "very little". When the answer is payroll or the bank reconciliation, expect the same dependence on one person to be rebuilt at your company unless you ask for something different.
How do you decide whether a process problem needs software, another person or just a checklist?
Why ask it
Candidates tend to have a favorite answer, and it tells you what they will ask you for in the first six months. Software for every problem gets expensive, and headcount for every problem gets slow. The ones worth hiring start by asking how often the task happens and what an error in it costs.
How many people have you managed directly, and what did you do the last time someone was not keeping up?
Why ask it
Headcount sets the scale, and the underperformer is the test of whether they manage or avoid. A real account has dates in it: when they first raised it, what they asked for, what had changed by when. Coaching with no timeline and no ending usually means the problem was still there when they left.
What do you look for when you hire a staff accountant, and how do you test for it?
Why ask it
You may be hiring the person who builds your next team. "Attention to detail" is what everyone says; a short spreadsheet or reconciliation exercise is what careful managers do. Ask about a hire that did not work out and what they screen for now because of it.
Who has grown on your team, and what did you hand over to make that happen?
Why ask it
Promotions, and people who went on to run their own close, are the evidence. The handover matters because a controller who keeps every interesting task leaves the staff with nothing to learn, and they go. If nobody has moved up in five years, ask why.
How many divisional or subsidiary controllers reported to you, on a solid line or a dotted one, and how did you learn that one of them was in trouble?
Why ask it
A corporate controller mostly works through other controllers, so the count and the reporting lines show how much of that they have done. The second half matters more: someone who visited the sites, read a unit's reconciliations or noticed late submissions found out early. Someone who heard it from the auditors found out last.
Tell me about a department outside finance that resisted a process you needed. How did you get it adopted?
Why ask it
Expense reports, purchase orders and getting signed contracts on time are the usual battles. Controllers who win them tend to have made the process easier for the other side or shown what the delay was costing. One who relied on the CFO to enforce every rule will need the same from you.
Judgment and fit
How do you choose what gets done first in a week when the close, an audit request and a board deadline all land together?
Why ask it
Collisions like this come round often enough in finance that they should have a real week to describe. Listen for what they pushed back, who they warned, and what they gave to someone else. "I just worked longer hours" is honest, but it does not scale to a team.
What do you do when a senior leader wants a number presented differently than you think is right?
Why ask it
This is the pressure a controller is paid to withstand. A grounded answer separates a presentation they can live with from a number that would be wrong, then describes writing the position down and taking it to the CFO, the owner or the audit committee. Be cautious about instant agreement, and just as cautious about a speech from someone who says they have never had to give an inch.
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a CFO or an auditor. How did it end?
Why ask it
The ending tells you more than the topic: whether they brought support for their view, whether they were right, whether they could lose the argument and still work with the person. No disagreement with either across a whole career raises its own question: who was reading their numbers closely enough to start one?
How much say should a controller have in business decisions, as opposed to recording their results?
Why ask it
There is no right answer, only a fit with what you want. An owner looking for a partner on pricing and hiring will be frustrated by someone who only wants to keep the books, and a CFO who wants the books correct and left alone will be frustrated by someone angling for strategy. Say which you need after they answer, not before.
Which decisions did you make on your own authority in your last job that a controller would normally take to a CFO?
Why ask it
Ask this when the job carries a vice president title, which should come with decisions: signing a system contract, settling an audit adjustment, changing a credit policy, hiring without a second approval. Compare their list with the authority you plan to give. If the two are far apart in either direction, talk about it before an offer and not after the first disagreement.
When the CFO was away or the seat stood empty, what did you cover, and which part were you least ready for?
Why ask it
Some companies hire a corporate controller partly as cover for the CFO, and some as a successor. The areas they found hardest, perhaps the bank, the board or a pricing argument with sales, show where they would need support from you. Say plainly whether succession is on offer, since a candidate who assumes it and is wrong will not stay.
What would your last CFO or owner say you still need to get better at?
Why ask it
Framing it through a named boss gets a straighter answer than asking for a weakness, partly because you can check it on the reference call. Common true ones are delegating, presenting and letting go of detail. Follow up by asking what they have done about it since.
Which part of this job do you find least interesting, and how do you make sure it still gets done?
Why ask it
Everyone has one, often compliance filings or the fixed asset register. Naming it and describing a system for it is more credible than claiming to enjoy every part of the role.
Where do you want to be in five years: a CFO seat, a bigger controllership, or this job done well?
Why ask it
All three are respectable, and each changes the hire. A future CFO will want exposure to planning, banking and the board, and will leave if you cannot offer it. Someone who wants to stay a controller is often the steadier choice for a company that mainly needs its books right.
If you started next month, what would you expect to have done by the end of your first ninety days?
Why ask it
A sensible plan has an order to it: sit through one close before changing it, read the last audit file and the open reconciliations, meet the people who send finance their numbers, then choose one or two fixes. Be wary of a list of changes from someone who has not seen your ledger, and of a plan with nothing finished in it by day ninety.
When could you start, and what would you want to finish where you are before you leave?
Why ask it
How someone leaves a job is a preview of how they will one day leave yours. Wanting to get through the close or hand over the audit before going shows the care you are hiring for, even if it costs you a few weeks. Notice periods and what a contract requires vary by country and employer, so ask what theirs says.
What would you want to know about our books before you accepted this job?
Why ask it
Turning the table at the end shows you how they size up a finance function. Strong candidates ask about overdue reconciliations, audit adjustments, turnover on the team and why the seat is empty. Answer honestly: a controller who was told the books were clean and finds the mess in week three has a reason to leave and little reason to fix it.
Running a Controller Interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Decide which controller you actually need
The title can cover two quite different jobs. A technical controller keeps the books clean, owns the audit and gets the tax provision right. A process controller shortens the close, replaces spreadsheets and builds a team that can run without them. Write down which one your business needs over the next eighteen months before you interview anybody, because the strongest candidate for one is often only adequate at the other. Size changes the job too. A corporate controller, sometimes hired as a VP of finance and corporate controller, sets policy for the controllers beneath them and answers to a board, so the questions to ask a controller at that level reach past the close into group policy, outside filings and the boardroom.
Before the conversation
- Have your close calendar, chart of accounts and last audit management letter to hand, so you can ask about your own mess rather than a hypothetical one.
- Put someone in the room who can evaluate technical accounting, whether that is your CFO, your audit partner or a fractional controller, if you cannot judge it yourself.
- Decide in advance what is a hard requirement: a specific ERP, public company reporting, multi entity consolidation, inventory. Searches drift when nobody writes this down.
- Ask the recruiter for the candidate's stated reason for leaving beforehand, so you can compare it with what you hear in the interview.
- Give every candidate the same core questions and keep notes, so that you are comparing answers and not impressions. What an interviewer may ask about personal circumstances is restricted in many places, so keep to the work and check the rules where you hire.
Choosing questions for each round
- Do not ask all of them. An hour has room for perhaps eight to ten with proper follow-ups, so pick beforehand and give each interviewer a different group. Otherwise the candidate describes the close three times and nobody asks about cash.
- First conversation: the Openers, plus two or three from Close and reporting. You are confirming scale and that they have run a close themselves.
- Technical round: Close and reporting, Controls and audit, and whichever parts of Cash and planning apply to you. Put your strongest accountant in this one.
- Peer round: Process and team, asked by someone who will work beside them, such as a head of operations or an experienced member of the finance team.
- Hiring a corporate controller or a VP of finance: add the questions on divisional controllers, group accounting policy, a certified control program, outside filings, the board, outside owners and covering for the CFO. A candidate for a single-company seat will have had no reason to meet most of them.
- Final round: Judgment and fit, ending with the question about your own books. This is the round the owner or chief executive should sit in on.
- Cross out what does not apply. Consolidation, inventory and lender questions are wasted minutes at a single-entity service business with no debt.
Reading the answers
- Good sign: they quantify without being asked, giving close days, entity count, team size and revenue scale.
- Good sign: they describe a control by the exposure that prompted it rather than by its name.
- Good sign: they are precise about what they delegated and to whom.
- Watch for system names with no depth behind them. Ask which module they configured and who called them when it broke.
- Watch for every problem being attributed to a predecessor, with no account of anything they got wrong themselves.
- Watch for an inability to name a single disagreement with a CFO or an auditor.
Test the work, not just the conversation
- 1Give a short exercise that looks like the real work: a trial balance with two seeded errors, or a set of reconciliations to review. Use made-up or anonymized figures, keep it to about an hour and pay for anything longer.
- 2Ask them to walk you through the close calendar from their last job rather than describe a close in the abstract.
- 3Reference check the close specifically. Ask a former CFO how many days it took before and after this person, and what broke while they were there. Speak only to referees the candidate has agreed to, and expect that some employers will confirm dates and title and nothing more.
- 4Verify licensing and any public reporting claims directly rather than taking them from the resume.
Common mistakes
- Hiring for audit pedigree when the need is operational. Large firm training does not mean somebody can run a close with three people and no systems team.
- Skipping the team conversation. A controller who cannot keep staff accountants will hand you the same vacancy again in a year.
- Letting the candidate meet only finance. The controller deals with payroll, sales operations and IT in most months, and those people will have a view.
- Accepting "we had good processes" as an answer. Ask who wrote them and what they replaced.