Controlling does not mean “doing the accounts”
Theory and practice
And yet how many SMEs still confuse them? Many business owners believe that having up-to-date accounts or efficient management software is enough to know how the company is doing.
But controlling isn’t about recording the past: it’s about deciding the future.
It is a management tool, designed for those who want to lead the business with method and awareness, not “on gut feeling”. It is not a set of numbers but a process that gives the business owner a clear and constant compass.
In practice, it is structured in three fundamental phases:
- Set short-term objectives and programmes, to check in advance whether management is moving in the right direction and to give each business function precise lines of action.
- Systematically check the variances between objectives and results, measuring whether the business is really hitting its targets.
- Correct course promptly, when the data signals malfunctions or changes of scenario.
Those who introduce a genuine control system gradually begin to reduce improvisation, internal conflict and decisions based solely on the urgency of the moment, because every company function finally starts working towards shared objectives, clear data and genuinely measurable priorities, and, over time, internal communication and coordination improve as well.
In other words, controlling is a living discipline. It does not just “measure”: it interprets, anticipates and guides, bringing together skills and processes to turn numbers into operational decisions. The tools that make it concrete are many, but they are all linked by a common thread: awareness.
Here are the main ones:
- strategic planning and the setting of objectives and indicators;
- budgeting and rolling forecasts;
- cost accounting;
- variance analysis;
- product or service costing;
- data collection and management reporting;
- financial analysis and forecasting simulations.
Together, these elements allow the business owner to read the real performance of the business, not the perceived one; forecast the immediate future with alternative scenarios; improve performance with targeted action; and understand where value is created (or lost). And above all, they make it possible to move from reactive to proactive management, from “let’s see what happens” to “let’s choose what must happen”.
Many companies discover too late that the problem was not selling too little, but not knowing which customers, products or activities were actually generating profit.
The real competitive advantage is not having more data than others, but knowing how to read it better and turn it quickly into strategic decisions.
A straight question: are you really controlling the management of your company, or just watching it from the outside?