Financial Controller Job Interview Questions

Describe your day to day activities as a Corporate Controller and how you manage the accounting operations including the review of journal entries, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable and statutory reporting? What process do you use to ensure accuracy?

What steps do you take to establish and monitor internal controls to ensure that accounting activities are in accordance with established legal regulatory and company policies and procedures?

As our Financial Controller you will be leading a team of direct reports and other financial professionals.  What is the largest group you have managed?

What tools and processes do you take to prepare, analyze and present monthly, quarterly and annual operating results for each department? How is your data collected? Describe the company you worked for and how many employees worked there?

Strategic thinking is critical to being a successful Corporate Controller.  When working on a project, describe a time when you provided strategic analysis as required to drive improved decision making. What was the situation? How did you come up with your resolutions?

A Financial Controller must be able to work well in a team setting.  Tell us a time when you worked well with external auditors, audit committee and Board of Directors. Also, describe a situation when it was difficult to build rapport with these groups?

The ability to communicate complex financial information and issues is very important as a Financial Controller.  What is your experience is preparing and presenting financial information for quarterly and annual reports? What were some of the complexities of the report? What was the largest group you have presented information to?