Controllership, FP&A, audit, direct and indirect taxation and shared-service hiring across India and the UAE, from Accounts Payable Executives to Financial Controllers.
Overview
Mars Consultancy recruits for the finance and accounting function inside companies across India and the UAE. We hire Financial Controllers, Managers FP&A, Chartered Accountants, statutory and internal audit professionals, GST and direct tax managers, costing and treasury roles, and R2R, P2P and O2C teams in shared-service centres.
This is a different mandate from our BFSI hiring, and the distinction matters when you brief us. BFSI recruitment is about banks, NBFCs and insurers as employers, relationship managers, credit, underwriting, collections. Finance and accounting is the function that exists inside every employer, whether that is a manufacturing group, a GCC or a listed FMCG business. A candidate who has closed the books for a chemicals plant and one who has underwritten SME loans have almost nothing in common, and hiring one through a process built for the other wastes a month.
The single most useful thing a client can tell us up front is where the role sits on the qualified, semi-qualified and experienced non-qualified split, because the three price completely differently and compete in three separate markets. A Chartered Accountant with three years post-qualification, a CA Inter who dropped out after articleship but has run a payables team for eight years, and a B.Com graduate who is genuinely excellent at reconciliations are all valid answers to 'we need someone in accounts'. They are not interchangeable, and the CTC band that attracts one will not move the other two.
From requirement briefing to a suitable candidate closing.
For clients in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and other Indian cities, and in the UAE.
We are paid by the companies that hire, never by candidates.
The hard part
A CA commands a premium for the qualification itself, independent of what the role needs. Many controllership and payables roles are done better by a semi-qualified CA Inter or a long-serving commerce graduate at a fraction of the CTC. We ask which of the three the role genuinely requires before sourcing, so budget is not spent on a letterhead the job never uses.
January to March is when finance teams are least able to absorb a vacancy and most likely to create one, because appraisal cycles and audit fatigue push resignations. A controller or close-owner who leaves in Q4 takes the year-end close with them. Roles briefed in October and November close far more calmly than the same role briefed in February, and we say so when asked.
Accounting depth and FP&A commercial sense rarely sit in the same person. A strong R2R lead can close the books faultlessly and still be unable to sit in front of a business head and defend a variance. FP&A candidates often cannot pass a tight Ind AS question. We screen for which half the role actually needs rather than accepting 'finance manager' as a specification.
Newly qualified CAs cycle between Big 4 audit, industry and back, and each move resets expectations. A candidate leaving statutory audit for their first industry role usually wants a step up in CTC and a step down in hours. Understanding where someone sits in that cycle predicts whether they will accept and, more importantly, whether they will still be there in eighteen months.
A move to SAP or Oracle, or a shift off Tally, generates demand for people who can operate the new system and still explain the old ledger. Job descriptions in these phases often ask for a SAP FICO Consultant when what is needed is an accountant who has lived through one cutover. We separate the systems requirement from the accounting requirement before sourcing.
Roles
Use cases
Common shapes of requirement in this sector, and how each one is run. These are illustrative patterns rather than accounts of specific engagements.
Track record
Across India and in the UAE. Our longest record is in the Mumbai region, and these are the belts where we have hired most for this sector. For most roles below management there, travel time decides whether an offer is accepted, so we screen for it.
Talk to the sector deskCorporate finance, treasury and group controllership for large corporates and their India head offices.
Listed corporate head offices, consulting and professional services firms, and Big 4 audit and tax practices.
Mid-market corporate finance teams, and taxation and audit practices serving the western suburbs.
Shared-service and GCC finance centres running R2R, P2P and O2C process towers for global parents.
Plant and group finance for manufacturing businesses, with costing and commercial finance alongside core accounting.
Services
Who we hire for
We hire finance and accounting staff for manufacturing groups, listed corporates, professional services and audit practices, shared-service and GCC finance centres, and growing SMEs building a finance function for the first time.
Discuss a requirementYes. We hire qualified CAs into controllership, FP&A, taxation and audit roles across India and the UAE, including candidates moving out of Big 4 statutory audit into their first industry role, and CMAs into costing and commercial finance positions.
Finance and accounting covers the finance function inside any employer (controllership, FP&A, audit, tax and shared services), regardless of what that company sells. BFSI recruitment covers banks, NBFCs and insurers as employers, hiring relationship managers, credit, underwriting, collections and compliance staff. A company can need both, and they are briefed separately.
Yes, and often that is the better answer. CA Inter and CMA Inter candidates, and experienced B.Com and M.Com graduates, handle a great deal of payables, receivables, reconciliation and general-ledger work at a materially lower CTC than a qualified CA. We advise on which band the role actually needs before sourcing.
Yes. We hire R2R, P2P and O2C analysts, process leads and reconciliation teams for shared-service and captive finance centres, as single roles or as batched drives when a tower is scaling. Much of that work has been in Navi Mumbai, which carries a concentration of these centres.
October to December is easier than January to March. Year-end close, statutory audit and appraisal cycles all land in Q4 of the Indian financial year, which is when finance teams can least afford a vacancy and are most likely to see resignations. A close-owning role briefed before the year-end window closes far more calmly.
Yes. Taxation and reporting exposure is confirmed at screening rather than at interview, which returns a candidate has personally prepared and filed versus reviewed, whether Ind AS reporting was hands-on or inherited from a group template, and the ERP the work was done in, whether SAP, Oracle, Tally or Zoho.
Yes. ERP cutovers create demand for accountants who can operate the new system and still explain the legacy ledger. We separate the systems requirement from the accounting requirement in the brief, because a SAP FICO Consultant and an accountant who has lived through a migration are different hires with different CTC bands.
Get started
Tell us the role, the team around it and the deadline. We'll come back within one business day with questions and an honest view of what it will take.
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