Controlling is the process, a set of knowledge, a managerial function, and is increasingly being viewed as a scientific discipline that through coordination, control, planning and information function serves as a strong support to management in leading the companies, and developing and achieving its goals. Although, the 19th century is stated as the period of the origin of the controlling, it is considered as modern concept. The development of strategic controlling in the 90's of the last century is considers as a major step in the development of modern controlling – controlling which is nowadays practiced in Europe. Manufacturing industry is an extremely important economic sector in Croatia. The importance is especially viewable when it is observed from the aspect of number of employees, share in the structure of GDP and the share in total exports of Croatia. Part of the thesis is the research in which important information about the controlling of manufacturing companies from the Republic of Croatia is collected. Data were used to analyze the characteristics of existing controlling models, to determinate the specificity of the controlling models according to the size of the company and the impact of the controlling models on the performance of manufacturing companies from the Republic of Croatia. Furthermore, collected raw and processed data represents base for achieving further aim, to design general controlling model shaping intended for the manufacturing industry in the Republic of Croatia.