Controlling is increasingly important in a changing economic environment. Nevertheless, many SMEs in Germany, France and Turkey have not implemented adequate controlling measures. Besides financial limitations, one main reason seems to be the lack of awareness of the part of managers and the owners of SMEs. Typically, they build up the company and due to their recent success, they believe they can only make a few mistakes and need any foundation of decisions using controlling measures. An additional aspect to be investigated is the influence of national culture. In this paper, the authors present the background and basic considerations for the design of an empirical investigation analyzing the evidence for the influence of culture on controlling systems. The ongoing research project will try to provide empirical proof of the influence of cultural differences on the design and implementation of controlling systems.