A growing body of literature argues than an organizations management control needs to adapt as an organization changes business model or strategy in order for the management control to be consistent with the organizations objectives and strategies. Nevertheless, scepticism has been raised about the role of management controls in practice to promote sustainability or circular economy within organizations. Based on the management control framework of Malmi and Brown (2008), this paper explores empirically how organizations work with circular economy and how management control adapts to the business model. The results show that circular economy can be practiced in different ways and that adaptation and the application of circular economy affect the whole management control package. The paper identify the importance of cultural control and long range planning for communicating circular values and spreading a culture based on circular principles. However, irrespectively of what circular strategies that are used, circular work tends to steer the attention to the early phases of the product life cycle. For management controls this means that action plans, cost accounting, and investment appraisals must reflect a higher level of detail and a longer time horizon. The paper highlights how this is associated with challenges for traditional management controls.