Consulting firms contribute to the popularization and dissemination of control practices. They do so not least by means of publications, in which they offer theorizations of these controls. This paper analyses such theorization efforts in more detail. In particular, I suggest that re-theorizing existing controls involves navigating between continuity and novelty. On the one hand, consultants have incentives to build upon existing frames of interpretation when promoting controls, while on the other hand they also have incentives to introduce novelty into their theorizing attempts. Using the example of zero-based budgeting, I show how consultants’ texts navigate this tension. In particular, I suggest that consulting firms balance between continuity and novelty by combining zero-based budgeting with other control practices. I also show how theorizations are re-negotiated in actual client projects. Overall, the paper contributes to a better understanding of how consulting firms theorize control practices.

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