In a method and a control device for adjusting a state of a rolling stock, particularly a near-net strip, defined at least by an out-of-parallel condition and/or a curvature of the rolling stock, the rolling stock is transitioned from an initial into an intermediate state by a roll stand and by impressing a stress onto the rolling stock by an additional processing device, and the rolling stock is transitioned from the intermediate into a final state by at least one processing aggregate. By determining whether rolling stock should be fed into the at least one processing aggregate, the intermediate state requiring a non-zero out-of-parallel condition and/or curvature in order to achieve a predetermined final state, and the roll stand and/or the processing device are controlled and/or regulated as a function thereof to adjust the required intermediate state, the shape reliability of an ultimately parallel, non-curved rolling stock can be increased.