Background The debate about the budgets being and not being has been going on for 40 years. On one hand advocates for abolishing the budget have been criticising the budget, arguing for example that it is a waste of resources that only provides an illusion of control. Whereas on the other hand, business students are still taught to use the budget and previous studies show that companies are still holding on to it. Hence, there seems to exist a budget paradox.   Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to examine the use and perception of fixed budgets within larger companies of today and to clarify the reality behind the debate about the usefulness of budgets. Further, to get an understanding of what purposes are deemed as important when using different control measures, and how well these are fulfilled.    Method This study is predominantly quantitative with a deductive approach, as it via a self-administrative web survey has collected data from 58 publicly traded companies in Sweden. The questionnaire has consisted of open- and close-ended questions, to provide a deeper understanding of the role the fixed budget.   Conclusion The overall percentage of companies that have abolished the budget has increased when compared to previous studies, but the majority of 81% still use the fixed budget in one way or another. Out of the participating companies, 67% stated that they supplement the fixed budget with other control measures, and as the percentage of those considering abolishing the budget have decreased, the overall perception of the fixed budget has improved.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1962. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 12).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-204). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Bakgrund: Budgeten har en lång historia i vilken dess roll och betydelse har ändrats över tid. Budgeten fyller en mängd olika syften som är såväl företags- som situationsspecifika. Under senare år har det riktats kritik mot budgeten gällande att den inte är anpassad till dagens ständigt föränderliga miljö. Byggföretag verkar i en bransch som är ständigt beroende av förändringar i samhällsutvecklingen som förutsätter flexibilitet och ställer hårda krav på anpassningsförmåga samt behärskning av potentiell hastig omstrukturering. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att skapa kunskap om vilka, och hur, olika osäkerhetsfaktorer påverkar byggföretags budgetanvändande. Detta genom att analysera vilka osäkerhetsfaktorer som upplevs som störst i byggbranschen och hur dessa hanteras i byggföretagens budgetering. Avsikten är även att skapa en insikt om vilka syften budgeten uppfyller under osäkra förhållanden. Metod: Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ branschstudie på byggföretag inom den svenska marknaden. Empirin utgörs av två semistrukturerade intervjuer med två väletablerade bolag. Detta material har analyserats för att urskilja likheter och skillnader mellan företagen för att kunna besvara uppsatsens syfte. Slutsats: Studien visar på att det finns flera huvudsakliga osäkerhetsfaktorer som påverkar byggföretagen. Osäkerheten hanteras främst genom förebyggande analyser som inkluderas i budgetanvändandet. Vidare kombinerar företagen traditionell budgetering med alternativa budgetformer. Budgeten fyller en mängd olika syften där planering, uppföljning och kontroll ses som de primära.   Nyckelord: Ekonomistyrning, budget, budgetering, osäkerhet, byggbranschen. / Background: The budget has a long history where its role and meaning has changed over time. The budget may fulfill a lot of different purposes that take form by its context and surroundings. During the previous years the budget has been criticized for not being able to adapt to the constantly changing environment. Construction companies are operating in an industry that are affected by changes in the society that postulate flexibility, requires adaptability and also control if it will be a quick realign. Purpose: The purpose with the thesis is to create knowledge about which and how different forms of uncertainty have an impact on construction companies use of their budget. We are doing this by analyzing which forms of uncertainty that are experienced in the construction industry and how these are handled by the companies budgeting. The intention is also to create an insight about which purposes fulfils in an environment with uncertainty.  Method: This study is a qualitative study about construction companies on the swedish market. The empirical material is based on two semistructured interviews with two well established firms. The material has been analyzed with the intention to identify differences and similarities between the companies in order to answer the purpose of the thesis. Conclusions: The thesis shows that there are many forms of uncertainty that affects the construction companies. The uncertainty is handled through prevention analyzes that are included in the budget. Except that, the companies are combining traditional budgeting with alternative budgeting. The budget fulfills a lot of different purposes where planning, follow-up and control are the mainly.  Keywords: Management control, budget, budgeting, uncertainty, construction industry

The budget is shown to be the most prioritized management accounting tool for companies with scarce resources, while at the same time it is criticized for being time consuming and ineffective. This study uses life cycle theory as a framework to investigate how the budgets can be used in a more efficient and effective way, depending on what life cycle stage the company is in. The purpose of this study is to investigate how commonly budgets are used throughout the life cycle stages of IT companies in Sweden, and whether there is a difference in what reasons to budget are considered the most important in different stages. By using previous research made on life cycle theory and the reasons to budget as a foundation, this study collects the data using a quantitative method where a survey is sent to a sample of IT companies in Sweden. The answers to the survey lead to results about the budget use, what life cycle stage the respondents consider their company to be in, and how important ten different reasons to budget within the areas control, planning and evaluation are to the individual companies. The results show that there is a low budget use among companies in the birth stage, and that the budget use is high for companies in the growth, maturity and revival stages. The increasing budget use follows the increasing number of employees through the stages. The study finds that in general there are no major differences through the stages in what budget reasons are chosen to be most important; control is overall the most important purpose that the budget fulfills. Furthermore, there are some reasons to budget that have been assigned low values of importance across all the stages. Staff evaluation and encouraging innovative behavior are not considered important by the responding companies.

Subject of this thesis is {\clqq}Basic relationship between method administration accounting and processing of budget. It will be demonstrated on the example of chosen non - profit organization.{\crqq} The aim of thesis is to point out connection between setting and checking the budget and method of leading accountancy. At first is written teoretical part of work, where is characterized general way of leading accountancy, basic characteristic of processing the budget, analysis of chosen information needed for processing the budget in accountancy scope. The second part is practical, where is described chosen non-profit organization and features of way, how to lead accountancy, documentation of processed budgets and metodical proposal for their processing. Connection between budgets and accountancy does exist. To compile the budget is closely connected with information from accountancy. Organization come out from accountancy schedule, during the process of puting together budget structure. It depends on who is puting the budget together. Every municipality has its own employee, who is engaged in this and also sets appearance arrangement according to his subjective consideration and according to survey of information for user. The budget comes from accountancy and is arranged with budget changes. The most economical seems to use the possibility of leading only one bank account, which is account 231 - The basic current account in connection with volume of property, budget, number of operations and activities etc.

Le budget de l’État est au cœur du système financier, c’est donc à la fois un sujet économique et un sujet politique. Sa réforme implique tous les aspects de la vie sociale, politique et économique et tout changement mineur est susceptible d’affecter l’ensemble du système. La restructuration et la rationalisation des relations budgétaires entre les administrations publiques à tous les niveaux affectent la stabilité comme la prospérité ou au contraire le déclin du pays. Nous pouvons nous demander si l’amélioration du fonctionnement du budget de l’État permet de résoudre au mieux les problèmes économiques et politiques. Nous sommes également en droit de penser que les études sur la réforme budgétaire contribuent à améliorer la performance et la maîtrise des dépenses de l’État. Ces études contribuent à renforcer la capacité de macro-contrôle du gouvernement et à construire le cadre institutionnel des finances publiques. Enfin, elles permettent de prévenir les risques financiers. Il nous faut ajouter qu’au cours de notre travail, nous nous sommes attachés à mettre en œuvre les principes suivants : - Une combinaison de la théorie et de la pratique. - L’application des connaissances et des méthodes des disciplines concernées, telles que les sciences juridique, économique, politique, ainsi que la gestion et la sociologie. - L’identification de la réalité budgétaire chinoise et les exigences essentielles de la réforme. - Un enrichissement de notre recherche par la présentation et l’intégration des réformes budgétaires réalisées en France, aux États-Unis ou au Japon. / The national budget is the heart of the financial system, which is both an economic and a political issue. The reform of the national budget involves social, political and economic, all small changes could affect the entire financial system. The reform of the national budget affects the stability and prosperity of all aspects of the country, and also relates to the long-term development and rationalization of intergovernmental fiscal relations. Through these studies, we can understand the better functioning of the national budget system, and can deal with economic and political issues more effectively. We also have reason to think that the budget reform research can help to improve the efficiency of the budget and the control of the government expenditure. These studies will help to strengthen the ability of government macro regulation and the construction of public finance system. Finally, they can guard against financial risks. In our work, we must stress that, we are committed to implement the following principles: - Combination of theory and practice. - The application of knowledge and disciplines, such as legal research, economics, policy and management, sociology. - Fiscal reality of China, the basic requirement of reform and countermeasures. - We comb and reference the introduction and research of fiscal reform in France, the United States and Japan.

The budget is widely criticised for consuming time and resources without adding sufficientvalue, however, it is undeniably one of the most important tools for planning andcoordination. This case study examines a company that has abandoned the budget andreplaced it with new planning and forecasting processes to achieve a dynamic process with aforward-looking mentality and less focus on details. The objective of the study is toinvestigate the experiences of the new processes and how the ways of working have beenaffected from a management accounting change perspective, with a focus from thecontroller’s perspective. The changed planning processes are conceptualised as a part of theorganisation’s rules and routines.The findings showed that the purpose of the new processes was unclear in some respects,and although the new rules were accepted, many old routines had not yet changed.Perceived lack of system support combined with a conviction that certain aspects of the oldprocesses were essential to perform qualitative work, are two explanatory factors. The levelof detail had decreased in many aspects, but time has not yet been freed up for thecontrollers in favour of value-adding activities.

Cette recherche s’inscrit dans un champ particulier, à savoir, le fédéralisme financier aux États-Unis. On a pris pour objet un État précis, l’État de la Floride. C’est par conséquent, une démarche descriptive du système financier floridien centrée la délicate question de l’autonomie financière des échelons locaux, du plus large (l’État fédéré) au plus petit (les différents gouvernements locaux) qui constitue l’axe de ce travail.Une première partie s’attache à la description des relations entretenues entre la Floride, État fédéré à vocation territoriale et le gouvernement fédéral, à vocation nationale. D’une part, l’autonomie financière de la Floride est appréhendée à travers les fondements du fédéralisme américain, à savoir la Constitution fédérale et la Constitution étatique. D’autre part, les sources de financement nécessaires à cette autonomie, essentiellement la fiscalité.Une deuxième partie est centrée sur le principe de l’autonomie interne à l’État, on veut dire par là que l’on identifie le degré de la dépendance des gouvernements locaux face à leur État de rattachement, tant dans le processus budgétaire que fiscal.Au final d’un point de vue général, l’analyse du système floridien montre la souplesse et le pragmatisme dont fait preuve le fédéralisme américain. / This research is part of a particular field, namely, fiscal federalism in the United States. We had intended a particular State, the State of Florida. It is therefore a descriptive approach of the Florida financial system centered the delicate issue of the financial autonomy of local levels, the largest (the State) to the smallest (the various local governments) which constitutes the axis of this work.The first part focuses on the description of the relations between the Florida State federated territorial vocation and the federal government, with a national vocation. First, the Florida financial autonomy is apprehended through the foundations of American federalism, namely the Federal Constitution and the State Constitution. Moreover, the funding sources necessary for this autonomy, mainly taxation.A second part is centered on the principle of internal autonomy to the state, we want to say that we identify the degree of dependence of local governments face their state of attachment, both in the budget process as tax.In the end a general perspective, the analysis of the Florida system demonstrates the flexibility and pragmatism shown by the American federalism.

The first research objective of this dissertation is an empirical study of the capital budgeting process to determine what capital budgeting evaluation techniques are used by firms in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. The second research objective of this dissertation is how the size of the firm impacts on the type of capital budgeting evaluation techniques used. The size of the firm is measured by magnitude of turnover, assets and the number of employees.