The Fixed Budget: Outdated or Underrated? : How Swedish Privately Owned Companies Perceive The Fixed Budget And How It Is Used.

Abstract: Many critics have been questioning the use of Fixed Budgets in modern corporations. It has been said to be too time-consuming, too hierarchical, quickly becoming obsolete and that it harms information flows. Furthermore, the budget has been criticized for being demotivating and has also been called “An unnecessary evil”. However, recent studies done in Sweden have indicated that companies are not abandoning the Fixed Budget but are finding ways to supplement it with other Management Control Tools. There has been an overwhelming amount of criticism towards budgeting over the last decades. However, there seems to be a contradiction between the amount of criticism and the effect thereof. The recent studies done were made on public companies in Sweden, therefore it is interesting to measure the use and perception of Fixed Budgets in private companies instead. Since the purpose of this study is to measure the use and perception of Fixed Budgets, it makes sense to conduct a quantitative web based survey that is directed primarily to the CFO of the company. The population consist of private companies with a turnover of at least 1 billion SEK. The results of this study clearly show that the use of budgets is high even in privately owned companies. It also shows the most common practice is to supplement the Fixed Budget with other Management Control Tools, e.g. Revised Budget and KPI’s. This study also conclude that the budget is value creating to private companies in Sweden. Moreover, the overall perception of budgets, and the implementation of it, is positive.