It sheds light on why the financial results deviated from expectations and what remedies can be included in the next strategic plan in order to ensure that the company improves performance in the next period. There are differences among budgeting techniques in different companies and it may well be that some generalizations can be made between the budgeting techniques in different countries. In the Netherlands, for example, budgets are often a compilation of departmental budgets set by lower-level managers (De With & Dijkman, 2008). Yet within that country, there is considerable divergence among public companies. The same is true for companies in other major Western nations as well -- a wide range of techniques is used in any given sample of companies.

It should be noted that in the U.S., there is a move towards post-budgeting techniques, such as Beyond Budgeting, Activity-Based Costing or...

This finding holds true to a lesser extent in other countries, but it illustrates that not all companies conduct sophisticated budgeting exercises. Jack Welch of GE was famously anti-budgeting (De With & Dijkman, 2008). For many companies, therefore, the budgeting process is either replaced by other managerial accounting processes, or is simply ignored altogether in favor of other control mechanisms.
Works Cited:

Becker, S., Messner, M. & Schaffer, U. (2010). The evolution of a management accounting idea: The case of beyond budgeting. WHU Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management.

De With, E. & Dijkman, A. (2008). Budgeting practices of listed companies in the Netherlands. Management Accounting Quarterly. Retrieved November 3, 2011 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0OOL/is_1_10/ai_n31369438/?tag=r%20bxcra.2.a.33