Careers in Budgeting | List of Top 4 Job Options in Budgeting Career

List of Top 4 Careers in Budgeting

Below is the list of some of the top jobs in budgeting that you can opt for in your finance career.

Financial Planning & Analysis
Financial Analyst
Budget Analyst
Management Accountant

Overview of Budgeting Career

Budgeting is a strategical implementation of the business plan of a company or a project to achieve the desired goals and objectives. Budgeting also means forecasting the future of the company by creating appropriate budgets to take care of the financial needs in the long term. Budgeting is important because of the following reasons –

Aids in planning and crisis management i.e. it allows the company management to take appropriate actions when a crisis situation arises.
Encourages to build a long-lasting relationship with other departments since the budgeting manager needs to take the help and inputs from the other departments as well in order to complete the budget.
Helps in having a clear understanding amongst the employees in the organization as they are made aware about the budgetary allocations in the next financial year and also this process helps in creating synergies with other departments like Operations, Accounts, Credit, Investments, and HR.
Motivates the sales teams to achieve their targets and goals.
Helps in controlling the financial position of the company by analyzing the variances in the expected budget vs the actual budgets.
It is a vehicle in order to measure the performance of the employees.

Let us now look at the top 4 budgeting career options in detail –

Career #1 – Financial Planning & Analysis

Who is Financial Planning & Analysis?

Financial Planning & Analysis takes care of the budgets of the company in the FP&A department. Every company has its FP&A department to take care of the financial projections and prepare a business plan on a periodic basis to showcase the roadmap for the future.

Financial Planning & Analysis - Job Description
Responsibilities	Responsible for building detailed business plans and ensure that the company does not have any liquidity problems in the long term.
Designation	FP&A Manager
Actual Role	Ensure the future of the company is secured and there are sufficient funds available for running the business and making arrangements for the fund raising requirements that the company might require.
Top Companies	All large corporates.
Salary	The median annual salary for a valuation analyst will be between $80,000 to $1,00,000.
Demand & Supply	Highly demanded profile since it requires extensive financial planning skills along with experience working on large databases.
Education Requirement	CFA/CPA / MBA/ Valuation Expert from Tier -1 Universities with at least 5-10 Yrs of Exp.
Recommended Courses	CPA/ MBA / CFP/ CFA
Positives	Chance to take part in the growth strategy meetings of the company along with the top management.
Negatives	Extensive data crunching and working on excel sheets can be boredom.

Career #2 – Financial Analyst

Who is a Financial Analyst?

Financial Analyst is a professional who analyses the financial position of the company.

Financial Analyst - Job Description
Responsibilities	To do the business analysis and come with the report showcasing the strengths and weaknesses.
Designation	Financial Analyst
Actual Role	He will support the senior analyst in all day today working like preparing cash flows or drafts on policies.
Job Statistics	As per Bureau of Labour statistics of US (https://www.bls.gov/), the number of jobs in this category was 2,96,100 as at 2016 and are expected to grow at 11% from 2016 to 2026.
Top Companies	All large corporates and bulge bracket investment banks.
Salary	The median annual salary for a financial analyst as on may 2018 was $ 85,660 As per Bureau of Labour statistics of US (https://www.bls.gov/)
Demand & Supply	Demand for financial analyst is growing rapidly since being a professional role it requires extensive financial and accounting skills.
Education Requirement	A bachelors degree or an MBA from a reputed college.
Recommended Courses	CFP or MBA or CPA
Positives	High growth potential in the future with heavy compensation and exciting job profile ahead.
Negatives	Long working hours and high pressure.

Career #3 – Budget Analyst

Who is a Budget Analyst?

Budget Analyst advises companies on how to prepare the financial budgets and how to organize their finances.

Budget Analyst - Job Description
Responsibilities	Responsible for preparing detailed budgets in coordination with the management and other departments.
Designation	Budget Analyst
Actual Role	To build a detailed business plan &budget for the company in which clear funds will be allocated to the activities in the next year.
Job Statistics	As per Bureau of Labour statistics of US (https://www.bls.gov/), the number of jobs in this category was 58,400 as at 2016 and are expected to grow at 7% from 2016 to 2026.
Top Companies	All Large Corporates.
Salary	The Median annual salary for a budget analyst will be $ 76,220 as per thehttps://www.bls.gov/
Demand & Supply	Highly demanded profile since the budgets form an integral part of the financial decision making and strategy formulation.
Education Requirement	CFA/CPA/MBA/Valuation Expert with 10+ Yrs of Exp in Budgeting.
Recommended Courses	CFA/CPA/MBA from Tier –I University
Positives	Preparing detailed business plans helps the analyst to know all the insights of the company and also the roadmap for the future.
Negatives	Extensive working on spreadsheets can be boredom.

Career #4 – Management Accountant

Who is a Management Accountant?

Management Accountant works very closely with the management and the budgeting manager.

Management Accountant - Job Description
Responsibilities	To analyze the movements in the budget on a periodic basis and work out the variance in the same comparing it with the actuals.
Designation	Management Analyst or Cost Accountant
Actual Role	Is to overseas the budgets prepared by the analyst and give his comments on the same.
Job Statistics	No data has been displayed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Top Companies	All large Corporates.
Salary	The median annual salary for the same can be anywhere between $ 75,000 to $1,00,000.
Demand & Supply	Highly demanded role, since the variances in the expected and actual budgets need to be communicated to the management in a proper manner.
Education Requirement	CFP/CPA / MBA from Tier -1 Universities with at least 15 Yrs of Exp.
Recommended Courses	CPA/MBA/CFA
Positives	Work very closely with senior management.
Negatives	Justifying the variances in the budgets and the assumptions used in preparing the business plans can be very difficult if things don’t go well.

Conclusion

Budgeting is one of the most crucial roles in any organization as it lays down the path or the road map for the company to plan its strategic decisions and way ahead.