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Over the past few years, the budget process has been under attack, even leading some companies to move « beyond budgeting ». However, recent surveys indicate that the budget is still alive and well in almost all large companies. These contradictory results call for a better understanding of the criticism levelled against the budget and for a thorough examination of the conditions in which it is formulated. Several studies have shown that the use of management accounting techniques depends on a number of contingency variables. Thus, one might think that, depending on different contingency circumstances, different critical statements will be expressed. Based on the results of a postal survey, this paper firstly investigates to what extent companies agree with criticisms of budgeting and identifies four main types of criticisms. Secondly, results show a significant relation between criticisms of budgeting and environmental uncertainty. Size, stock market listing and strategy are showed to influence only some specific attitudes towards budgets.