Jobs / Finance and accounting / 13-2031.00
Budget Analysts
Examine budget estimates for completeness, accuracy, and conformance with procedures and regulations. Analyze budgeting and accounting reports.
- US jobs
- 47,160
- Median wage
- $91,640 a year
- Job family
- Finance and accounting
Can agents do the work of budget analysts?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Finance and accounting:
- Task levelPartialOn Vals AI's Finance Agent benchmark, where agents research SEC filings to answer an analyst's questions, the best model scores 64.4%. Adjacent spreadsheet tasks score higher (83.1% on SpreadsheetBench). No task-level benchmark in our collection tests bookkeeping or audit work inside accounting systems.
- Project levelPartialOn APEX-Agents, which includes investment-banking tasks written by professionals, the best agent passes 73.5% of tasks on the first try (all domains). OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's GDPval deliverables, from occupations that include accountants and financial managers, won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in finance and accounting, not always this occupation's tasks.
- 1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026Unrated
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Analyze monthly department budgeting and accounting reports to maintain expenditure controls.
- Provide advice and technical assistance with cost analysis, fiscal allocation, and budget preparation.
- Review operating budgets to analyze trends affecting budget needs.
- Compile and analyze accounting records and other data to determine the financial resources required to implement a program.
- Examine budget estimates for completeness, accuracy, and conformance with procedures and regulations.
- Summarize budgets and submit recommendations for the approval or disapproval of funds requests.
- Consult with managers to ensure that budget adjustments are made in accordance with program changes.
- Direct the preparation of regular and special budget reports.
- Interpret budget directives and establish policies for carrying out directives.
- Perform cost-benefit analyses to compare operating programs, review financial requests, or explore alternative financing methods.
- Match appropriations for specific programs with appropriations for broader programs, including items for emergency funds.
- Seek new ways to improve efficiency and increase profits.
Other job titles for this occupation (24)
Budget Analyst · Budget and Policy Analyst · Budget Coordinator · Budget Officer · Budget Planning Analyst · Cost Analyst · Financial Services Officer · Fiscal Analyst · Fiscal Budget Analyst · Budget Administrator (Budget Admin) · Budget Engineer · Budget Examiner · Budget Management Analyst · Budget Specialist · Cost Accountant · Financial Management Analyst · Financial Planning and Analysis Analyst · Fiscal Agent · Fiscal Officer · Program Analyst · Program Budget Analyst · Program Cost Control Analyst · Program Cost Schedule and Control Analyst · Staff Services Analyst