Abstract This paper presents data obtained from a representative sample survey on hte budgetary controls used in large U.K. companies. The results show a lower overall incidence of such controls than might be expected from textbook descriptions. Only a minority of companies uses a wide range of profit and cost ratios whilst an equally large minority appears not to rely on budgetary control at all. The paper also uses cross-sectional variations in hte incidence of budgetary targets with features of the organization and its workforce in order to illuminate the uses to which these budgets are put. The findings are tested against the ‘conventional’ picture of budgetary controls as a response to size diversity and problems of internal co-ordination, and against a ‘radical’ view that they are a response to trade union organization and flexibilities within the workforce. Both the theories receive some prima facie support from the ‘raw’ cross-sectional variations within the sample. Multiple logistic regression, however, indicates that the ‘real’ correlate of return-on-investment (ROI) targets are internal trading relationships which are exposed to external market competition. Since internal trading of this type is also associated with the presence of trade unions, the findings point to the existence of a counter-trade union strategy in which ROI targets are used to define the profitability of business units whilst competition from external markets is used to prevent this from being achieved by the export of excess costs iinto the rest of the organization. Ratios involving labout costs appear to be a response to weakness on hte part of the workforce, rather than strength. They are more frequently used in companies which employ large proportions of part-time or female workers. Generally speaking, these employees have higher wastage rates than full-timers and they are easier to lay off and to put on short-time working. In this respect, the use of budgetary reports is related to managerial freedom to act on the information. Overall, the data indicate that the usage of budgetary controls in large U.K. companies is intimately linked with considerations of labour control.