Abstract Purpose: The aim of this study is to highlight and provide a stronger focus on the literature related to budget and budget quality, consider how management can contribute to raising budget quality, and suggest how they can contribute individually and jointly in the future to improve budget quality. Design/methodology/approach: The authors collected data from peer-reviewed academic journals only. A total of 38 reviewed studies on various aspects of budgeting covering the period from 2003 to 2022 were systematically reviewed. Based on this, the researchers developed a set of search criteria focusing on several keywords (i.e., budget, budgeting, budget quality, budget performance, good budget, budget improvement, and better budget). Findings: Budgeting is fundamental to all public and private organizations. Based on the review, the researchers noted that budget quality has played a marginal role in public administration at the accounting research level, especially in the Middle East region. In addition, there is a dearth of studies that deal with budget quality; hence, more studies are needed to fill this gap. Originality/value: This study presents an overview of the existing literature and highlights unexplored questions about budgeting and budget quality for future research.