Use Budget Trends to compare federal departmental spending across fiscal years. Read actual spending and estimates separately before using a change as a sales signal.
What Budget Trends shows
Open Budget Trends to view departmental totals and spending by standard object. Professional and special services is the category used for the consulting view. Estimates describe planned spending and can differ from subsequent actual expenditures.
Sort and search departments
- Enter a department name in Search departments.
- Sort by Name, Total, YoY Change, or Consulting Growth.
- Select the same sort again to change its direction, then open a department row.
Read a department's change
Compare the fiscal-year values in the expanded table and chart. Check whether a year is marked as an estimate before interpreting its year-over-year change. Estimated points use a distinct chart style. Compare the same spending category across years, and inspect the absolute amounts alongside percentages when a prior value is small or absent.
Who can upload budget data
If you do not see Upload CSV, your role does not allow budget uploads. If you do see it, use it to choose the source file and review the detected format. Estimates require a Fiscal Year. Submit the upload and inspect Upload History for its result. The importer accepts the supported actuals and estimates layouts; an arbitrary departmental spreadsheet may not match them. If a file is rejected, check its headers and source rather than changing fiscal-year labels to force an import.