In the work we present a rather general approach for finding connections between the symmetries of Bu-potentials, variational symmetries, and algebraic structures, Lie-admissible algebras and Lie algebras. In order to do this, in the space of the generators of the symmetries of the functionals we define such bilinear operations as (S, T)-product, G-commutator, commutator. In the first part of the work, to provide a complete description, we recall needed facts on Bu-potential operators, invariant functionals and variational symmetries. In the second part we obtain conditions, under which (S, T)-product, G-commutator, commutator of symmetry generators of Bu-potentials are also their symmetry generators. We prove that under some conditions (S, T)-product turns the linear space of the symmetry generators of Bu-potentials into a Lie-admissible algebra, while G-commutator and commutator do into a Lie algebra. As a corollary, similar results were obtained for the symmetry generators of potentials, Bu ≡ I, where the latter is the identity operator. Apart of this, we find a connection between the symmetries of functionals with Lie algebras, when they have bipotential gradients. Theoretical results are demonstrated by examples. © Budochkina S.A. 2021.