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As you’ve learned, the standard price and standard quantity are anticipated amounts. Direct materials may have a variance in price of materials or quantity of materials used. Direct labor may have a variance in the rate paid to workers or the amount of time used to make a product. Overhead may produce a variance in expected standard costing system fixed or variable costs, leading to possible differences in production capacity and management’s ability to control overhead. More specifics on the formulas, processes, and interpretations of the direct materials, direct labor, and overhead variances are discussed in each of this chapter’s following sections.
Since the company must pay its vendors and production workers the actual costs incurred, there are likely to be some differences. The differences between the standard costs and the actual manufacturing costs are referred to as cost variances and will be recorded in separate variance accounts. Any balance in a variance account indicates that the company is deviating from the amounts in its profit plan.
What are the essentials of an effective system of Standard Costing?
It can determine the cost and selling price of a power antenna by knowing the standard material cost for the antenna and the standard labor cost of adding the antenna to the vehicle. General Motors also can add up all of the standard times for all vehicles it makes to determine if too much or too little labor was used in production. The standard costing variance is negative (unfavorable), as the actual units used are higher than the standard units, and the business incurred a greater cost than it expected to. Fixed overhead is allocated to the cost of the product based on the number of labor hours used at the standard rate of 2.60 per labor hour. The standard rate is calculated based on a production volume of 10,000 items (equivalent to 5,000 labor hours), and a total budgeted fixed cost of 13,000.
- The difference between the standard (expected) volume of production and the actual volume of production, gives rise to the standard cost volume variance.
- Historical costing, which refers to the task of determining costs after they have been incurred, provides management with a record of what has happened.
- Direct labor may have a variance in the rate paid to workers or the amount of time used to make a product.
- Double Entry Bookkeeping is here to provide you with free online information to help you learn and understand bookkeeping and introductory accounting.
- This technique is a valuable aid to the management in determining prices and formulating production policies.
The most important objective of standard cost is to help themanagement in cost control. It can be used as a yardstick against which actual costs can be compared to measure efficiency. The setting up of standard costs requires the consideration of quantities, price or rates, and qualities or grades for each element of cost that enters a product (i.e., materials, labor, and overheads). A standard cost is one that a company expects at the outset of a year under a normal level of operational efficiency. Standard costs are used periodically as a basis for comparison with actual costs. A budget for a company (that manufactures a product) cannot be prepared without standard costing.
Unsuitable for Non‐standardised Products
Sometimes the employees and workers are discouraged when the standards are fixed at a high level. The unreal high standards may adverse by effect the morale of workers rather than working as an incentive for better efficiency. This technique is a valuable aid to the management in determining prices and formulating production policies.
Standard costing equips cost estimates while planning the production of new products. Another objective of standard cost is to make the entire organisation cost conscious. It makes the employees to recognise the importance of efficient operations so that costs can be reduced by joint efforts. Standard cost helps to prescribe standards and the attention of the management is drawn only when the actual performance is deviated from the prescribed standards. The second objective of standard cost is to help the management in exercising control over the costs through the principle of exception. One view sees standard cost as a special type of cost that is used for comparison.
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Consequently, the reports’ information may be so stale that it is almost useless. Kelly is an SMB Editor specializing in starting and marketing new ventures. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content. She is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and she holds an MSc in International Marketing from Edinburgh Napier University. She enjoys writing about a variety of health and personal finance topics. When she’s away from her laptop, she can be found working out, trying new restaurants, and spending time with her family.
Therefore, significant variances must be reviewed and properly assigned or allocated to the cost of goods sold and/or inventories. Thus, in a standard cost system, a
company assumes that all units of a given product produced during a
particular time period have the same unit cost. Logically,
identical physical units produced in a given time period should be
recorded at the same cost.