Standard Costing and Variance Analysis
Control
Standard Costing and Variance Analysis
Syllabus tag: KASNEB CPA | Intermediate Level | CA25 Management Accounting | Topic 6 Standard Costing and Variance Analysis
Lesson objectives
By the end of this topic, you will be able to:
- Compute material price and usage variances
- Compute labour rate and efficiency variances
- Compute sales price and sales volume variances
- Check that sub-variances reconcile to the total
- Interpret a variance rather than merely calculate it
Why this matters
A budget says what should have happened. Variance analysis explains the gap between that and what did happen — and, more usefully, says which manager can answer for each part of the gap.
One company throughout
Simba Ltd standard: 4 kg of material at KES 250 per kg, and 3 hours of labour at KES 400 per hour. Budgeted output 5,000 units. Standard selling price KES 2,000 and standard cost KES 1,700.
Actual results: 5,200 units produced and sold. Materials 21,320 kg costing KES 5,223,400. Labour 15,080 hours costing KES 6,182,800. Actual selling price KES 1,960.
Words to know
- Standard cost — what a unit should cost, set before the period.
- Favourable variance — actual better than standard.
- Adverse variance — actual worse than standard.
- Flexed budget — the budget restated at the volume actually achieved.
Note that a favourable variance is not automatically good news, nor an adverse one bad. Buying cheap material is favourable on price and may cause an adverse usage variance when it breaks in the machine.
The flexing principle
Everything is measured against what output actually was, not what was budgeted. Output was 5,200 units, so:
- Standard materials allowed = 4 kg × 5,200 = 20,800 kg
- Standard hours allowed = 3 hrs × 5,200 = 15,600 hours
Comparing actual usage against the original 5,000-unit budget is the single commonest error in this topic.
Material variances
Actual price per kg = 5,223,400 / 21,320 = KES 245
Price variance = (Standard price − Actual price) × Actual quantity = (250 − 245) × 21,320 = KES 106,600 favourable
Usage variance = (Standard qty allowed − Actual qty) × Standard price = (20,800 − 21,320) × 250 = KES 130,000 adverse
Total = 106,600 F − 130,000 A = KES 23,400 adverse
Check: (20,800 × 250) − 5,223,400 = 5,200,000 − 5,223,400 = 23,400 adverse. If the two sub-variances do not sum to the total, the working is wrong.
Note which quantity each formula uses. Price variance uses actual quantity, because the price was paid on every kilogram bought. Usage variance uses standard price, so that the two effects are not double-counted.
Labour variances
Actual rate per hour = 6,182,800 / 15,080 = KES 410
Rate variance = (400 − 410) × 15,080 = KES 150,800 adverse
Efficiency variance = (15,600 − 15,080) × 400 = KES 208,000 favourable
Total = 208,000 F − 150,800 A = KES 57,200 favourable
This pattern is worth noticing. The company paid above standard rate and got more done per hour than standard. That is what hiring more experienced staff looks like in the numbers — and here it paid off, since the efficiency gain exceeded the extra wage cost.
:::checkpoint The purchasing manager is congratulated for the 106,600 favourable price variance. The production manager is criticised for the 130,000 adverse usage variance. Explain why this may be exactly the wrong way round. :::
Sales variances
Standard profit per unit = 2,000 − 1,700 = KES 300
Sales volume variance = (Actual units − Budgeted units) × Standard profit = (5,200 − 5,000) × 300 = KES 60,000 favourable
Sales price variance = (Actual price − Standard price) × Actual units = (1,960 − 2,000) × 5,200 = KES 208,000 adverse
Selling 200 extra units gained 60,000; the 40 shillings knocked off every unit cost 208,000. The discount that drove the volume cost more than the volume was worth — which is precisely the sort of thing variance analysis exists to reveal.
Interpreting variances
Three rules worth carrying into the exam:
- Look for links. Variances are rarely independent. Cheap material, inexperienced labour and a price discount all cause knock-on effects elsewhere.
- Ask whether the standard is still right. A persistent adverse variance in the same direction every month usually means the standard is out of date, not that the manager is failing.
- Investigate by materiality and controllability. A large variance that no manager could influence is not worth a meeting; a small one that signals a process going out of control may be.
:::checkpoint A company reports an adverse material price variance every month for a year, of roughly the same size. Give two possible explanations and say which you would investigate first. :::