Answer to Question #43216 in Management for ifti

Question #43216
standard costing has been used in manufacturing companies for product costing and cost control for many decades. it is also used in service firms... however, many criticisms have been levelled at standard costing, questioning its continuing relevance in helping companies to manage resources and create value'' (Lang field, Thorne & Hilton,2012,p.528).
Discuss and give your point of view.Support your discussion with suitable examples.
1
Expert's answer
2014-06-10T10:37:28-0400
Standard costing is an important subtopic of cost accounting. Standard costs are usually associated with a manufacturing company's costs of direct material, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. Rather than assigning the actual costs of direct material, direct labor, andmanufacturing overhead to a product, many manufacturers assign the expected or standard cost. This means that a manufacturer's inventories and cost of goods sold will begin with amounts reflecting the standard costs, not the actual costs, of a product. Manufacturers, of course, still have to pay the actual costs. As a result there are almost always differences between the actual costs and the standard costs, and those differences are known as variances.

Standard costing and the related variances is a valuable management tool. Ifa variance arises, management becomes aware that manufacturing costs have differed from the standard (planned, expected) costs. If actual costs are greater than standard costs the variance is unfavorable.An unfavorable variance tells management that if everything else stays constant the company's actual profit will be less than planned. If actual costs are less than standard costs the variance is favorable. A favorable variance tells management that if everything else stays constant the actual profit will likely exceed the planned profit.

The sooner the accounting system reports a variance, the sooner the management can direct its attention to the difference from the planned amounts.

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