What is a controller's cushion? A controller’s cushion or controller’s reserve involves temporarily recording too much expense for an item that the controller calculates. For example, the controller might budget...
What is a controller's cushion? A controller’s cushion or controller’s reserve involves temporarily recording too much expense for an item that the controller calculates. For example, the controller might budget...
What is the difference between actual overhead and applied overhead? Definition of Actual Overhead In the context of actual and applied overhead, actual overhead refers to a manufacturer’s indirect manufacturing costs....
What is the materials usage variance? Definition of Materials Usage Variance The materials usage variance or materials quantity variance is associated with a standard costing system. This variance results when the actual...
How is the material usage variance account reported on the financial statements? Definition of Materials Usage Variance The materials usage variance (in a standard costing system) results from using more or less than the...
The amount by which actual costs exceed the standard costs or budgeted costs. Also, the amount by which actual revenues are less than the budgeted revenues.
See Explanation of Standard Costing.
See direct materials usage variance.
See direct labor efficiency variance.
See direct materials usage variance.
In standard costing the difference between the actual cost and the standard cost of direct materials or direct labor. The price variance of direct labor is usually referred to as the labor rate variance.
A difference between an actual cost and a budgeted or standard cost, and the actual cost is the lesser amount. In the case of revenues, a favorable variance occurs when the actual revenues are greater than the budgeted...
See direct materials price variance.
See direct materials usage variance. To learn more, see Explanation of Standard Costing.
See direct labor rate variance.
A variance arising in a standard costing system that indicates the difference between the actual cost of direct materials and the standard cost of direct materials. Recognizing this variance at the time the direct...
or Practice Quiz for this topic. For more insight regarding a specific question, use the search box at the top of the page. 1. In a conventional or traditional costing system, the manufacturing overhead costs were often...
What is the meaning of pro rata? Pro rata is a Latin term that means in proportion. Pro rata is related to prorate, a term used in cost accounting. To illustrate the term pro rata, let’s assume that a company’s...
of the manufacturing overhead costs are fixed in total (manufacturing rent, depreciation, managers’ salaries, repairs, etc.), the per unit cost of a product depends on the number of units manufactured during a given...
, the company’s will be reported as shown here: Revenues variance: ($1,500). The amount is a negative or unfavorable variance because the actual revenues were $28,500 instead of the budgeted revenues of $30,000. The...
The indirect manufacturing costs that will change in proportion to the change in an activity such as machine hours. For example, a portion of a manufacturer’s electricity cost will vary with the change in the...
Our Explanation of Nonmanufacturing Overhead provides examples of a manufacturer's expenses which are not considered to be costs of a product for financial reporting. However, they are operating expenses that will have...
The variable manufacturing costs other than direct materials and direct labor that have been assigned to the products manufactured via a predetermined rate. Ideally, by the end of the accounting year the amount applied...
What are nonmanufacturing overhead costs? Definition of Nonmanufacturing Overhead Costs Nonmanufacturing overhead costs are the business expenses that are outside of a company’s manufacturing operations. In other...
Our Explanation of Manufacturing Overhead gives you examples of what is included in manufacturing overhead. You will learn that these are indirect product costs and therefore are allocated to the products in order to...
What are departmental overhead rates? Definition of Departmental Overhead Rates Departmental overhead rates are used by many manufacturers to allocate (assign, apply) manufacturing overhead to the goods it produces...
Our Explanation of Manufacturing Overhead gives you examples of what is included in manufacturing overhead. You will learn that these are indirect product costs and therefore are allocated to the products in order to...
The actual cost incurred for manufacturing costs other than direct materials and direct labor which increase as production volume increases. Examples include manufacturing supplies and electricity to operate the...
What is a predetermined overhead rate? Definition of Predetermined Overhead Rate A predetermined overhead rate is often an annual rate used to assign or allocate indirect manufacturing costs to the goods it produces....
A single overhead rate for assigning all of the manufacturing production and service department costs to products. This rate is less accurate than departmental rates if a company manufactures a diverse group of...
See direct labor efficiency variance and direct labor rate variance.
See direct labor efficiency variance.
See direct materials usage variance.
See direct labor efficiency variance.
See direct materials usage variance.
See direct labor rate variance.
A variance arising in a standard costing system that indicates the difference between the standard cost of direct labor for the good output (standard hours times standard rate) and the standard cost of the actual hours...
A variance arising in a standard costing system that indicates the difference between the standard cost of direct materials that should have been used (standard quantity times standard cost) for the good output and the...
A variance arising in a standard costing system that indicates the difference between 1) the standard cost of the direct labor that should have been used (the standard hours times the standard rate) for the good output,...
Featured Review
"I have a BA in accounting and economics, and have passed all four parts of the CPA exam (back when there were still essays required on the exam). However, I have been on a career break for a while due to caretaking responsibilities for aging and ailing parents, as well as becoming a mom and raising our son. I was studying for a civil service exam and felt I needed some refresher pointers in accounting and bookkeeping. I did a search online, and discovered your AccountingCoach website. I was immediately impressed with how thorough and elegantly organized your site is. I was able to search for any topic in accounting (inventory methods, retained earnings, financial statements, financial ratios, etc.) with ease. I quickly upgraded to PRO, and felt as though I was systematically re-educating myself with the latest in the accounting field. This has been a great benefit to me as I can review and challenge myself with your materials, with the flexibility to suit my schedule, and in hopes of confidently relaunching my career." - Caryn P.
Join PRO or PRO Plus and Get Lifetime Access to Our Premium Materials
Read all 2,645 reviewsWe now offer 10 Certificates of Achievement for Introductory Accounting and Bookkeeping: