Standard Cost and Variance Analysis

• Standard cost: the predetermined unit cost of one unit of a product. It has five parts: material, labour, variable overhead, fixed overhead and subcontracting, all per unit in the product's base unit. Every row carries a source badge: Calculated from recipe and routing, Entered manually or Carried over from previous period.
• Component price source (Period and accounting › Costing settings › Default component price; can be changed once when calculating): Last purchase price (default; the last purchase up to the period end), Agreement price (the discounted price of the active purchase agreement in force on that date), Last 12 months purchase average (including the 20× sanity gate, which filters out absurd card costs) and Stock card cost. A component without a price counts as zero with the "Price not found" warning.
• Multi-level semi-finished goods: if a component has its own recipe, its price is that semi-finished product's total standard for the same period (material + labour + overhead + subcontracting). The lower level is calculated first (up to 12 levels, loop-protected); if the semi-finished product already has a manual or carried-over standard, that one is used ("Lower-level standard").
• Scrap allowance: the recipe's loss rate, conversion and output quantity are already included in the standard quantity per unit; nothing is added on top.
• Routing hours: each operation's time per unit is SURE_DK minutes; if the mould cavity count (CAVITY) is filled, the time is per cycle and hours per unit = SURE_DK ÷ cavity ÷ 60. If a batch size is defined on the recipe, the setup time is divided by the batch and added. A recipe without routing uses the recipe's labour minutes. A subcontracted operation carries no labour or overhead; its unit subcontract fee goes into the subcontract standard.
• Work center hourly rate: the operation's work center is the one on the operation, otherwise the center the machine belongs to, otherwise * (company-wide). The labour hourly rate is looked up in this order: Labor hourly rate on that center's overhead rate record › the center's cost rate in the Work Centers window › the company-wide (*) rate record › the average of production staff paid by the hour.

1. Preview (Standards tab): the standards of all products with a recipe are calculated with the chosen price source and nothing is written. The table shows the saved standard next to the new value; clicking a row opens the component and operation breakdown ("Preview: these values are not saved yet.").
2. Calculate and save: the previewed values are written to the period. Rows with the Entered manually badge are not overwritten by a bulk calculation; tick the checkbox to overwrite them on purpose. If the period does not exist, it opens automatically on the first save.
3. Edit manually: the five parts of a row can be changed by hand; the Note (why it was changed manually) field goes into the audit trail. The total must be greater than zero.
4. Carry over from previous period: all standards of the source period are copied to the target period with an increase percentage (between −90 and 500); the badge becomes Carried over from previous period. This is the quick update path in inflationary periods.

Warnings are listed below the row: component price not found, no labour hourly rate for the work center, no routing (labour and overhead zero). A warning does not stop the calculation, but that part counts as zero.

Material price + quantity always add up to AM − Q × material std, and labour rate + efficiency to AL − Q × labour std. Overhead variances are not per confirmation but per period × work center: AG is the center's cost center actual (§7), BF the fixed overhead budget, VR the variable rate, FR the fixed rate; AH and SH are the actual and standard machine hours worked at that center. The three add up to actual overhead − applied overhead; applied overhead = Q × (variable + fixed overhead standard).

The waterfall chart starts at standard cost, adds material price, material quantity, labour rate, labour efficiency, subcontract and other, and overhead variances in turn, and ends at actual cost. If the axis does not start at zero, a break mark says so. The table switches between Product · Work order · Confirmation · Reason breakdowns; a confirmation row drills down to the component breakdown (actual and standard quantity/price, off-recipe components) and to the work order.

Reason code: if the largest item is material quantity, the order's most frequent MES scrap reason is written; if it is labour efficiency, the longest MES pause/downtime reason (see MES › Pareto). Without MES records a derived reason is shown (Material price, Material usage, Labor wage, Labor time, Subcontract fee, Scrap and other). If no staff hours were entered on the confirmation, "No labor record on the confirmation" is written and the actual hours are assumed at standard. A confirmation of a product without a standard is not included in the variance and is listed separately at the top.

The screen calculates live; Save period variance deletes and rewrites the period's saved variance rows (pressing it again is safe). The Owner Dashboard and Analytics Studio read the saved rows.

For product × period, net sales = sales lines − sales returns (free issues excluded). The unit variable cost is material + labour + subcontracting + variable overhead if the product has a standard for that period (source Standard); otherwise the period purchase average or the stock card cost is used. A product whose cost is not known at all is not included in contribution and is shown separately with its name and net sales.

• Contribution = net sales − unit variable cost × quantity · Contribution margin = contribution ÷ net sales.
• Fixed costs = the period actuals of all expense types whose behaviour is Fixed in the cost center mapping; if there are none, the total of fixed overhead budgets in the overhead rates.
• Break-even revenue = fixed costs ÷ weighted contribution margin · a product's break-even quantity = break-even revenue × the product's sales share ÷ unit price.
• Margin of safety = (revenue − break-even revenue) ÷ revenue · Operating leverage = contribution ÷ operating result · Operating result = contribution − fixed costs.

The bar shows where sales stand relative to the break-even point. The Cost source column in the table tells for each product where the variable cost comes from.

In the Labor and overhead rates table, enter per period for each work center (or * company-wide): the allocation base (machine hours or labour hours), Labor hourly rate, Variable overhead rate and Fixed overhead rate (per hour), Fixed overhead budget and Normal capacity hours. If the fixed rate is left empty, budget ÷ normal capacity hours is used. Suggest from previous month divides last month's actual overhead by the hours worked and loads a suggestion into the form; check it before saving.

In the Cost center actuals section, Collect actuals gathers the period's expense account balances from the accounting ledger (in the Turkish uniform chart, groups 720/730 and 740–780). If the ledger has no expense movements at all, expense card purchases (stock type expense/service/labour) are used as a fallback source; the source column shows Book, Expense card or Manual. The actual amount can also be entered by hand.

Mapping template: each expense account (or an expense card in the form GK:<stock code>) is linked to a work center, an expense type (Direct labor, Manufacturing overhead, General administration, Marketing and sales, Financing) and a behaviour (Fixed / Variable). The template does not depend on the period; a change applies at the next collection. An unmapped account is classified by the prefix rule (uniform chart 720 → labour/variable, 730 → overhead/fixed).

The production confirmation is always posted as before: debit 151/152 (total), credit 150 material · 721 labour · 731 subcontracting. The Costing method setting on the Period and accounting tab decides what the period end does:

• Actual cost (default): the confirmation entry never changes. At period end only the 7/A absorption closing is made: (1) balances of expense accounts whose type in the mapping template is labour or overhead but which sit outside 720/730 are reclassified to 720/730; (2) closing: 711 → 710, 721 → 720, 731 → 730 (amount = the credit posted to the absorption accounts in the period). The balance left on 720/730 is under- or over-absorbed cost and is shown in the report; the year-end closing is a separate job.
• Standard cost (with variance entries): in addition, a variance entry is posted for every confirmation: debit 712 material price · 713 material quantity · 722 labour rate · 723 labour efficiency · 732 subcontract and other / credit 151|152 (total variance); plus, for applied overhead, debit 151|152 / credit 731. The product is thus carried at standard cost. A negative (favourable) amount swaps the sides. At period end the overhead variances are also posted: debit 732 spending · 733 efficiency · 734 volume / credit 730.
• The Indonesia package (SAK EP) builds the same structure with its own accounts: 5-50102 material price · 5-50103 material quantity · 5-50104 labour rate · 5-50105 labour efficiency · 5-50106 overhead budget · 5-50107 overhead efficiency · 5-50108 overhead capacity; closing 5-50101 → 5-50100 and 5-50201 → 5-50200.

Flow: Preview entries (writes nothing; the first 12 entries, the Debit = Credit badge, the To be reversed and Posted counts) → Post entries to the ledger (asks for confirmation). If a variance account is missing from the chart of accounts, only the missing ones are added when posting. The entries carry SM: keys and are safe to repost: posting the same period again reports new/changed/unchanged/reversed counts and never creates duplicates. Reverse the period's entries takes back all standard cost entries with reversal entries; administrators only. Posting entries also requires the Accounting permission; if the period is locked in accounting, no entry is posted (see Accounting › Period lock).