2.7.1
Monitor
Let’s begin by having you think about controlling your car (aka “driving”)! Your steering, acceleration,
and braking are not random; they are careful corrective responses to constant monitoring of many
variables – other traffic, road conditions, destination, and so forth. Clearly, each action on your part is
in response to you having monitored conditions and adopted an adjusting response. Likewise, business
managers must rely on systematic monitoring tools to maintain awareness of where the business is
headed. Managerial accounting provides these monitoring tools, and establishes a logical basis for making
adjustments to business operations.
Standard Costs – To assist in monitoring productive efficiency and cost control, managerial accountants
may develop “standards.” These standards represent benchmarks against which actual productive activity
is compared. Importantly, standards can be developed for labor costs and efficiency, materials cost and
utilization, and more general assessments of the overall deployment of facilities and equipment (the
overhead).
Variances – Managers will focus on standards, keeping a particularly sharp eye out for significant
deviations from the norm. These deviations, or “variances,” may provide warning signs of situations
requiring corrective action by managers. Accountants help managers focus on the exceptions by providing
the results of variance analysis. This process of focusing on variances is also known as “management
by exception.”
Flexible tools – Great care must be taken in monitoring variances. For instance, a business may have a
large increase in customer demand. To meet demand, a manager may prudently authorize significant
overtime. This overtime may result in higher than expected wage rates and hours. As a result, a variance
analysis could result in certain unfavorable variances. However, this added cost was incurred because of
higher customer demand and was perhaps a good business decision. Therefore, it would be unfortunate
to interpret the variances in a negative light. To compensate for this type of potential misinterpretation
of data, management accountants have developed various flexible budgeting and analysis tools. These
evaluative tools “flex” or compensate for the operating environment in an attempt to sort out confusing
signals. As a business manager, you will want to familiarize yourself with these more robust flexible tools,
and they are covered in depth in subsequent chapters.