The standard cost of Webb’s jackets can be computed at the start of the budget period.
This feature of standard costing simplifies record keeping because no record is needed of the
actual overhead costs or of the actual quantities of the cost-allocation bases used for making
the jackets. What is needed are the standard overhead cost rates for variable and fixed
overhead. Webb’s management accountants calculate these cost rates based on the planned
amounts of variable and fixed overhead and the standard quantities of the allocation bases.
We describe these computations next. Note that once standards have been set, the costs of
using standard costing are low relative to the costs of using actual costing or normal costing.