What’s more important, standard costs or actual costs?

Professors Jennifer Dosch, CMA and Joel Wilson, CPA, recently published an article in Strategic Finance Magazine discussing the differences between textbook and real-life product costing for manufacturers. They took a look at three consumer packaged goods manufacturers to undercover the methodologies used to calculate product costs.

“Based on our analysis of three companies that differ significantly in size, the industry practice of process costing focuses considerable effort on developing accurate standard input costs and volumes to help manage business operations efficiently and effectively.”

Read the entire article here: https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6421/is_2_92/ai_n55049110/?tag=content;col1

For many ImpactECS customers, calculating both standard and actual costs are an important part of their overall costing process. Is there a focus in your organization on one cost over the other, or are they equally important in driving decisions for your company?