One of the keys to a successful business is cost management. Well-run companies know what it costs to make a product or service, and can identify when there are issues that result in higher expense than expected.
Having well developed processes and standards allow a business to determine variances. Two of the most important variances in production are cost and volume variances.
In order to have useful variance analysis, businesses must first build good standards. These can be based on the budget, or some other valid measure. The standards need to identify the expected volume and cost for each service that is performed by the business.