Facilities that focus on manufacturing and production track two kinds of costs: fixed costs and variable costs. The variable costs are those that change when production levels change: raw materials, ...

Christenson, Charles. "Managing against Expectations (A): An Introduction to Profit Variance Analysis." Harvard Business School Background Note 182-013, July 1981.

Many finance teams treat variance analysis as a box-checking exercise: Set a threshold, flag the swing, move on. That’s why so many controllers spend days chasing noise while risks slip through. It’s ...

A variance occurs when expenses such as revenue or labor are either more or less than what the company anticipated and budgeted for. Hospitality businesses such as hotels and restaurants can ...

A categorical variable is defined as one that can assume only a limited number of values. For example, a person's sex is a categorical variable that can assume one of two values. Variables with levels ...

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and ...

Marshall Hargrave is a stock analyst and writer with 10+ years of experience covering stocks and markets, as well as analyzing and valuing companies. Dr. JeFreda R. Brown is a financial consultant, ...