Financial variance is the difference between budgeted and actual spending. Positive variance means spending less, negative indicates overspending. Regular monitoring reduces surprises and improves ...

A stock's historical variance measures the difference between the stock's returns for different periods and its average return. A stock with a lower variance typically generates returns that are ...

A good tool to ask the right questions. A company's planned budget at the beginning of the year will always end up being different from how the year actually plays out. It's just impossible to predict ...

Direct labor standard price lets you estimate your direct labor costs for production or services according to the Corporate Finance Institute. This lets you know how many employees you need to ...

Small businesses often estimate their inventory. If you operate your business on the basis of inaccurate inventory figures, however, you may experience stock outs -- running out of products when ...

Claire Boyte-White is the lead writer for NapkinFinance.com, co-author of I Am Net Worthy, and an Investopedia contributor. Claire's expertise lies in corporate finance & accounting, mutual funds, ...

Beta is the 2nd letter in the Greek alphabet, and the financial world uses it to refer to the sensitivity of an asset’s price compared to a specific index or benchmark. Beta is also used as a measure ...

When you have the average production of three machines, it is easy to calculate the average or mean production. You just add ...

Caroline Banton has 6+ years of experience as a writer of business and finance articles. She also writes biographies for Story Terrace. Chip Stapleton is a Series 7 and Series 66 license holder, CFA ...