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 ...

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 ...

Even the best budgets rarely turn out exactly the way that planners expect. Whenever you're planning in advance for a period of time, you'll inevitably make some mistakes in your estimates, and it's ...

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 ...

This article was originally published on Built In by Eric Kleppen. Variance is a powerful statistic used in data analysis and machine learning. It is one of the four main measures of variability along ...

Most teams set a single percentage threshold across the board that’s simple but flawed. A 5% swing in a volatile revenue account might mean nothing, while a 2% movement in an accrued liabilities could ...

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 ...

Daniel Jassy, CFA, is an Investopedia Academy instructor and the founder of SPYderCRusher Research. He contributes to Excel and Algorithmic Trading. Dr. JeFreda R. Brown is a financial consultant, ...

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