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Types of standards

Following are different types of standards:

Basic standards Normal standards Current standards Attainable (expected) standards Ideal (theoretical) standards

Basic standards

These are standards established considering those factors that are basic in nature and remain

unchanged over a long period of time and are altered only when the business operations

change significantly affecting the very basic foundations of the entity and nature of busienss.

These standards help compare business operations over a longer period of time. Basic

standards are used not only to evaluate actual results but also current expected results (current

standards). We can say that basic standards work as a standard for other standards. As basic

standards are not updated according to latest circumstances thus they are not used often as

they cannot help in short term period variance analysis.

Normal Standards

These are such standards which are expected if normal circumstances prevail. Term normal

represents the normal conditions of the business in the absence of any unexpected

fluctuations (either favourable or unfavourable). Even through normal standards are more of

a theoretical in nature as reality cannot be sufficiently predicted with all its fluctuations inadvance. Also, circumstances may change in such a way that factors which were expected to

be controllable are not so controllable by the mangers. Thus it has limited application in

todays business environment. However, normal standards acts as a good yardstick that

represents challenging yet attainable results and can be used by management in such

environment which is simple in nature and is not prone to great fluctuations.

Current standards

These standards are representative of current business conditions. These are mostly short

term in nature and are widely used as they are the most relevant standards to be used for

control purposes. These standards represent the state that business currently achieving ormust achieve.

Attainable standards / Expected standards

These standards are based on current conditions and circumstances and represents what can

be attained with the present setup in place and if the current conditions prevail. Current

standards may be set lower or easier then expected standards but good managers always try to

achieve what is attainable so that no resource is left unused. It means that attainable standards

are representative of the potential that business is capable to achieve. For example a

machinery is expected to run for 4,000 hours where it can run for 5,000. Thus current

standard is 4,000 hours where attainable is 5,000 hours. These standards are useful as they

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help management to analyze their performance and to use the unused potential at the right

time.

Ideal standards / Theoretical standards.

These standards represents what business operations would be under ideal set ofcircumstances where everything is running at the optimum level with an ideal balance. These

standards are representative of long term goals rather than for short term performance

measurement. But with the advancement of technology and inventions even the ideal

standards become attainable over the period of time but with every step taken forward and

every question answered, more questions and more complexities pop up and its in human

nature that it always extends the way forward with every milestone achieved. Therefore, ideal

standards are not meant to be achieved rather to act like a guiding star.