Rather than being recognized in the cost of goods sold or some other expense category within the current period, some overhead costs can be charged off to inventory. The proper allocation of these costs can have a large impact on the level of reported... 

Some manufacturers have been known to intentionally misclassify their manufacturing overhead costs. They record a certain amount of manufacturing cost in marketing expense or general and administration expense that should have been recorded in their manufacturing... 

There are many types of cost variance, which fall into the two general categories of price and efficiency variances. The price variance is the difference between the standard and actual price paid for anything, multiplied by the number of units of each...