Attainable Standards and Current Standards
Although the standard must be set high sufficient that achievable and it has to be worked for. Attainable standards must provide a challenge to employees via giving them a tough however realistic target: hence it motivates management and employees to achieve high levels of output.
i. Attainable standards - these are utilized for product costing and pricing for stock valuation, for cost control and for budgeting and performance evaluation.
However to be meaningful, attainable standards require to be revised regularly so as to affect the conditions expected to prevail throughout the period whether the standards would be applied. Of all the standards attainable standards are probable to produce the highest level of motivation especially when the employees are adequately concerned in setting them.
ii. Current Standards - These are standards set for employ over a short period of time connected to current.
Because basic standards cannot be utilized for analyzing current efficiency levels, a current period's standard can be developed for the basic standards. The current period standard can then be utilized to analyze the current period performance. Current standards are useful particularly in inflationary situations where current standards could be set for a three month period or on a monthly basis to reflect the changes in prices.