Standard Costs

1. Standard costs are a firm's target costs, or the costs it hopes to attain or expects to incur in a production process, based on the information used to determine the standards. In a standard costing system, standard costs are used for all manufacturing costs. See also ideal standards and currently attainable standards. The anticipated cost of producing a unit of output; a predetermined cost to be assigned to products produced. Standard cost implies a norm, or what costs should be.