After identifying the cause of a variance and assessing controllability, what is a typical next step?

• A. Decide on corrective actions and implement them.
• B. Ignore it if it is favorable.
• C. Recalculate the budget from scratch.
• D. Increase budgetary slack to avoid variances.

Answer: (A)

When a variance is identified and its controllability is assessed, the typical next step is to decide on corrective actions and implement them. This means selecting practical changes to the process, operations, or inputs to address the root cause and bring performance back toward the budgeted target. After implementing, you monitor results to see the impact and adjust as needed. Ignoring a favorable variance, redoing the budget from scratch, or merely increasing budget slack don’t tackle the underlying issue; they avoid taking effective action or distort planning.