Sales variance (original) (raw)

Sales variance is the difference between actual sales and budgeted sales. It is used to measure the performance of a sales function, and/or analyze business results to better understand market conditions. There are two reasons actual sales can vary from planned sales: either the volume sold varied from the expected quantity, known as sales volume variance, or the price point at which units were sold differed from the expected price points, known as sales price variance. Both scenarios could also simultaneously contribute to the variance.