A cost-center actual/plan/variance report summarizes cost against an agreed plan. The report is useful only when the population and period are comparable. A detailed line-item view and a summary can both be correct while answering different questions, so return to KSB1 when you need the source documents behind an actual-cost figure.
This training report defines Variance as Actual minus Plan. A negative amount means actual cost is below plan; it doesn't mean the report failed. A center with no actual postings can still have a plan and a meaningful variance. Use the defined sign convention when explaining the result. These tasks work with the existing cost-center plans and derive their answers from the report rows.