@mooseonloose Don't think of unfavorable/ favorable as absolutes when you're looking at the format of the equation (ex. ‘Actual>Budgeted, so it must be unfavorable'). Instead think about it logically.
For example, if budgeted sales units were 10,000 units and you actually sold 11,000 your ‘Sales Volume Variance' is favorable. “We budgeted that we would only be able to sell 10,000 units, but we actually sold more than we thought we could” (even though Actual > Budgeted) it is favorable.
Another example would be; The Standard budgeted price for materials were $5 per unit, 10,000 materials were actually purchased for $6 each. Here, the outcome of the Materials Price Variance would be Unfavorable. The ‘reasoning' behind it would be “We budgeted that we would only need to spend $5 per material purchased, we actually had to spend $6 which costed us more than expected”
Use logical reasoning when evaluating the variances to determine if the outcome it favorable or not. Compare the results to what you're trying to evaluate (Material price, Labor efficiency, etc.)
Hope that Helps!
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