If the two records do not agree, even though the employe is paid for the time shown by his clock record, the discrepancy should be adjusted. Theoretically, every minute of a man's time should be accounted for by his time cards and, when conditions permit, he should be paid only for the time so accounted for. This rule should not be so rigidly enforced, however, as to encourage a man in padding the time on individual jobs to reconcile the total for the day with his clock record; it is far better to have a few minutes unaccounted for. When a foreman fails to have work ready, he should give the workman an idle or indirect labor card, but the man should be impressed with the fact that accurate records are kept of his time on every job, and that all lost time must be either reported on an indirect labor card or left unreported. The cost of time shown on indirect labor cards, and of all time unaccounted for, should be charged to the department under some such caption as _Department Waste_, never to the specific jobs on which the man has worked. Time wasted between jobs or on account of a breakdown or other unusual occurrence does not affect the legitimate time in which a particular job should be done. It is rather a legitimate charge against the efficiency of the department, and the aggregate of all such inefficiency charges should be applied as an added burden to all of the jobs in the department during the month. Costs obtained, after adding this inefficiency burden, may be considered the actual costs for the month, but cannot be safely used as standard. Standard costs are the costs obtained under perfect conditions──when the department, shop, or plant is running full time at full capacity; when all of the time of every employe is accounted for by his job time cards; when there is no wasted time or unusual expense. While standard costs may not be attained──probably never will be──this should be the goal, to reach which, managers, engineers, superintendents, foremen, and workmen should strive constantly. As a matter of record, therefore, to show what obstacles must be overcome before the ideal is reached, the inefficiency burden should be added as a separate item after all other items of cost have been computed. As an example of the effect of the application of this principle of considering efficiency in figuring costs, we will consider an imaginary case. We will suppose that, in a certain month, the pay─roll for direct or productive labor in our shop is $4,000; that 40 completed machines──identical in every respect──are produced; that every minute of the time of every productive employe is accounted for by his productive job cards. This gives a labor cost of $100 per machine. During the next month the same men are employed at the same cost──$4,000──but owing to an unusual breakdown, 2½% of the time of these men is wasted; they are idle while the breakdown is repaired, and but 39 machines are produced.