Management accounting

El coste estándar sirve de referencia, no de dato: the standard cost is a reference, not a fact. That much reads straight across — and then la referencia goes somewhere English never follows it. In a warehouse or a shop it is the product code: esa referencia está agotada means that line, that item number, is out of stock, and a catalogue is a list of referencias. So tenemos ocho mil referencias is eight thousand product lines, not eight thousand citations. English needs reference for the citation, referee for the person who vouches for you, benchmark for the yardstick and SKU or item number for the thing on the shelf; Spanish keeps one word and lets the shelf explain itself.