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, an appropriate numbering or coding system is essential to facilitate munication of information and proper aggregation of cost information. Particular cost accounts are used to indicate the expenditures associated with specific projects and to indicate the expenditures on particular items throughout an anization. These are examples of different perspectives on the same information, in which the same information may be summarized in different ways for specific purposes. Thus, more than one aggregation of the cost information and more than one application program can use a particular cost account. Separate identifiers of the type of cost account and the specific project must be provided for project cost accounts or for financial transactions. As a result. a standard set of cost codes such as the MASTERFORMAT codes may be adopted to identify cost accounts along with project identifiers and extensions to indicate anization or job specific needs . Similarly the use of databases or,at a minimum ,intermunicating applications programs facilitate access to cost information. Converting a final cost estimate into a project budget patible with all anization’s cost accounts is not always a straightforward task . Cost estimates are generally disaggregated into appropriate functional or resource based project categories. For example, labor and material quantities might be included for each of several physical ponents of a project. For cost accounting purposes, labor and material quantities are aggregated by type no matter for which physical ponent they are employed. For example, particular types of workers or materials might be used on numerous different physical ponents of a facility. Moreover,the categories of cost accounts established within an anization may bear little resemblance to the quantities included in a final cost estimate. This is particularly true when final cost estimates are prepared in accordance with an external reporting requirement rather than in view of the existing cost accounts within an anization. One particular problem in forming a project budget in terms of cost accounts is the treatment of contingency amounts. These allowances are included in project cost estimates to acmodate unforeseen events and the resulting costs. However,in advance of project pletion, the source of contingency expenses is not known. Realistically,a budget accounting item for contingency allowance should be established whenever a contingency amount was included in the final cost estimate. A second problem in forming a project budget is the treatment of infation. Typically, final cost estimates are formed iD terms of real dollars and an item reflecting inflation costs is added on as a percentage. This infla