More on the difference between planning and tracking systems....

There are two components to product/service costing: planning, and tracking (cost accounting).

The tools designed for planning, budget negotiations, and rate setting are quite different from those designed for tracking.

Planning tools are used once per year, and are designed to allow managers to develop their assumptions and forecasts interactively.

Tracking systems are built on accounting systems. They collect data on actual costs, and produce reports for both pursers and providers on the actual costs of products and services. Pursers need to track their checkbooks, understand where their money is going, and view remaining spending power. Providers need to understand their costs and their revenues (a profit-and-loss statement), and their balance sheets (in more advanced stages of an internal economy). These views are generally added to (built on top of) existing data collection and accounting applications.

Planning tools provide a one-time input to tracking systems, including the catalog of products and services, rates for each, and the budget for the purpose of tracking actuals against the plan.

There is little advantage to making them one and the same system. In fact, combining them has risks. Doing so may imply that the priorities discussed in the budget are to be followed all year long, undermining the purchase-decision (portfolio management) process. And it may undervalue sources of revenue other than the core budget, such as additional fee-for-service work. Meanwhile, there are many advantages to building a plan in a more accessible, flexible environment.

The FullCost tool-kit is built on spreadsheets, making it easy for managers throughout the organization to participate in the development of the plan. It's highly interactive, and allows managers to immediately see the implications of their inputs.