Cost accounting is a concept that refers to the value of consumption of resources are needed in order to produce goods or provide services. The cost estimates are usually made with data relating to periods that have already happened, ie the evaluation of products or services is considered real or historical costs.

You can also do calculations with budgeted costs based on forecasts for future periods. The cost is a concept of financial accounting and refers to the purchase or acquisition of goods and services to consume them both during the production process and for third parties and related to the activity carried out the body. The cost is a term related to accounting law, as a concept can not be included as an expense if the legislation does not allow it.

The costs do not usually coincide with the expenses because costs are concepts that are not considered expenses, such as opportunity costs (explained below), and there are expenses that are not considered cost, including tax companies or extraordinary expenses. Then mention a few examples of costs that are not expenses: Depreciation of real property, which is to be used for estimating costs. Depreciation is the cost that reflects the loss of value or wear of investments in fixed assets (facilities, furniture, computers, etc.) and therefore does not have to match the depreciation recognized financial accounting, because it does not consider the use or wear real tangible assets. According to the information you want to get, costs can be classified in several ways.