UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
H BULLETIN No. 660 
Contribution from the Office of Public Roads and Rural 
Engineering, LOGAN WALLER PAGE, Director 
JhJPQ&L 
Washington, D. C. 
September 12, 1918 
HIGHWAY COST KEEPING. 
By James J. Tobin and A. R. Losh, United States Engineer Economists 
Reviewed by Halbert P. Gillette, Consulting Cost Engineer. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Part I. Cost keeping in general 1 
The fundamentals of cost keeping 1 
Cost elements 2 
Fixed charges 9 
Highway cost analysis 10 
Units of measurement 11 
Part II. Cost keeping for highway work 13 
Essentials of a cost system 13 
Classification of expenditures 13 
Operation code 16 
Method of obtaining class and operation 
number from code 17 
Page. 
Part II. Cost keeping for highway work- 
Continued. 
Use of code in operations 18 
Detail of cost accounts and necessary 
codes 19 
Recording forms 23 
Immediate use of cost data 30 
Final disposition of cost data 30 
Definitions of operation terms 29 
Appendix 42 
PART I. 
COST KEEPING IN GENERAL. 
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF COST KEEPING. 
Definition. — Cost keeping is a system for recording the cost of 
each unit of product or division of work in order to facilitate com- 
parison of such costs with cost of other similar units or divisions 
under like conditions. Cost keeping analyzes each unit of product or 
work to determine the reasonableness or unreasonableness of the 
cost, and also to secure an intelligent basis for predicting the cost 
of producing similar units in future. 
Lack of cost records. — The Office of Public Roads and Rural Engi- 
neering, in an extensive investigation of highway management, both 
by the State highway departments and by a large number of indi- 
vidual counties and townships, brought out, among other condi- 
tions, the very general absence of cost keeping. Few examples of 
practical and efficient cost keeping were found in operation, and 
41601°— 18— Bull. 660 1 
