ABSTRACT
Cost managing is often thought of as cost controlling, although some also use the term 'cost reporting'. Although used interchangeably, these words are very different in execution. Cost reporting is the act of summarising and communicating costs-after they have been incurred. Cost management is the process of planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing and controlling costs to enable the project to be completed within budget. The planning of future activities for the project in financial terms is what budgeting is all about. From a project perspective, budgeting involves setting a target which, in financial terms, reflects how much money you need in order to fund the project and how to control what is spent, when it is spent and why it was spent. A budget offers little meaning if the cost of the planned activities is not compared with the actual results achieved and reported.
