Cost codes are the vocabulary of your business. Too few and every report is vague; too many and nobody codes anything correctly.
Three rules that age well
- Start from CSI, then pruneUse the divisions you actually build with. A 40-code list beats a 400-code list nobody uses.
- Separate labor, material, sub, equipmentOne suffix per cost type keeps estimating honest.
- Never reuse a code's meaningHistorical comparisons die the day 03-100 changes meaning.
Codes only work if they're applied
The best structure fails if coding is manual. When incoming bills are auto-coded and every purchase order carries its code from creation, the structure enforces itself.
