Code of Federal Regulations Title 48. Federal Acquisition Regulations System 48.904.410-30 9904.410–30 Definitions

(1) Allocate means to assign an item of cost or a group of items of cost, to one or more cost objectives. This term includes both direct assignment of cost and the reassignment of a share from an indirect cost pool.

(2) Business unit means any segment of an organization, or an entire business organization which is not divided into segments.

(3) Cost input means the cost, except G&A expenses, which for contract costing purposes is allocable to the production of goods and services during a cost accounting period.

(4) Cost objective means a function, organizational subdivision, contract or other work unit for which cost data are desired and for which provision is made to accumulate and measure the cost of processes, products, jobs, capitalized projects, etc.

(5) Final cost objective means a cost objective which has allocated to it both direct and indirect costs, and, in the contractor's accumulation systems, is one of the final accumulation points.

(6) General and administrative (G&A) expense means any management, financial, and other expense which is incurred by or allocated to a business unit and which is for the general management and administration of the business unit as a whole. G&A expense does not include those management expenses whose beneficial or causal relationship to cost objectives can be more directly measured by a base other than a cost input base representing the total activity of a business unit during a cost accounting period.

(7) Segment means one of two or more divisions, product departments, plants, or other subdivisions of an organization reporting directly to a home office, usually identified with responsibility for profit and/or producing a product or service. The terms include Government-owned contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities, and joint ventures and subsidiaries (domestic and foreign) in which the organization has a majority ownership. The term also includes those joint ventures and subsidiaries (domestic and foreign) in which the organization has less than a majority of ownership, but over which it exercises control.