The standard provides that the same cost accounting period must be used for accumulating costs in an indirect cost pool as that for establishing its allocation base. This is the case not only for actual costs but also applies to estimating for proposal purposes. For cost accumulation, the contractor must match the costs to the same period as the allocation base that relates to the costs.

The CAS Board indicated that "appropriate expedients" could be used if it was not expected to materially affect the rates. So, it acknowledged that contractors may find it necessary to use actual and estimated data to comply with the standard. Also, it recognized a contractor may use an annual period not precisely coinciding with its cost accounting period under certain circumstances: the practice (1) is necessary to obtain "significant administrative convenience" (2) is consistently followed (3) the annual period is representative of the activity of the normal cost accounting period and (4) the practice results in an allocation not "materially different from using the same cost accounting period for cost pool and allocation base."

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