This article presents the Cost Information System (CIS) of the Brazilian federal government. It describes the taxonomic model and its main features, from its concepts to its purposes and user groups, and explores the correlation between the concepts of governmental accounting and cost accounting. It demonstrates the relationship between public policies, fund management, activities and cost objects. To this end, it uses the concepts of accumulation system, costing method and costs in the public sector, as well as government information systems. The article also presents the theoretic conceptual model and the guidelines of the design, and describes the implementation process, which is still ongoing. It finally looks into the future after the development stage of the CIS, and urges its readers to dive into the debate about measuring costs. The importance of CIS to improve the quality of spending in the public sector is highlighted
costs in the public sector; conceptual framework of costs for the public sector; cost information systems; costing methods and cost accumulation system in the public sector
