In the 1990s there was a wave of euphoria about cost accounting and particularly Activity Based Costing (ABC). One book in particular stands out in my mind as particularly euphoric: Common Cents: The ABC Performance Breakthrough by Stephen Turney. While it had a clever title, few people remember this book now, but many people remember ABC. Many finance and budget managers do not recall ABC with fondness. In fact, when government budget and finance managers are asked about the use of ABC in their organizations now, most will say that they are not using it. However, when asked if they are doing some form of cost accounting, the measure is much higher. In this post, I explore why budget and finance managers are willing to say that they are doing cost accounting and not ABC. I further explore (and mix) the metaphor of common sense/cents about cost accounting by thinking of its uses as two sides of the same coin.