Q&A · Finance and engineering
Finance wants to know what each feature cost us. Can engineering even answer that?
Sooner or later every growing software company gets this request from finance. Here is how we’d answer it without turning engineers into bookkeepers.
Nythrex team · 10/29/2026
The question
Asked by a VP of Engineering · the way we usually hear it
“Finance wants the cost of each product feature — partly for pricing, partly because the auditors want support for capitalised software. Engineering tracks tasks, not money. Is there a way to answer this without everyone filling in timesheets?”
Short answer
Yes — link money to work instead of asking people to allocate it. Tasks group into features, changes link to tasks, AI and CI costs link to changes, cloud links to projects, and people’s time can be estimated alongside. The answer is a figure with its basis shown, which is what finance needs anyway.
Why the question is getting louder
In September 2025 the US Financial Accounting Standards Board issued ASU 2025-06, which updates the rules for capitalising internal-use software. It removes the old project stages. Capitalisation starts when management has authorised and committed to funding the project and completion is probable — and is deferred while significant development uncertainty remains, such as novel features not yet resolved through coding and testing.
The new rules apply to annual periods beginning after 15 December 2027, and early adoption is permitted. Whatever your auditor decides about the details, the practical consequence is the same: finance will need costs by project, and evidence of what happened when. This is not accounting advice; ask your auditor how it applies to you.
From work to cost
| Record | What it contributes | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Feature or epic | The unit finance asks about | Jira, Linear, Azure DevOps, Trello |
| Tasks | The scope of the feature | The same tracker |
| Commits and pull requests | The work that was actually done | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps |
| AI sessions and CI runs | Direct costs attached to those changes | AI tools and CI |
| Cloud | Running cost, at project level | Azure, Google Cloud |
| People’s time | Usually the largest cost, as an estimate | Your own rates and estimate |
What we’d set up before quarter end
- 1
Use epics consistently
One epic per feature finance cares about. Without it, no tool can group the work. - 2
Link changes to tasks
Task keys in branch names or pull request titles are enough. This one habit makes everything else possible. - 3
Agree on what’s in
Decide with finance which costs count: people’s time, AI, CI, cloud. Write it down once. - 4
Report figures with their basis
Mark estimates as estimates and gaps as gaps. Auditors are comfortable with a clear method; they are not comfortable with silent guesses. - 5
Agree on the method early
Show finance and your auditor the method before the quarter closes, not the numbers after.
Where Nythrex helps — and where it doesn’t
What it does
Shows the cost of each change from task to AI session, commit, pull request, CI and deploy, with views by project, team, person and period and an optional estimate of people’s time. Cloud is counted at project level. Every figure shows its basis, estimates are marked, and an unknown is never shown as zero.What it doesn’t
It isn’t an accounting system, and it doesn’t decide what to capitalise. It gives finance a traceable cost of the work; the accounting judgement stays with finance and the auditor.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate the cost of a software feature?
Group tasks into a feature or epic, link commits and pull requests to those tasks, attach AI and CI costs to the changes, count cloud at project level and add an estimate of people’s time. Report the result with its basis and mark estimates as estimates.
What does ASU 2025-06 change?
Issued by the FASB in September 2025, it removes the project stages from internal-use software accounting. Capitalisation starts when management has authorised and committed to funding the project and completion is probable, and is deferred while significant development uncertainty remains. It applies to annual periods beginning after 15 December 2027, with early adoption permitted.
Do engineers need timesheets to give finance the cost per feature?
Not necessarily. Linking changes to tasks and tasks to features lets most costs follow the work automatically; people’s time can be estimated alongside rather than allocated by hand.
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- Why Nythrex: AI development costs you can explainWhat makes Nythrex different: the cost of every change from AI prompt to production, recommendations with arithmetic, unknown is never zero, no code or prompts stored.Read
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