Once all costable activities have been identified and initial unit costs determined, the costing spreadsheets can be built. Costs, when possible, should be divided into recurring (or operating costs) and capital expenditures (or investments). Recurring costs include salaries, fuel, and other expenditures required on a more or less continual basis, and can be projected over time in proportion to changes to effort and number of units, plus inflation. Although recurring expenditures tend to be long term, they may not be annual; the timing of these expenditures should be determined by the NBSAP stakeholders during consultations. Capital expenditures can be one-off or periodic.

All costs should be linked to specific organizations or actors to which they can be earmarked. In some cases, costs are shared among actions (for example, for a fleet of vehicles). Therefore, to the extent that it is practical and possible, those costs should be subdivided and attributed to all the actions to which they are attached. Administrative costs should be attributed to actions and can be assessed as a percentage of total action costs or estimated directly. For example, if an employee performs duties for three major strategies (e.g. restoration, conservation and ABS strategies), then a percentage of the employee’s salary should be allocated to each of these strategies.