Direct costs, in accounting, are costs directly accountable to a cost object. The equivalent nomenclature in economics is specific cost. Direct costs may be either fixed or variable, but typically comprise materials, labour, and specific expenses such as, e.g. a royalty payment to a patent holder for a given production process, all directly attributable to a cost object. Thus by industry:In construction, the costs of materials, labor, equipment, etc., and all directly involved efforts or expenses for the cost object are direct costs. In manufacturing or other non-construction industries, the portion of operating costs that is directly assignable to a specific product or process is a direct cost. In project management, direct costs are those for activities or services that benefit specific projects, for example salaries for project staff and materials required for a particular project. Because these activities are easily traced to projects, their costs are usually charged to projects on an item-by-item basis.