AbstractThe monitoring and interpretation of costs incurred during a project against pre‐specified targets is the most common task which R&D managers at all levels have to undertake. Graphical interpretation of such cost and target figures can provide useful feedback as to financial performance.Spreadsheets provide an ideal environment for the manipulation of figures and production of graphs and, although not widely used, the programming facilities incorporated in such packages also allow for menu driven systems to be developed which can be operated without a knowledge of the spreadsheet's command structure thus greatly widening their area of application.This article describes some of the elements of such a system and details its ability to automatically produce four specified graphs taken from accountancy, statistical process control and forecasting which have been shown to offer a valuable insight into cost control generally and, it is proposed, within R&D projects in particula