A system in which an entity’s cost accounts are maintained separately and distinctly from its financial accounts, and the two sets are continuously reconciled by the use of control accounts or made synchronized by other means. A non-integral system confines recording of cost accounts to only those transactions relating to the product or service being provided.

Such accounts handle items of expenses which relate to sales or production, or any other items that are managed by the entity, as a producer of goods or services. The separate account books, maintained to record financial and cost transactions, can be reconciled with the help of ledgers and cost control accounts.

A non-integral system is opposite to an integral system of accounting.