American Water Works and VWR, both of which are nearly finished with their Y2K projects, attribute the high costs to replacing major software systems, such as those used to handle finance. Unisys, on the other hand, doesn't include in its Y2K figures the cost of systems replacements that were part of a worldwide information-technology simplification project. That isn't unusual. Many companies omit the cost of computer-systems projects that were initiated for other reasons but had the added benefit of solving Y2K problems. That is one example of how comparing one company's spending to another's is tricky.
Companies report figures in various ways.
For example, some companies include estimated internal staff costs in their Y2K figures, but others do not. Others are capitalized, meaning they are recorded as additions to a company's assets, then depreciated over time. There also are cases in which a company has not tracked Y2K expenses at all. Not specifying Y2K spending figures does not violate any SEC mandates, although companies may face penalties if they are found to have been deliberately inaccurate or incomplete in their reports, SEC spokesman Duncan King said. Editorial assistant John Tierno contributed to this report.