A system and method for recording accounting times by an Agent in a network and retrieving the accounting times by the network Manager. Three types of data objects in each of the Agent's stored records are provided. Record Number is the sequence number of the record in the file. Recording time is an indication of the time the record was stored in the file since a certain point in time, such as after the Agent's clock began running. Record Type is the particular type of record stored. The Record Type can either be DATA representing normal accounting data or TIME representing time data used for correlating the Manager's and the Agent's time-keeping. Upon receipt of an accounting data record of type DATA, the manager uses the record's Recording time to help determine the point of time accorded to that event. The Manager then uses the previous record of type TIME to adjust the Recording time of the received accounting data record relative to the Manager's precise calendar time.