Edition: Professional, Business, Enterprise
User-level: Assistant Administrator, System Administrator
Previous steps: N/A
Cost centres are attached to stages in projects and allow for you to report on revenue for different business units or divisions. A Cost centre can be created for different city, state or country office locations that requires separate revenue reporting. Cost centers are used within reports to group financial data such as: costs, fees, invoice revenue and expenses.
You are able to assign a different Cost centre to each stage within a project. However, you are only able to allocate one Cost centre per stage. If your organisation doesn't have business units / division, then create a single cost center for use on all the project stages.
The Cost centres page can be located under Organisation drop down> Settings > Project lists > Cost centres.
This article will detail the following information around Cost centres:
Creating a Cost centre
You can add as many new Cost centres as needed for your business. If you are using a connect add-on (Xero, MYOB etc.) the you will also be able to link the Cost centres to an account code.
To add a Cost centre follow the steps below:
Click the 'Add' button in the top right corner.
Type a short code for the cost centre. e.g. 'NSW' for New South Wales.
Type a name for the cost centre. e.g. New York or New South Wales.
If you use an accounting package type an account code for the Cost centre which can be used when syncing data across.
Check the default box to mark this item as the primary. (Optional)
Save.
Repeat the above steps for each additional Cost centre required.
Deleting a Cost Centre
You can only delete a Cost centre that has not been used in any projects or stages. If the Cost centre has been used then it cannot be deleted, and will need to be made inactive to stop future use of the item.
To delete an Cost centre click the checkbox next to the Cost centre you want to delete. Then click on the grey arrow on the bottom left of the page and select 'delete'.
If you are wanting to delete multiple Cost centres then select the checkboxes next to each of the Cost centres and click on the grey arrow on the bottom left of the page and select 'delete'.
Marking a Cost centre as inactive
If you have already used a Cost centre but it is no longer needed for your organisation then you can mark it as inactive. This will keep the Cost centre in your organisation but remove it from the main active list and from being used against stages.
To mark a Cost centre as not active click the checkbox next to the Cost centre you want to inactivate. Then click on the grey arrow on the bottom left of the page and select 'Set as not active'.
If you are wanting to make multiple Cost centres inactive then select the checkboxes next to each of the Cost centres and click on the grey arrow on the bottom left of the page and select 'delete'.
Refresh the list and only the active items will remain in the list.
Editing a Cost centre
You can update an existing Cost centre to change the account code or name shown.
To edit the cost centre:
Click the row that you want to update, or click the pencil icon and select 'edit'.
Update the Cost centre fields as required.
Save.
NOTE: Changing the name / code will update all historical data to show the new name / code details.
Search and filter Cost centres
Search
When a large number of items exist use the search or filter options to limit the number of rows shown in the list. Search by clicking the search button and typing the keyword into the search box. To return to seeing all items in the list click the clear button in the search bar.
Filter
Filter the list by selecting the filter button . See the available filters by clicking the word 'active'. Select a filter from the list and click the 'apply filter' button to apply the filter. The filter options are:
Active - the default list filter that shows the items that can be used (seen in drop down lists).
Inactive - see the items that can no longer be used, and are only shown when still linked to existing records.
All - see both active and inactive items in the list.
Account Codes
If you are using an accounting package and running a connect sync through Synergy then you will need to make sure that the code is filled in. The account code is used to map the Synergy data to the account that stores your invoice or expense data in the accounting system.
Where to next?
What other features does this relate to?