Cost centres
The cost-centre tree of a set of books, usually one per project with a child per tower, so the ledger and the reports can be cut by project; mirror the projects in one click or add cost centres by hand.
Cost centres
A cost centre tags a voucher line with the project (or tower) it belongs to, so one promoter's books can be read project by project. This tab holds the cost-centre tree of one set of books. Most organizations fill it with Mirror projects, which creates one cost centre per project and a child per tower.
Where to find it
Open a set of books from Accounting > Books and choose the Cost centres tab, or click the Cost centres count on the Books overview.
You need the View permission on Books to see the tree. Every change needs the Edit permission on Books; in the default roles that is the Administrator and the Finance Lead.
Before you start
Mirroring works from the projects whose promoter company owns these books, and their towers. Set up the projects and their towers first.
What you see
The tab opens with: "Tag voucher lines with a cost centre to cut the ledger by project or tower. Mirror projects creates one per project of the company with a child per tower (safe to run again)."
The cost centres appear as an indented tree, ordered by sort order and then code. Each row shows the code, the name, the linked project (blue badge), the linked tower (grey badge) and Inactive when the cost centre is inactive.
With no cost centres the tab reads "No cost centres yet" and "Mirror the company's projects, or add one by hand."
What you can do
Mirror projects
Opens "Mirror projects as cost centres": "Each project becomes a cost centre (P001, P002 …); with towers on, each tower becomes a child (P001-T1). Existing ones are left alone."
- A checklist of the company's projects, all ticked. Untick any you don't want. If none of the organization's projects has this company as its promoter, every project is offered, each marked "Another promoter's project". With no projects at all: "No projects to mirror yet."
- Include towers (ticked by default): "One child cost centre per tower."
Click Create cost centres, or Cancel.
- Who: anyone with the Edit permission on Books. Without it the button isn't shown.
- Seeing the checklist needs the View permission on Projects. Without it the dialog says "Without the Projects permission every project of the company is mirrored."
- Greyed out: Create cost centres is greyed out while no project is ticked. No reason is shown on hover.
- What happens next: each project without a project cost centre gets the next free code (P001, P002 and so on) and the project's name. With towers on, each tower not yet mirrored gets a child coded like P001-T1 and named "<project> / <tower>". A project that already has its cost centre keeps it. You see "<n> project and <n> tower cost centre(s) created."
New cost centre
Opens the New cost centre panel:
- Code (required, up to 30 characters, turned to capitals): placeholder "P001". Only letters, digits and _ . - are allowed ("Letters, digits, _ . - only").
- Name (required, up to 100 characters).
- Parent: another cost centre, or Top level when left empty.
- Project: placeholder "Not linked"; hint "Links the cost centre to a project for per-project reports." Without the View permission on Projects it is greyed out with "Needs the Projects permission."
- Tower: "Pick a project first" until a project is chosen, then "Whole project" or one of the project's towers. It needs the View permission on Towers, Floors & Units. Changing the project clears the tower.
- Sort order and Active (ticked by default).
Click Add cost centre, or Cancel.
- Who: anyone with the Edit permission on Books. Without it the button isn't shown.
- What happens next: "Cost centre added."
- If it's refused:
- "A cost centre with this code already exists in these books." on Code.
- "That tower does not belong to this project."
Add child
The plus icon on a row (tooltip "Add child") opens "New cost centre under <name>", with the parent and its project already filled in. It works like New cost centre.
- Who: anyone with the Edit permission on Books. Without it the icon isn't shown.
Edit
The pencil icon (tooltip "Edit <name>") opens "<name> (<code>)" with the same fields. The Parent list leaves out the cost centre itself and everything under it. Click Save changes, or Cancel.
- Who: anyone with the Edit permission on Books. Without it the icon is an eye (tooltip "View <name>") and the panel opens read-only with a Close button.
- Greyed out: Save changes stays greyed out until you change something. No reason is shown on hover.
- What happens next: "Cost centre updated."
- If it's refused: "A cost centre cannot be placed under its own descendant." or the duplicate-code message above.
Delete
The bin icon (tooltip "Delete <name>") asks "Delete cost centre?": "<name> (<code>) will be removed. Cost centres referenced by postings cannot be deleted; deactivate them instead." When the cost centre has children, the text adds "and its <n> child cost centre(s)". Click Delete, or Cancel.
- Who: anyone with the Edit permission on Books. Without it the icon isn't shown.
- What happens next: "Cost centre "<name>" deleted."
- If it's refused: "Postings reference this cost centre; deactivate it instead of deleting it." The same message appears in three cases: voucher lines use the cost centre, a component mapping names it, or it still has child cost centres. Despite the dialog's wording, children are not removed with their parent: delete the children first, or untick Active instead.
Statuses
- Active (no badge): the cost centre can be used.
- Inactive (red badge): kept for history. An inactive project cost centre is not picked up by automatic postings.
Tick or untick Active under Edit to move between them.
Things to know
- How postings get their cost centre. Demands, commissions, benefit accruals and payouts tag each line with the cost centre set on the charge's component mapping. When the mapping has none, they use the project's active project-level cost centre (the one linked to the project with no tower). That is why mirroring the projects matters: without a project cost centre, those lines carry none.
- Tower cost centres are for manual use. Automatic postings never pick a tower cost centre; tag voucher lines with one by hand when you want tower-level figures.
- Per-project reports read the project on the cost centre. A report filtered by project keeps only the lines whose cost centre is linked to that project.
- Mirroring is safe to repeat. Run it again after adding a project or a tower; only what is missing is created.
- The Project list offers every project in your organization, including other promoters' projects. Link a cost centre only to a project these books post for.
- Your organization can rename the tab labels and field labels, so your screen may use different words.
Related
Related
- Books overviewScreen
The home page of one set of books: its company and settings, counts, fiscal years, and shortcuts to the chart of accounts, vouchers, reports and opening balances, with the actions to rename, deactivate or delete the books.
- Component mappingsScreen
Which ledger each charge component posts to in the chosen set of books (a main ledger, an optional second tax ledger, an optional cost centre and, for sale and tenant charges, the revenue treatment and contract liability ledger), and the action to copy template additions into the books.
- New voucherScreen
Enter a manual voucher (receipt, payment, journal, contra, sales, purchase, credit note or debit note) with its lines and bill allocations, and save it as a draft or post it straight away.
- Ledger reportScreen
The ledger of one account between two dates: opening balance, every posting with a running balance, and closing balance, with CSV export.
- ConsolidatedScreen
One trial-balance-style view across every active set of books in your organization, matched by the organization's template ledgers or groups, with an optional project cut.
- ProjectsScreen
The list of every project in your organization, with search, type filters and shortcuts to open, set up or edit a project.
- StructureScreen
Build and maintain a project's towers (wings), floors and units, generate them in bulk, and see every unit's status and designation at a glance.
- Books, the active books switcher and cost centresConcept
A set of books is the ledger of one promoter company: every posting for a project lands in its promoter's books, every accounting screen works on the one set chosen in the Books switcher, and cost centres inside the books (usually one per project with a child per tower) let the ledger and reports be cut by project.
- Promoter entityConcept
The company developing a project; every project must name one, and its books and bank accounts are where the project's demands, receipts and payouts are posted.
- Set up the books for a promoter companyHow-to
Create the set of books a promoter company keeps, mirror its projects as cost centres, check the voucher numbering series and the component mappings, and connect the project's bank accounts to their ledgers so demands, receipts and payouts can be posted.