Cost centres

Keep a tree of cost centres (head office, branches, projects or departments) and see the profit and loss or the trial balance of any period split by cost centre. Each figure lands on the centre named on its journal line, expense, sale, purchase or return; the columns always add up to the total. Part of the Cost centres add-on.

Steps

  1. Open Accounting → Cost centres, go to the Cost centres tab and press New cost centre. Type a short code (for example HQ or BR1) and a name, pick the centre it sits under if any, and tick Default cost centre on one of them: anything posted without a centre lands there.
  2. Pick the cost centre on an expense, a sale, a purchase or a return (beside the date), or on each line of a journal voucher. A return takes the cost centre of what it returns.
  3. Give an expense category its own cost centre: its expenses land there unless they name another.
  4. On the Report tab pick the period, Profit and loss or Trial balance, and one cost centre (with the ones under it) or all of them. Every account has a column per centre and the total; the last row is the net profit (or the debits).
  5. Download Excel, or print the page.

Tips

  • Payroll runs are shared over the employees' cost centres by their pay: type the centre's code or name in the employee's Cost centre field.
  • A cost centre that is no longer used can be made inactive: it stays in the report but is not offered on new records.
  • Records saved before you added cost centres land on the default cost centre.
  • The profit and loss report shows two charts: revenue, expenses and net profit of each cost centre, and each centre's share of the expenses.

In the app, press F1 or ? on this screen to open this guide next to your work.

This guide belongs to the Cost centres module. Learn more

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