Cost Centers are departments or functions used to allocate and analyze expenses across the business.
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Cost Centers are optional departments or functions — for example Admin, Sales, or Production — used to tag where a transaction belongs. When cost center access is enabled for the company, a Cost Center Allocation action lets you split a document's amount across one or more centers on:
Note: Journal Entries do not support cost centers. Cost center tagging is optional and does not change which ledger accounts are debited or credited; it adds an analytical dimension on top of the posting.
Expense and journal amounts roll up to the assigned cost center. Unallocated amounts appear in an Others bucket on reports. Filter reports by cost center to review spending for a department or function.
Connected reports: Cost Center Report, Expense Report (Group by Cost Center), Bill Wise Expense.
Are cost centers required?
No. Cost center allocation is optional. It appears only when cost center access is enabled for the company, and the allocated total must not exceed the document amount.
Which documents support cost centers?
Expense, Payment Voucher, Receipt Voucher, and Prepaid Expense. Journal Entries do not support cost centers.
Can one expense split across centers?
Yes. Use cost center allocation lines that sum to the document amount.
Where is cost center reported?
Cost Center Report and cost-center grouping on expense reports.