Cost centres
A cost centre is the accounting address a purchase is booked to inside your customer's company. Here it is real master data: a record with a code, a currency and an accountable person, which you can restrict and give a budget. It is not a free-text field on an order line.
04711 and 4711 are different values
to every downstream system), and who answers for each one. The list comes out
of their ERP. It is theirs, and inventing values on their behalf guarantees an
invoice nobody can post.Where you find it
Procurement › Cost centres › Cost centres. The list shows code, source key, name, budget type, organisation, accountable contact and whether the centre is active. New cost centre opens the form; a row opens the detail view with the tabs Overview, Budgets and Restrictions.
What a cost centre carries
| Field | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Code | The value that travels to the order line and on to the ERP. Unique across your whole tenant, not per organisation |
| Name | What a buyer recognises: Werkstatt Halle 2, not 4711 |
| Currency | The currency every budget on this centre is held in. Set once |
| Budget type | Monetary (spends against budgets) or Tracking only (classifies bookings, holds no budget). Set once |
| Organisation | The buying company it belongs to. Empty means the centre belongs to your tenant and is offered to every organisation |
| Accountable contact | Who answers for the centre. Approval rules with the default approver send their approvals to this person |
| Active | Whether it may still be chosen. Switching it off retires the centre |
Source key (external_id) | The centre's key in the ERP it is mirrored from. Unique when set, and a list filter |
The code is the load-bearing field. Because it is unique across the tenant,
two customers who both run a 4711 cannot both have it. Agree a pattern before
the first import, for example the customer number in front: 10023-4711.
Monetary or tracking only
Decide this per centre when you create it. It cannot be changed afterwards, because it decides whether anything was ever counted against the centre.
- Monetary centres spend against their budgets. A monetary centre with no active budget is not offered to buyers at all, and a booking that names it anyway is refused. That is deliberate: a budget that ran out must not quietly stop limiting spend.
- Tracking only centres classify spend and limit nothing. Every booking is accepted, no budget can be opened, and budget movements pass them by. Use this for the customer who wants the code on the invoice and nothing else.
If you are unsure, the question to ask the customer's controller is "Do you want the shop to stop or hold an order when this money runs out?" No means tracking only.
Currency
Every amount on a centre is in the centre's currency. Budgets and ledger
entries carry none of their own. If the form leaves it empty, the tenant's
default currency is stamped (setting Default currency, EUR unless you
changed it). Nothing converts: a customer who buys in euros and in Swiss francs
needs one centre per currency, and a cart in a currency the centre is not held
in is refused at checkout rather than guessed at.
Accountable contact
There is no hierarchy and no deputy on a cost centre. What there is, is one accountable contact, and for most mid-sized customers that is enough: "whoever answers for the budget approves the spend" is the whole policy. An approval rule whose approver type is Default (accountable contact) routes to this person.
The contact is resolved when a cart is submitted. Changing the accountable contact later moves future approvals, not the ones already waiting. See Approvals that get stuck.
Restrictions: who may book to what
On the Restrictions tab you limit where a centre appears. Six types:
| Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Contact | Only the facility manager may book to 9100 Gebäude |
| Role | Only contacts with the role approver may use the capital-expenditure centre |
| Product | The spindle always books to the machine's centre |
| Category | Everything under Arbeitsschutz books to safety, whoever orders it |
| Catalog | A contract catalogue's lines book to the contract's centre |
| Punchout account | Only in these accounts: the centre exists only inside the named punchout accounts. Hidden in these accounts: everywhere except there |
Each restriction holds a list (contact ids, roles, product ids and so on). Within one type the entries are alternatives; across types every restriction must hold. A centre without restrictions is open to every buyer it is offered to. For punchout, a "hidden" entry outranks an "only" entry, and the account is taken from the punchout session itself, so a buyer cannot claim their way into a centre.
Restrictions are evaluated per line, so one cart can offer three centres on one line and exactly one on another. Where exactly one is usable, it is selected automatically. Get the restrictions right and most buyers never touch the field.
Set them up
- Open Procurement › Cost centres › Cost centres and choose New cost centre.
- Enter code and name, then the currency and the budget type. The form sets both once, so check them now.
- Choose the organisation, or leave it empty for a centre every organisation may use.
- Choose the accountable contact. The field appears once an organisation is set.
- Add restrictions only where the customer has a real rule. An unrestricted centre is right for consumables.
- Give monetary centres a budget before anyone tries to book to them.
Importing from the customer's ERP
For anything over about thirty centres, do not type them. The list supports CSV import keyed on the code, so a re-import updates instead of duplicating, and CSV export for the round trip. Fill the source key with the ERP's own key so the two can be matched later. Their list changes, usually with the financial year, so plan a recurring sync from the start: see Field mapping.
Retire, never delete
A centre that holds budgets cannot be deleted. Its budgets and their ledger are financial history. Switch Active off instead: the centre is no longer offered, and every order that carried the code stays readable. A centre with no budget can be deleted, and its restrictions go with it.
What to check
- As a buyer at that customer, put two products from different categories in a cart. Each line should offer only the centres that line is allowed, and a line with exactly one should fill itself in.
- A newly created monetary centre does not appear until it has an active budget. If buyers cannot see it, check that first.
- Place a small test order and follow the code through to the order line and on to the ERP. Check the ERP, not only the Cockpit.
- Ask the customer's controller to read the list back to you. If a name means nothing to them, the buyer will not recognise it either.
Next
- Budgets: put an amount and a period on a monetary centre.
- Approval rules: decide what needs a signature.