Cost centres allow for focused tracking of expenses and purchases in your accounting partner. This article covers what you need to know to set up cost centres and make them work for you.
Tracking categories
Cost centres can be set against Tracking Categories, which is a term known by different names depending on the accounting partner see the table below to match the Uptick name with the name used by your accounting partner.
Note: Tracking categories will only appear for the default accounting partner. If you only have one integration enabled and don't see the tracking categories on the Cost Centre configuration, click Control Panel > Accounting > Make default
Xero | Tracking Category |
MYOB Business | Category |
Quickbooks Online | Classes |
Business Central | Dimensions |
Creating a new Cost Centre
Depending on how your system is set up, a cost centre in the system may or may not be integrated with your finance system - but you would still be able to use the field
Click Control Panel > Cost Centres
Click Create new item
Fill out the following fields:
Name | The name of the cost centre. |
Branch | Applicable if the Branches extension is enabled. |
Task category | This will restrict the cost centre to only apply to the chosen task category |
Account Code | The code relevant for this Cost Centre, based on the accounting partner's chart of accounts. |
Tracking category | Tracking categories from your accounting partner |
Default | Toggle on/off. When turned on, this will apply the cost centre automatically based on:
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4. Click Save changes
Setting the Cost Centre manually
When there are no defaults set, cost centres can be applied upon manual creation of Tasks or Quotes (applying a cost centre is mandatory when creating these).
Setting the Cost Centre on a Task
New Task | Existing Task |
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Setting the Cost Centre on a Defect Quote
Create a Defect Quote:
Defect Quotes > Create defect quote
From a Property, Defect Quotes > Create quote
From a Task, under the Process section click CREATE QUOTE
Under the Create Quote section click on the Costcentre field and select from the drop-down list. You can type in the field to filter down your options.
Click Save Defect Quote.
Setting Cost Centres to Defect Quotes and Tasks in bulk
Cost centres can be applied to as a bulk action by taking the following steps (the context in this example is Tasks):
Filter the Tasks and Defect Quotes that you wish to apply the same Cost Centre against.
Under the (number) tasks found heading, tick the box to select them all. If there are more than 30 make sure to click Select all (number) tasks.
Click Edit (number) Tasks.
Select the appropriate cost centre to from the Costcentre field and click Apply Changes.
Understanding cost Centres and Account Codes
Default income and expense accounts
The default account codes will track incoming and outgoing finances but will not make distinctions between the type of profit and expenses. When no cost centre is set against the task, invoicing will use the codes set as defaults in your accounting partner integration as viewed in Control Panel > Accounting.
Cost Centres
Cost centres allow you to set specific categories that will feed into profitability calculations, allowing you to have more precise overview of your business running costs. The benefits of a cost centre are:
Associating each cost centre with a tracking category according to your accounting partner
Setting specific income and expense accounts that are different to the default accounting settings
If the task has a cost centre applied, invoicing and purchase orders will use the respective income and expense accounts associated with the cost centre.
Combining Cost Centre and Product Account Codes (Invoices Only)
Product account codes have the highest priority, so if you use a full account code number this will override the default account account code. You can however have your product account codes set up so that when a cost centre is applied to a task, the cost centre code and product account code will combine to form a new number, where the product account code overwrites the tail end of the cost centre account code. This number should match an existing account code that is part of the chart of accounts in your accounting partner.
See the diagram below to understand how these two numbers work together (examples are based on Xero). This allows you to get specific account codes when invoicing, allowing you to have more precise tracking and analytics in the accounting partner.
Invoices
