📘 Screen: Cost Center
The Cost Center screen is used to structure and organize the farm's costs in hierarchical levels. It is essential for financial analysis, letting you correctly distribute amounts across areas, departments, crops or projects.
📍 Location in the system
Menu: Financial > Cost Center
🧩 Main function
It lets you build a cost center structure that is used in several features of the system: budgeting, expense entries, contracts, work orders and financial reports.
You can create cost centers as a tree (levels), allowing both grouped and detailed analysis.
📝 Registry fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Code | Identifying code of the cost center. |
| Description | Name of the cost center (e.g., "Soybeans 2024" or "Infrastructure"). |
| Order | Field to manually sort how cost centers are displayed. |
| Parent Cost Center | Lets you build a hierarchy, grouping this item under a higher-level cost center. |
| Allow direct amounts | Defines whether amounts can be posted directly to this cost center (usually turned on only at the lowest levels). |
| Active | Defines whether the center is available for use. |
- Financial entries can be distributed correctly.
- Reports and dashboards can show costs by cost center or grouped.
- You will have a clearer view of where expenses are being generated and can make decisions based on that.
📊 Related reports
- FIN.03.02 (formerly 15.03) – Periodic cash flow
- FIN.01.01 (formerly 15.07) – Accounts payable/receivable by Entity – Installments
- Other reports in the financial module use this structure for filters and grouping.
❓ Frequently asked questions
What is a cost center for on the farm?
To know where the money is being spent. It organizes costs by area, department, crop or project — for example "Soybeans 2024" or "Infrastructure" — and that classification shows up in reports and dashboards.
Can I group cost centers into levels?
Yes. The Parent Cost Center field builds a tree hierarchy, which lets you see amounts grouped by the higher level or detailed at the lowest level.
Why can't I post an amount to a cost center?
Probably because the Allow direct amounts option is unchecked. It is usually on only at the lowest levels of the tree; the higher levels are only for grouping.
Where is the cost center used besides finance?
In budgeting, expense entries, contracts, work orders and financial reports — it is a structure that runs across the whole system.