A cost center is the line in your accounting that pays for a trip or an expense, for example "Sales Europe", "R&D" or "Project Alpha". Some companies call it a cost object, a cost code or a budget code.
You set up your company's cost centers once in Travel Code. After that:
- every new trip and every new expense is charged to a cost center automatically;
- the cost center is saved on the order and the expense at the moment they are created;
- your accounting team receives the cost center name and its code in the order registry export.
How the right cost center is chosen
Each employee has a default cost center, found in this order:
- The employee's own cost center, if one is set for that person.
- Otherwise, the cost center of their department.
- If their department has none, the cost center of the parent department, and so on up the department tree.
So you usually only need to assign cost centers to departments. Set a personal cost center only for people who are charged differently from the rest of their department.
What happens to past trips when something changes
The cost center is saved on each order and expense when it is created. If you later move an employee to another department, or change a department's cost center, past orders and expenses keep the cost center they were charged to. Only new trips and expenses use the new one, so your past reports and exports stay unchanged.
Where you see the cost center
- When booking: in the cart, in the Cost center card.
- On the order page: in the payment and finances section.
- On an expense: in the Cost center field.
- In exports: the order registry in Excel has Cost center and Cost center code columns.
FAQ
What is a cost center? It is the line in your accounting that pays for a trip or expense, for example a department, a team, a project or a client. In Travel Code each order and each expense is charged to one cost center, so your finance team can see who spent what without sorting it by hand.
Is a cost center the same as a cost object or a budget code? Yes. Companies use different names for it: cost center, cost centre, cost object, cost code, budget code. In Travel Code it is called a cost center.
Do I have to set a cost center for every employee? No. Assign cost centers to departments, and every employee in a department is charged there automatically. Set a personal cost center only for people who are charged differently from their department.
A department has no cost center. Which one is used? The cost center of its parent department, and so on up the department tree.
I moved an employee to another department. Will their past trips move too? No. Each order and expense keeps the cost center it was charged to when it was created. Only new trips and expenses use the new one, so your past reports don't change.
Where does our accountant see the cost center? In the order registry export in Excel, in the Cost center and Cost center code columns. The code is the ERP code you entered, so it matches your accounting system.
Related articles
- How to set up cost centers
- How to import cost centers from a file
- Choosing a cost center when you book
- Changing the cost center of an order
- Cost center on an expense
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