Cost Centre Master

1Fields & behaviour #

• Cost Centre Name identifies the cost centre and must be unique — it is the name vouchers pick when allocating amounts (up to 50 characters).
• Print Name is the name printed on reports and documents; leave it blank to print the cost-centre name itself.
• Under Group is the parent group and is required. The list comes from the Cost-Centre Group master — a group must be created there before it can be picked here. Missing one? Use the dropdown's ＋ Create new cost-centre group footer — it opens the Cost-Centre Group master and selects the new group automatically.
• Opening Balance is the amount the cost centre starts with, and Balance Type says whether that opening is a D ebit or a C redit (D is the default).
• Debit Amount / Credit Amount are running totals accumulated by the transactions tagged to this cost centre. They are shown for information only in View mode and can never be edited here.
• Toolbar: Find (F2) loads a cost centre, Add (F3) starts a new one, Modify (F4) edits the loaded one, Save (F5) commits, Esc cancels. After a save the record stays loaded in View mode.
• Why is the Under Group list empty? No cost-centre groups exist yet — create one in the Cost-Centre Group master (or via the dropdown footer) first.

2Step by step #

Suppose job costing needs a Site A cost centre under Site Works.

1. Press Add (F3) and type Site A into Cost Centre Name ; give a shorter Print Name if reports should abbreviate it.
2. Pick Under Group — Site Works from the previous page's example. The group decides where this centre subtotals in reporting.
3. Enter an Opening Balance and its Balance Type [D or C] only when migrating mid-year figures; a fresh centre starts empty.
4. Press Save (F5) and confirm. Vouchers with cost-centre tracking on can now allocate amounts to Site A, and ledgers can adopt it as their default centre.

Once allocations exist the centre cannot be deleted — the database refuses. Correct a misnamed centre by renaming it.

3Business rules & integrity #

• Unique name: two cost centres cannot share the same name — a duplicate save is refused with the database's message.
• Parent must exist: the Under Group must be an existing cost-centre group; the save is rolled back otherwise.
• Balance type: the opening balance type is always stored as D or C ; anything else is normalised to D .
• Running totals: the debit and credit totals belong to the vouchers — this master never writes them, so a modify here cannot disturb them.
• Permissions: user permissions (_PERM triggers) can refuse a save or delete entirely — contact the administrator if a change is rejected.
• Delete: deleting a cost centre also clears its document links (doclink cleanup trigger). Cost centres already used by vouchers should not be deleted.