Introduction
Introduction
In Empress, the Cost Center is a powerful feature designed to empower businesses to track income and costs more efficiently. A Cost Center refers to a particular area of your business where costs or revenue can be assigned, much like an accounting dimension. Not only does it help you monitor costs, but it also allows you to see the profitability of different aspects of your business, functioning as a Profit Center. This guide will guide you through the key functions and benefits of this feature.
Understanding the Role of Cost Centers
In a complex business environment with multiple activities, such as different product lines, market segments, and business areas, the traditional Chart of Accounts may not suffice. With Empress, you can use a structure called the Chart of Cost Centers to organize and track your costs more effectively.
You can assign a Cost Center at various levels like the Company, Item, or Order/Invoice level. It becomes highly useful when linked to multiple transactions, such as Sales Invoice, Purchase Invoice, Journal Entry, Payment Entry, and Delivery Note, among others. This feature also lends itself to effective Budgeting.
Creating a Cost Center Tree
Empress lets you create a hierarchical tree of Cost Centers, reflecting your business structure and activities. This way, you can tag each Income/Expense entry against a specific Cost Center.
For instance, if you have two distinct sales types: Walk-in Sales and Online Sales, you can create each as a Cost Center and tag your sales and purchases accordingly. This will give you a clear view of the profitability of each type of sale.
You can access the Chart of Cost Centers by navigating to:
Home > Accounting > Budget and Cost Center > Chart of Cost Centers
How to Set Up the Chart of Cost Centers
Follow these steps to set up your Chart of Cost Centers:
- Navigate to the Chart of Cost Centers.
- Add region-wise nodes.
- Continue to add other nodes as per your needs.
When you select a different company, you will see the Cost Centers for that particular company.
Conclusion
The Cost Center feature in Empress is a valuable tool that enhances the management of costs and revenue. It makes budgeting easier, provides a clear view of profitability, and offers a more structured approach to managing various business activities. For further assistance or additional non-technical resources, please refer to Empress’s user support or consult the online help guide.