Cost Centers

Use a cost center to identify the department, funding code, or budget your client allocates a project’s work to. Each cost center belongs to one client and can be shared by several of that client’s projects.

Assigning a cost center does not change your rates, budgets, invoice totals, or payment destination. It gives you a reference you can include in supported exports and detailed invoice line descriptions.

Assign a cost center to a project

When creating or editing a project:

  1. Select the Client.
  2. In Cost center, select an existing cost center or choose Create cost center.
  3. For a new cost center, enter its Code and an optional Name, then click Create.
  4. Finish creating the project or save your project changes.

For example, code FIN-200 with name Finance identifies the client’s finance budget. The same code can be used for a different client without linking the two clients’ cost centers.

Cost centers are optional. Select No cost center to leave a project unassigned. If you change the project’s client, choose a cost center for the new client.

Owners and administrators can manage cost centers. Managers need Edit projects permission; to change an individual project, they must also be one of its active project managers.

Assign several projects at once

  1. Open Projects and select projects belonging to one client.
  2. Open Actions and choose Assign cost center.
  3. Select an existing cost center, create a new one, or choose No cost center to clear the assignment.
  4. Apply the change.

A bulk assignment must contain projects for the same client. A cost center from another client cannot be assigned to those projects.

Show a cost center on an invoice

A project’s cost center is not automatically added to the invoice header. For an invoice created from tracked time, you can include it in each detailed time-entry line:

  1. Start a new invoice from time and expenses and select the client, projects, and period.
  2. Under the hours display options, choose Detailed: Display each time entry as one line.
  3. Under Time entry details, check Cost center. It is off by default.
  4. Click Review invoice and check the generated descriptions before saving or sending.

For the example above, a line description includes Cost center FIN-200 — Finance. If the cost center has a code without a name, only the cost center code is included. If the project has no cost center, no cost center text is added.

When an invoice contains several projects, each detailed time line uses its own project’s cost center. Grouped hours, expense lines, fixed fees, and manually entered lines do not automatically include this reference.

Recurring invoices based on tracked time offer the same Cost center choice when detailed time lines are selected.

Changing a project’s cost center does not automatically rewrite descriptions on existing invoices. If you regenerate tracked-time lines on a draft, review the descriptions again: regeneration can use the current project cost center and the draft’s saved formatting choices.

Cost center and purchase order are separate

The Purchase order field is an invoice-level reference. It is separate from the project’s cost center, and Keito does not copy the cost center into that field.

If your client needs a cost center reference on an invoice that uses grouped or manual lines, you can enter clearly labeled text such as Cost center: FIN-200 in a draft line description. Keep any actual purchase-order number in the PO field, and review what your client will see before sending.

Xero and QuickBooks

The project’s Cost center field is not currently linked to an accounting dimension in Xero or QuickBooks. Selecting a cost center does not create or select a Xero tracking option or a QuickBooks Class.

Keito offers separate accounting settings:

  • Xero: configured client tracking maps a Keito client to a Xero tracking-category option for copied invoices. This mapping is by client, not by the project’s cost center. See Xero Accounting Integration.
  • QuickBooks: the integration’s Class setting applies the selected default Class to copied invoice lines. It does not choose a Class from each project’s cost center. See QuickBooks Online Integration.

Including a cost center in an invoice line description carries it as text when that invoice is copied. It does not turn the reference into a tracking-category or Class assignment.

Find a project’s assignment

Open Edit project to view or change its cost center. The project overview does not currently show the cost center as a separate field. Project Notes are separate from the assignment and do not populate the invoice’s cost center or PO fields.

Include cost centers in exports

  • Projects CSV and Excel exports include Cost Center and Cost Center Name.
  • Detailed Time CSV and Excel exports include the project’s cost center code.
  • Entries Excel exports include the project’s cost center code.

The general Export data > Time entries export does not include a cost center column. Use one of the supported exports above when you need the reference. See Report Export Settings for configurable Detailed Time column labels.