How do I set up/edit/disable cost centres and cost centre overrides?

Cost centres provide more robust GL accounting and tracking of financial transactions within AlayaCare to ensure that they are accounted for correctly in the GL extracts.

Enabling the feature

1. Go to settings>features.
   
2. Toggle the cost centre feature flag to on. 
   
   
   
3. The following screens and fields will now be activated:
   1. Cost centre tab in accounting settings.
   2. Cost centre fields in:
      • Client demographics
      • Employee demographics
      • Service
      • Visit
        • One for client
        • One for employee
      • Client & employee premiums
      • Funder
        • One for GL Bank
        • One for GL Receivables

 The ACL Manage cost centres must be enabled for a user of a given role to view/edit cost centre fields for all entities.

Set up a cost centre

1. Navigate to accounting>accounting settings>cost centre. Any cost centres that have already been set up will be listed by cost centre number, description, current and upcoming overrides, status, and branch (if you are using a multi-office environment).
   
   
   
2. Click the  icon to search by number or description or filter by status or branch (multi-office environments only).
   
   
   
   
3. Click +add cost centre. 
   
   
   
   
4. In the new row, enter a cost centre number and a description and click save.
   
   

Cost centre overrides

1. Click Overrides in the Edit dropdown of a Cost Centre.
   
   
   
   
2. In the resulting dialogue, any existing overrides will be listed. 
   
   
   
3. You can click the icon to filter any existing overrides by GL account and overriding cost centre. 
   
   
   
   
4. Click +add override.
   
   
   
   
5. In the resulting row, enter a GL account, an overriding cost centre, a start date, and an end date.
   
   
   
   
6. Click save.
7. You can also edit an existing override by clicking edit in the same dialogue. 
   
   

Edit a cost centre

Click edit for any cost centre to edit it.

Disable a cost centre

Click disable in the edit dropdown to disable a cost centre. 

It is not possible to disable a cost centre which is configured on a client or employee.

Cost centres and multi-office environments

If your organization uses a multi-office setup, cost centres will always belong to the branch in which they were created in. From the cost centres tab in accounting settings, you are able to view the cost centres that belong to parent and child branches of the branch you are currently in, but you will not be able to see cost centres that belong to sibling branches.

You can edit and enable/disable cost centres for the branch you are currently in as well as any child branches, but you cannot make changes to cost centres at parent and sibling branches. You will be able to create a cost centre with the same number at sibling branches but not at parent and child branches.

You can select the overrides option on a cost centre for a branch you are currently in or a parent branch but not a child or sibling branch. 

Important note: cost centre overrides will only to the branch in which they are created. For example, if you create an override at the HQ level, the override will only apply to HQ transactions and will not cover transactions created in child branches. If you wish to create an override that applies to a child branch, you will need to switch to the branch to which you wish to apply the override and recreate the override you wish to apply to transactions for that branch.

When adding an override, you will only be able to select GL accounts and cost centres that belong to the branch you are currently in or a parent branch but not a child or sibling branch. The cost centre that is being overridden will not be available for selection in the overriding cost centre field.

Learn More

• How do I use Cost Centres for billing?
• How do I use Cost Centres for payroll?