Module 16 · Specialist · 8 min read

Cost, Job and Project Centers

You will be able to: Explain what a center is and what it never changes; Set up a center and turn its field on; Tag documents so the cost and revenue of a job or project can be separated.

  • Read not done yet
  • Self-check: not taken not done yet
  • Lesson complete not done yet

Zeyto has three separate lists of tags: Cost Centers, Job Centers and Project Centers. A tag is put on a transaction line, or on a whole document, to show where money went: a department, a customer job or a project. Zeyto treats the three the same way and one line can carry all three. A tag never changes an amount or an account. It only lets you filter and group later.

Setting up

  1. Open Accounting ▸ Cost Centers (Job Centers and Project Centers are beside it). They are also tabs of the same masters screen as Numbering and Fiscal Years.
  2. Press + New, keep the suggested Code (CC-001, JC-001 or PC-001) or type your own, and type the Name.
  3. Pick a Parent if this one sits under another, or leave Root level. Press Save.
The Cost Centers master listing cost centers with code, name and status.

Accounting, Masters, Cost Centers.

Accounting, Masters, Cost Centers.
The Job Centers master listing job centers with code, name and status.

Job Centers.

Job Centers.
The Project Centers master listing project centers with code, name and status.

Project Centers.

Project Centers.
  • There is no Delete. Set Status to Inactive: it is hidden from new entries but kept for history, and posted entries keep their tag.
  • A parent only groups the list and the picker. Reports match one center exactly and do not add up its children.
  • Import CSV/XLSX loads many: headings Code, Name, Parent and Active.

Turning the field on

CenterStarting state
Cost CenterOn by default
Job CenterHidden until ticked in Settings ▸ Document Entry (Dimensions)
Project CenterHidden until ticked in Settings ▸ Document Entry (Dimensions)

Turning one off hides its field on entry screens for everyone, even where the Form Designer would show it.

Where you tag

Once the field is on, it appears on sales and purchase documents, receipts and payments, expenses, advances, bank entries, journals and taxable journals. Pick the center in the header to tag every line, or in one line to tag only that line. A line's own center wins over the header's.

Villa fit-outYou create Project Center PC-014 Villa 12 Fit-out. You buy AED 8,000 of tiles and tag the purchase invoice with PC-014. You raise a sales invoice of AED 12,000 for the client's stage payment and tag it with PC-014 too. A General Ledger report filtered to PC-014 shows only those entries: 8,000 on the cost side and 12,000 of revenue, so you can read what the project has brought in against what it has cost so far.
Watch outTags only mark entries; Zeyto does not enforce a project budget, a job schedule or percentage-of-completion revenue with them. They are an analysis dimension, not a project-management module. Untagged lines are simply not in the filtered view.
TipChoose a simple scheme and stick to it. A center added half-way through a project does not fill in the entries already posted.

Try it in the demo

  1. Open Accounting ▸ Cost Centers in the demo and see how Job Centers and Project Centers sit beside it.
  2. Open Settings ▸ Document Entry and find the Dimensions box.
  3. Open a journal entry form and look for the Cost Center field in the header and in a line.
Open the live demo

Public demo company, sign in as admin / demoAdmin123. Data refreshes nightly.

Key takeaways
  • Cost, Job and Project Centers are three independent tags; a line can carry all three.
  • A tag never changes an amount or account.
  • Job and Project fields stay hidden until ticked in Document Entry.
  • A line's tag wins over the header's.

Check yourself

5 questions on this lesson. Not timed, not the exam, and you can try again. Score 60% or more, and read the lesson, to complete it.

1. Which centers are on by default?

2. A center tag changes the account an amount posts to.

3. A line has Cost Center A and the document header has Cost Center B. Which wins for that line?

4. How do you stop using a center that already has entries?

5. A parent center has two children. Does the General Ledger filter on the parent include the children?

Previous: Costing and stock rules that affect productionNext: Tracking production and projects

Practice questions for this module · Printable study sheet