Creating Cost Centre Accounts

CUSTADMIN access only

Cost centres are used to manage actual expenses against budgets. For a single location establishment/organisation, it is likely that you have a single cost centre ledger called COSTCENTRES to which any cost centre accounts are attached.

For an establishment/organisation with multiple locations, you have a single cost centre ledger called COSTCENTRES, together with additional location specific ledgers, which are prefixed with the location code.

The following two options are available for creating new cost centre accounts:

• Create a cost centre account on the COSTCENTRES ledger and copy this across to one or more locations in your establishment/organisation.

• Create a cost centre account from a location specific cost centre ledger.

Creating a cost centre account consists of the following:

Creating the Cost Centre Account

Selecting the Account Indices

Specifying Security for the Cost Centre

Defining Approvers for the Cost Centre

Creating the Cost Centre Account

Cost Centre accounts can be created from the Master Cost Centre Ledger for single or multiple location establishment/organisations.

1. Select Maintenance, then select Accounts from the menu.
   

2. The Select a ledger window is displayed. Double-select the COSTCENTRES  ledger or location specific ledger, based on whether you want the cost centre to be available to multiple locations or just one location. This example describes how to create a cost centre account attached to the COSTCENTRES ledger.
   

3. The Account Maintenance window is displayed. Select ADD NEW, then select ACCOUNT.
   

4. A <New item> is displayed in the left-hand panel and is automatically selected, with the General tab selected on the right-hand side. A code must entered in Account (limited to 12 alpha-numeric characters) and a description/title of the cost centre in Title to easily identify the cost centre. We recommend adhering to any existing naming conventions for consistency.
   

5. Next, select the initial status of documents posted to the cost centre from the Initial state drop-down list. The following options are available:
   
   Hold - documents are posted with a hold status and need to be removed from hold before being allocated and paid.
   
   Open - documents are posted with open status and can be allocated and paid.
   

6. Further detail can be completed as described in the following sections.

Selecting the Cost Centre Account Indices

Indices are used to group together related accounts for reporting purposes. Some reports specifically look for this detail and therefore if this information is not completed, the applicable report may ignore the account completely and consequently display incorrect results. It is therefore important to review the Indices tab and make appropriate selections where known.

If you are creating a cost centre account to be copied to multiple locations, you must select the applicable location codes on this tab (as described in this section) to ensure that the cost centre account is copied to the selected locations.

1. Select the Indices tab. If you have previously saved this cost centre, you need to select EDIT to enable applicable fields.
   

2. Select the applicable index from the centre panel. The available values are then displayed in the right-hand panel. If you are unsure which value to link to the selected index, either select XNODET - No Detail Selected or Required (where applicable), or contact the person within your establishment/organisation who administers your system, i.e. has a CUSTADMIN login for assistance.
   
   Please refer to the following for information on each option:
   ACCSEARCH

   To enable searching within the software by account title, select Account Search from the Indices panel, then enter the related values to the account title in Index Value in the Add Index Value panel, then select ADD to display the values to the Values panel. In the following example, D, DE, etc. have been entered to match the beginning of the account title.

   

ACTIVITIES

DIRECTORATE

FUND TYPE

LOCATION

Applying Security to the Cost Centre Account

To control which users can view, modify, and post to the cost centre account, applicable security roles and access levels need to be applied via the Security tab, as described in Applying Security to a Cost Centre.

Defining Approvers for the Cost Centre Account

To control who can approve documents posted to the cost centre account, users need to be assigned as approvers for the account. For more information, please see Assigning Approvers to Cost Centres.

Saving the Cost Centre

1. When all the cost centre details have been entered, select SAVE.
   

2. An Update complete message is displayed. Select OK to close the message and return to the previous window.
   

Troubleshooting

ADD NEW is Greyed Out in Account Maintenance

If ADD NEW is greyed out when attempting to add a new cost centre account, then the user security applied to the ledger may be preventing access.

When setting up the applicable cost centre ledger, security roles can be set to restrict who can view, modify, or post to the ledger and linked accounts. Check the user group security roles that have been applied to the ledger.

If you are not assigned to the Security Role applied to modify the ledger, please contact the person within your establishment/organisation who administers your system , i.e. has a CUSTADMIN login . For more information, please see Assigning Security Roles to User Groups.

1. Select Maintenance, then select Ledgers from the menu.
   

2. The Ledger Maintenance window is displayed. Select the required cost centre ledger from the left-hand panel, then select the Security tab. In the following example, Master Costcentre Ledger, has been selected.
   

3. The required security role is displayed in Modify accounts. The security role can be changed to a security role to which the user is linked, as described in the following steps, or the user can be added to the security role. For more information, please see Assigning Security Roles to User Groups.
   

4. To change the security role set in the Ledger Maintenance window, select EDIT, then select Drill(...) in Modify accounts.
   

5. The Select a role for Ledger window is displayed. Double-select to select the required security role.
   

6. On the Ledger Maintenance window, select SAVE to apply the changes.
   

The Cost Centre Account has not Copied to Other Locations

If the cost centre account has been set up in the master cost centre ledger, it should then appear on the cost centre ledgers for all the individual locations that have been selected on the Indices tab. This may take up to 15 minutes to appear.

If the cost centre account does not appear on the location ledger, check that the PSF Event Engine is running.

If you are are Cloud customer you can contact the Support Desk, who can assist with checking that the PSF Event Engine is running.

1. On the server, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools.

2. Select Services, then scroll down the list and find PSF Event Engine.

3. Ensure the service is running. If it is showing as stopped, right-select and select Start from the pop-up menu. If the service has been stopped for some time, it may take a while to work through any backlogged tasks but eventually the account should then appear in the ledger.