Cost centers¶

A cost center says who owns a budget line: the team or unit that answers for the spend. Each OPEX and CAPEX line can carry one cost center. Cost centers sit in a tree of groups, so you can read the budget of a whole division as easily as the budget of a single team.

How cost centers differ from other master data¶

Master data	What it answers	On a budget line
Companies	Which legal entity pays	The Paying company
Departments	Which units of a company consume IT, with their headcount	Used by allocations and chargeback
Cost centers	Who owns and answers for the spend	The Cost center
Analytics dimensions	Free classifications for reporting	One field per dimension, for example Nature

A department belongs to one company and drives allocations through its headcount. A cost center carries a code, a company, a budget holder and a place in a tree, and groups of cost centers can span several companies. Cost centers do not change allocations or chargeback.

Groups and cost centers¶

The tree holds two types of nodes:

Group: holds cost centers and other groups. A group has no company, so it can gather cost centers of several companies. A group cannot be put on a budget line.
Cost center: belongs to one company and has no children. Only cost centers go on budget lines.

Both types can sit at the top level, without a parent. For example:

IT division (group)
  Infrastructure (group)
    IT-100  Data centers        Company A
    IT-110  Network             Company B
  IT-200  Business applications  Company A
IT-300  Workplace               Company B

Here the IT division group gathers cost centers of two companies. Filtering a report on it covers IT-100, IT-110 and IT-200.

Getting started¶

Navigate to Master data > Cost centers (in the Organization section) to open the list. Click New to create your first entry.

Required fields:

Code: the code your finance team uses
Name: the name people know it by
Type: Group or Cost center
Company: for a cost center only

Optional but useful:

Parent group: where it sits in the tree. Leave it empty for the top level
Budget holder: the person accountable for this budget envelope at budget review. Every OPEX and CAPEX line on the cost center shows this person
Description: what the cost center covers

Tip: If your finance team already keeps the list of cost centers, import it from a CSV file. The rows can come in any order.

Working with the list¶

When the workspace has no cost center yet, one line under the title says so: "Cost centers say who owns each budget line. Create one, or import a file."

Columns:

Code: the cost center code
Name: indented by level when the list is in tree order
Type: Group or Cost center
Parent: the group it belongs to
Company: the company of a cost center (empty for a group)
Budget holder: the person accountable for the budget of the cost center
Status: Enabled or Disabled (hidden by default, add it from the column chooser)

Click any cell to open the workspace.

Sorting: The list opens in tree order: each group is followed by what it contains. Click a column header to sort by that column instead. The indentation shows only in tree order.

Filtering:

Quick search: searches the code, the name and the full path. Searching for a group's name also finds everything inside it
Column filters: Type, Parent, Company and Status use checkbox filters. Clicking Clear in the Status filter, or unticking both values, lists nothing, whatever Show says
Status scope: the Show: All / Enabled / Disabled toggle above the list. The list shows enabled nodes by default

Actions:

New: create a group or a cost center (requires cost_centers:member)
Import CSV: load the tree from a file (requires cost_centers:admin)
Export CSV: download every node (requires cost_centers:admin)
Delete selected: delete the selected nodes (requires cost_centers:admin). Nodes that cannot be deleted are kept and listed with the reason. Contents are deleted before their group, so selecting a group together with everything it holds deletes all of it

Creating a cost center¶

Click New. Fill in the fields, then click Create. A new node is enabled.

The Type starts on Cost center. Choose Group to create a group: the Company field then disappears.

After Create, the workspace of the new node opens.

The cost center workspace¶

Click any row in the list to open the workspace.

Header: the code as reference, with a copy button, and the name. Click the name to rename it. Prev / Next move through the list in its current order and filters, and the close button returns to the list
Main area: a line such as "Used by 3 OPEX lines and 1 CAPEX line." when budget lines use the node, then the Description
Properties panel on the right: Code, Type, Parent group, Company (cost centers only), Budget holder and Lifecycle

Autosave: Every change saves on its own. There is no Save button. Text fields save when you leave them (press Enter in Code to save at once); lists and switches save as soon as you pick a value. You can keep working while a change saves. When a change is refused, the reason shows under the field that caused it, for example a duplicate code under Code. A refused name shows at the top of the page.

Fields¶

Field	What to enter	Where to find this value
Code	Up to 50 characters. Codes are unique regardless of case: `IT-100` and `it-100` are the same code	The code your finance team uses for this cost center, as in your accounting system or budget referential
Name	Up to 200 characters	The name used in your budget reviews
Type	Group or Cost center	A group gathers; a cost center goes on budget lines
Parent group	A group, or empty for the top level. A node cannot move under itself or under something it contains, so these are left out of the list	Your organization chart or your finance team's cost center tree
Company	An enabled company. Cost centers only	The legal entity that pays the costs of this cost center. It is one of your companies in Master data > Companies
Budget holder	An active user	The person accountable for this budget envelope at budget review. The hint under the field says so
Lifecycle	The status switch, labelled with the current state (Enabled or Disabled), and the End of validity date	Set a future date to schedule the end, or switch it off to disable it today

Budget holder on budget lines¶

Each OPEX and CAPEX line with a cost center shows the cost center's budget holder in its metadata bar, after IT owner and Business owner. Hover it to see which cost center it comes from.

Read from the cost center: the budget holder is not stored on the line. Change it here and every line of the cost center shows the new person at once. It changes on a line only when you change the line's cost center.
Shown only when set: a line without a cost center, or whose cost center has no budget holder, shows nothing.
A separate role: the IT owner and Business owner of a line stay as they are, set on each line. They also cover workspaces that do not use cost centers.
In the lists: the OPEX and CAPEX lists have a Budget holder column, hidden by default, with a checkbox filter.

Changing the type¶

From cost center to group: the company is removed. This is refused while budget lines use the cost center.
From group to cost center: choose Cost center in Type, then choose the company. The change saves once the company is set. A group that contains nodes cannot become a cost center, so Type does not offer it.

Deleting¶

The Delete button in the header deletes the node at once (requires cost_centers:admin). It is disabled, with the reason on one line, when budget lines use the cost center (for example "Used by 3 OPEX lines. Disable it instead.") or when the group still contains nodes (for example "Contains 2 nodes."). Disable the node instead: it stays on its lines and in reports.

Rules you will meet¶

A cost center used by budget lines cannot become a group, and cannot be deleted. Disable it instead. The message names the lines, for example "IT-300 is used by 3 OPEX lines and 1 CAPEX line. Disable it instead."
A group that contains nodes cannot be deleted, and cannot become a cost center. Move or delete its content first. The message gives the count, for example "Infrastructure still contains 4 nodes. Move or delete them first."
Only a group can be a parent. A cost center has no children.
No loops. A group cannot move under itself or under one of its own groups.
Disabled nodes stay where they are. A disabled cost center stays on the budget lines that already have it and keeps counting in reports. In the pickers it is marked Disabled and cannot be chosen for a new line. Disabling a group does not change what it contains, and a disabled group can still receive nodes.
Codes are unique regardless of case. A duplicate code is refused: "A cost center with code IT-100 already exists."
Renaming a code keeps the lines. Budget lines point to the cost center itself, so a new code changes nothing on them. After a rename, lists and reports show the new code. The change is recorded in the audit log.
A disabled company or an inactive user cannot be chosen for a cost center.
A company that cost centers belong to cannot be deleted. Change their company, or disable the company instead.

Cost centers on budget lines¶

OPEX and CAPEX: the Cost center field in the Properties panel lists the tree. Groups are shown to help you find your way and cannot be picked. When you create a line and the paying company is empty, picking a cost center fills it with the cost center's company, and the company follows the cost center until you pick a company or an account yourself. When the two companies differ, both are kept and a hint says so. See OPEX and CAPEX.
Lists: the Cost center and Run or build columns and filters of the OPEX and CAPEX lists.
Reports: the budget reports can be filtered on a cost center or a group. See Cost center, run or build and analytics filters.

CSV import/export¶

Load or update the whole tree from a file.

Export: click Export CSV, then Export data. The file lists every node, enabled or disabled, in tree order. For an empty file with the headers only, use Download template in the import dialog.

CSV structure:

Headers: code, kind, name, parent_code, company_name, owner_email, description, status, disabled_at
The export writes the separator of the screen language. See CSV files for the encoding, the separator, the date forms and the two import steps

Column	Content
`code`	Required. The code of the node. Rows are matched to existing nodes by code, regardless of case
`kind`	Required. `group` or `cost_center`
`name`	Required
`parent_code`	The code of the parent group, from the same file or already in KANAP. Empty for the top level
`company_name`	Required for a `cost_center`, empty for a `group`. Matched by company name, regardless of case
`owner_email`	The email of the budget holder, an active user. Empty for no budget holder
`description`	Free text
`status`	`enabled` or `disabled`. Empty means `enabled` for a new node and keeps the stored status on an update
`disabled_at`	Optional column. The end of validity: a date (`2026-12-31`) or a full date and time. Empty if there is no end. On an update, a blank `status` and a blank `disabled_at` keep the stored values. `enabled` with an empty date clears the end of validity. `disabled` with an empty date keeps a date that has already passed, and otherwise ends the node today

Import:

Click Import CSV in the list
Choose your file
Click Preflight check. The report gives the number of rows, the nodes to create and update, and the rows that change nothing
If the preflight is clean, click Load

How the import works:

Rows in any order: a child can come before its parent group. Parents are resolved against the whole file and the nodes already in KANAP.
The whole file is checked before anything is written: each row, then the parents, then the rules of the tree (a cost center has a company, a group has none, only groups are parents, no loops, a cost center used by lines stays a cost center). A file with any error loads nothing: fix the rows and run the preflight again. Each error names its row by the line of the file as a text editor shows it, blank lines and cells that span several lines included.
Matching by code: a row whose code exists updates that node; any other row creates one. Each cell replaces the stored value, so an empty owner_email or description clears it.
Unchanged rows: a row identical to the stored node changes nothing. Exporting and importing the same file reports every row as unchanged.
Nodes missing from the file are left as they are. The import never deletes.

Common errors:

"Unknown company '...'": create the company in Master data > Companies, or fix the name.
"Unknown parent code '...'": add the parent group to the file, or fix the code.
"Unknown budget holder email '...'." or "Budget holder '...' is not an active user.": the owner_email cell names the budget holder. Use the email of an active user, or leave the cell empty.
"Code ... is already used on row N.": two rows carry the same code. Keep one.
"Type must be 'group' or 'cost_center'.": fix the kind cell.
"Status is enabled but the end of validity has passed. Clear the date or set the status to disabled. If the file comes from an older export, export the data again.": the row is enabled with a date that has passed. A file exported before the date passed still says enabled: export it again, or fix the cell.
"Status is disabled but the end of validity is still to come. Set the status to enabled or set a date that has passed.": the row is disabled with a date still to come. Fix the status or the disabled_at cell.
"Header mismatch": download a fresh template.

Permissions¶

Level	What it allows
`cost_centers:reader`	View the list and open cost centers
`cost_centers:member`	Create cost centers and groups, and edit them
`cost_centers:admin`	Everything above, plus CSV import and export, and deletion

Each role starts with the level it has on departments, except the built-in Budget Administrator role, which gets admin. So Budget Administrator and Master Data Administrator are admins, Budget Member and Master Data Member are members, and the reader roles can read. Anyone who can read OPEX, CAPEX or reporting can pick a cost center on a line or in a report filter without access to this page.

Tips¶

Mirror your finance referential: use the same codes as your accounting system so budget lines and actuals line up.
Group by responsibility: build groups around the people who answer for the budget, across companies if needed.
Disable, do not delete: when a cost center closes, disable it. Its lines keep it and reports stay consistent.
Name a budget holder: a budget holder on each cost center shows on every line it carries, so everyone knows who to ask about a line.