Assigning Machines to a Cost Center

Overview

Each machine can belong to at most one cost center. Once assigned, the cost center's overhead will be allocated to products that use machines from that group. A machine that is not assigned to any cost center falls outside cost center overhead allocation — it will still contribute its own hourly cost (depreciation + electricity) to products, but no cost-center-level overhead will be added.

Steps

1. Go to Machines & Equipment and open the machine you want to assign.
2. Click Edit.
3. Find the Cost Center field (usually in the General or Settings section of the edit form).
4. Click the dropdown and select the appropriate cost center from the list.
5. Click Save.

Repeat for each machine you want to assign to this cost center.

Example

You have a "Laser & Engraving" cost center. You want to assign two machines to it:

• CO2 Laser 60W — open the machine, edit, select "Laser & Engraving" from the cost center dropdown, save.
• Rotary Engraver — repeat the same steps.

Now both machines are in the "Laser & Engraving" cost center. Any product or component that uses either machine will have the cost center's overhead allocated to it.

Changing or Removing a Cost Center Assignment

• To move a machine to a different cost center: open the machine, edit, select the new cost center, save.
• To remove a machine from all cost centers: open the machine, edit, clear the cost center field (select the blank/none option), save.

Changing assignments affects future cost calculations. It does not retroactively change historical production orders or their recorded costs.

Viewing All Machines in a Cost Center

Open the cost center from Settings > Cost Centers. The detail view lists all machines currently assigned to it. This gives you a quick audit of whether the grouping still makes sense as your equipment roster grows or changes.