Creating a Cost Center

Before You Start

Decide which groupings make sense for your workshop. A cost center is only worth creating if the machines in that group share a meaningful overhead that is different from the rest of your equipment. Common triggers:

• A dedicated room with its own electricity meter or ventilation system.
• A group of machines that share a maintenance budget (e.g., all laser equipment).
• Equipment that requires specialised insurance separate from general workshop cover.

Steps

1. In the main navigation, go to Settings.
2. In Settings, click Cost Centers.
3. Click Create Cost Center.
4. Enter a Name for the cost center. Examples: "Laser & Engraving", "3D Printing", "Kiln Room", "Cutting & Skiving".
5. Add an optional Description to note what this cost center covers and why it exists.
6. Enter the Monthly Overhead amount specific to this cost center. This is the cost that applies to this group of machines and not to the rest of the workshop.
   • Examples: extra electricity tariff for the kiln room, fume extraction filter replacements (annualised and divided by 12), specialist maintenance contract.
   • Do not include overhead that is already captured at the organisation level.
   • Leave at 0 if you just want to group machines without assigning specific overhead yet.
7. Click Save.

After Creating the Cost Center

The cost center now appears in the list and can be selected when editing a machine. See the next article for how to assign machines to cost centers.

Editing and Deleting Cost Centers

You can edit a cost center's name, description, or overhead amount at any time. If you delete a cost center, the machines that were assigned to it become unassigned — they will not be deleted, just removed from the grouping. Review machine assignments after any deletion.

How Many Cost Centers Do You Need?

Start with the minimum number that captures meaningful differences in overhead. Two or three cost centers covering genuinely distinct areas is usually sufficient for a small craft business. Adding more granularity is easy later as your understanding of costs improves.