Considerations for changing cost center structure

Changing the cost center structure in Projector PSA is a significant move—think of it like rearranging the branches of your company’s organizational tree. Here’s a clear summary of what to consider, the limitations, and best practices, plus how these changes ripple through accounting, reporting, and permissions.

Key Considerations

Purpose of Cost Centers
- Cost centers model your organization’s hierarchy (e.g., by region, department, or division).
- They drive permissions, reporting structures, and accounting mappings.
- Each engagement and resource is assigned to a single cost center, but resources can move between them.
Who Can Make Changes
- Only users with the appropriate global permissions (specifically, “Companies and Cost Centers” set to Update) can modify cost centers.
- Engagement cost centers can only be changed by users with “Maintain Advanced Engagement and Project Setup” permissions.
Hierarchy Depth
- You can create a cost center tree up to 23 levels deep.
- Child cost centers inherit some settings only one level deep.

Limitations

Complexity: Major changes can be time-consuming and may require consulting with Projector experts, especially if your structure is already established.
Inheritance: Only certain settings and rates are inherited, and only one level deep.
Reassignment: Engagements and resources must be manually reassigned if their cost center changes.
Accounting Mappings: Existing mappings to accounts or integrations (like Salesforce) may need to be updated to reflect the new structure.

Best Practices

Plan Ahead: Design your cost center structure to match your reporting, permission, and accounting needs. Changing it later is much harder.
Consult Stakeholders: Involve finance, operations, and IT to ensure the new structure meets everyone’s needs.
Test in Sandbox: If possible, test changes in a non-production environment.
Document Changes: Keep a record of what was changed and why, for future reference and audits.
Communicate: Inform all affected users about upcoming changes and any new processes.

Impact on Accounting, Reporting, and Permissions

Accounting

Cost centers determine how transactions are routed to accounts (Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet Control Accounts).
Changing the structure may affect where revenue, expenses, and other transactions are recorded.
You may need to update accounting integrations and mappings to ensure data flows correctly.

Reporting

Reports often use cost centers as filters or grouping criteria (e.g., revenue by region).
Changing the structure can impact historical and future reports—comparisons over time may become tricky if the structure changes mid-year.
Report visibility and distribution can be limited by cost center, so changes may affect who sees what.

Permissions

User and user type permissions can be tied to cost centers.
Changing the structure may inadvertently grant or restrict access to certain users.
Review and update permissions after making structural changes to ensure compliance and security.

References

In summary: Changing your cost center structure is like rewiring the backbone of your organization in Projector. It affects who can do what, how you see your business in reports, and where your money is tracked. Plan carefully, involve the right people, and always double-check your permissions and accounting mappings after making changes.

If you need more detailed steps or have a specific scenario in mind, let me know!