Managing cost centres

A cost centre defines the structure of budget categories available for your projects. Each cost centre contains a set of categories — such as Preliminaries, Concrete, Electrical — organised in a hierarchy. When you assign a cost centre to a project, only the categories in that set are available for estimates, budgets, and transactions on that project.

You can create multiple cost centre sets to suit different types of work. For example, you might have one set for residential construction and another for commercial fitouts.

Where to find it: FullClarity → Project Financials → Manage Cost Centres

When to use this

Use this when setting up your system for the first time, adding a new type of project that requires a different category structure, or maintaining an existing cost centre set (adding categories, reordering, or inactivating categories that are no longer in use).

Prerequisites

• NetSuite administrator access
• A clear picture of the category structure you need (trade categories, hierarchy depth, and any stage assignments)

Walkthrough

The Manage Cost Centres page

The page has three main areas:

• Cost Centre dropdown — select which cost centre set to view or edit. Changing the selection reloads the page with that set's categories.
• Category grid — displays the categories for the selected cost centre in a tree structure. Categories with children show an expand icon that you can click to show or hide child categories.
• Toolbar — buttons for saving, adding rows, managing hierarchy, and other actions. Sits at the bottom of the grid.

Two checkboxes appear below the grid:

• Show Inactive — when ticked, displays an Inactive column and shows any categories that have been inactivated
• Show tree lines — when ticked, displays visual connector lines between parent and child categories

Creating a new cost centre set

To create a new cost centre set:

1. Hover over the Cost Centre dropdown. Two icons appear to the right.
2. Click the + icon. A popup form opens.
3. Enter a Name for the new cost centre set.
4. Click Save.

The popup closes and the page reloads with your new (empty) cost centre selected, ready for you to add categories.

Adding categories

There are several ways to add a new category:

From the column header: Right-click on the column header row (the row showing ID, Name, Stage, Sort Order) and select Add New Line.

From an existing row: Right-click on any category row and select Add New Line. The new row is inserted above the selected row.

From the toolbar: Select a row first, then click the Add button in the toolbar. The new row is inserted above the selected row. Note: the button has no effect if no row is selected.

After adding a row:

1. The Name cell is already in edit mode — type the category name.
2. Press Tab to move to the next column, or click anywhere else on the grid to confirm the value.
3. Do not press Escape — this cancels your entry.

When you Tab into the Stage column, a dropdown opens automatically. If you don't need to set a stage, press Escape to close the dropdown, or Tab again to skip to Sort Order.

Creating child categories

To build a hierarchy (for example, "Footings" and "Slab on Ground" as children of "Concrete"):

From the context menu: Right-click on the row that should be the parent and select Add New Child Line. A new row appears indented beneath the parent.

From the toolbar: Select the parent row, then click the Add Child button in the toolbar.

By indenting: Add a row as a sibling first, then select it and click the Indent button in the toolbar to convert it into a child of the row above. Use Outdent to reverse this and promote a child back to a sibling.

There is no limit on hierarchy depth — you can nest children under children. In practice, most organisations use two levels (parent and child) and rarely go beyond four.

Editing categories

To edit a category name, stage, or sort order, click on the cell you want to change. The cell enters edit mode. Type the new value and press Tab or click elsewhere to confirm.

Reordering categories

Each row has a drag handle on the far left. Click and hold the drag handle, drag the row to its new position, and release. Save the grid to persist the new order.

Removing categories

There are two ways to remove a category, and the choice matters:

Inactivate (recommended) — use this for categories that have been used on estimates or transactions:

1. Tick the Show Inactive checkbox at the bottom of the page. An Inactive column appears.
2. Tick the Inactive checkbox on each category you want to hide.
3. Click Save.

Inactivated categories are hidden from the grid (unless Show Inactive is ticked) and cannot be selected on new estimate lines or transactions. However, they remain visible on any existing estimate lines that already reference them. You can reactivate a category at any time by unchecking its Inactive box.

Delete (permanent) — use this only for categories that have never been used:

1. Right-click on the row and select Delete Line.
2. Click Save.

If the category is referenced by any estimates or transactions, the save will fail with an error. In that case, inactivate the category instead.

Assigning stages to categories

The Stage column is used with milestone/stage billing projects. When you assign a stage to a category here, that stage is automatically filled in as the default whenever someone adds an estimate line using that category. This saves time on stage billing projects where each trade category typically maps to a specific construction stage.

If your projects use progress billing rather than stage billing, you can leave the Stage column empty.

Saving changes

Changes on this page are not saved automatically. To save:

1. Click the Save button (floppy disk icon) in the toolbar at the bottom-left of the page.
2. A confirmation message appears. Click OK.
3. The grid reloads with your saved data. Any new categories will now show their assigned ID numbers.

Category naming — important

Category names must be unique across your entire system, not just within the current cost centre set. If two cost centre sets both have a category called "Preliminaries", this can cause problems — including blocking software updates.

Recommended approach: Use a short prefix code for each cost centre set, applied to every category name. For example, a cost centre called "Residential" might use the prefix "RES":

• RES001 Preliminaries
• RES001.01 Site Setup
• RES001.02 Permits & Fees
• RES002 Concrete
• RES002.01 Footings

The prefix keeps every name unique while remaining readable. Choose whatever convention works for your business — the important thing is consistency.

What success looks like

After saving, the grid reloads and each new category shows its assigned ID number. The cost centre is immediately available to assign to new projects, and the new categories are immediately available in the estimate worksheet for any projects using this cost centre.

Gotchas

• Category names must be unique system-wide — not just within the current set. Duplicate names across sets can block software updates. Use a prefix convention (see above).
• Don't press Escape while editing a cell — it cancels your entry. Use Tab or click elsewhere to confirm.
• Delete will fail if the category is in use. If you get a save error on delete, inactivate the category instead.
• Save frequently when making multiple changes, rather than making all changes and saving once.
• If you accidentally add a row, use Undo in the toolbar before saving, or delete the unwanted row via right-click → Delete Line.