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How to use cost centers

Turn on up to five dimensions, set up their cost centers with validity dates, use them in your journal entries and filter the trial balance and income statement by center.

Updated October 25, 2026

On this page

A cost center tells you whose an expense or income is: a department, a store, a job. Nori has up to five dimensions, as SAP does, each with its own centers. For example, dimension 1 for departments and dimension 2 for projects.

Turn the dimensions on

  1. Go to Administration › Parameters › Accounting.
  2. In Cost dimensions, name each dimension you will use and check Active. The first one is always active.
  3. Click Save.

Set up the centers

  1. Go to Accounting › Setup › Cost centers and click New.
  2. Choose the Dimension, type the Code and the Name.
  3. If the center has a validity (a job, a campaign), fill in Valid from and Valid to.
  4. Save.

Use them

Nori rejects a center that doesn't belong to that dimension or isn't valid on the entry date.

Why: in SAP each document line can carry its distribution rule. In Nori the automatic entries of sales, purchasing and inventory carry no cost center; to split an expense across centers, enter a reclassification entry with one line per center.

If you don't see…

  • Cost centers in the menu: accounting is off or your role has no permission on Cost centers.
  • A dimension's column in the entry: the dimension isn't checked as Active.
  • "The cost center of line … is not valid for that dimension or date": check the center's dimension and its validity.

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