Defining cost centers

This article applies only to technology preview features. To request the new Import Data tool available as a technology preview feature, contact your Client Services representative.

Cost centers refer to organization units within a company that incur costs without directly generating revenue. This information can be used to generate reports for cost tracking and analysis. Typically, cost centers are linked to engagements that track worker assignments.

Cost centers can also be used to restrict role assignments to a specific cost center.

As a Beeline Professional administrator, you define cost centers to support the requirements of a particular client.

Before you begin

  • You must have administrator access to the tenant site you’re setting up.

Steps

To define cost centers for your program, complete these steps from any supported browser.

  1. Log in to the Professional site you’re setting up.

  2. From the left navigation, go to Settings  Enterprise and select the Cost Centers tab.

  3. From the upper right of the Cost Centers table, select Import Data.

  4. Create a cost centers template that you can use with the Import Data tool.

    1. To download a template, select Templates from the Import Templates section, and then select the cost centers default template from the Select a template list. Select Download.

    2. Open the template file in Microsoft Excel ©. These columns are required for the template:

      • Cost Center Reference Id

      • Cost Center Name

      • Cost Center Code

    3. To populate the template, add each cost center as a separate entry, for example, one row for each cost center that you want to add.

    4. Save the populated template with a different file name.

  5. Go to the Import Data dialog and in the Note field, enter a description of your import to help you find it faster in the import monitoring logs and select Continue.

  6. Upload the populated template.

  7. Confirm the column headers by selecting the header row and then selecting Next.

  8. Map the headers from your template to their corresponding fields in Professional and select Next.

  9. Review your data to identify any typos, missing values, or incorrectly formatted data. You can edit your data directly in the dialog. Hover over any highlighted areas to view warning or error details.

  10. Optional: To review any potential errors, turn on the Show only rows with errors toggle in the upper right. If errors exist, you can hover over each error to view advice on resolving it. After you resolve the errors, select Import Data.

  11. Select Import Data to start the import.

After you submit the template, a message confirms you’ve submitted it successfully. The message doesn’t mean the data was successfully loaded in Professional. Check the Notifications area to view the status of your import.

notifications area import status
Figure 1. Example of the Notifications area message

Administrators can select Settings  Monitoring  Import Logs and determine whether the import was processed successfully or find details about any errors. For more information, see Checking the status of an import process.

If the import process fails, make corrections to the template and try again.