How to use cost centres (analytic accounting)

What is it for?

A cost centre tells you how much each part of the company (administration, sales, operations) spent. In fiscaldoo, a cost centre is an analytic account within the analytic plan “Centro de Custo” (Cost Centre): the expense stays in the general accounts, in the chart of accounts account, and the same line is also split across the centres. Analytic amounts do not change the general ledger or the journal entries.

When to use it?

• You want to see expenses by department or by type of activity (rent, electricity, communications) without creating new accounts in the chart of accounts.
• You want to compare the analytic total with the general accounts.

To split the chart of accounts into sub-accounts, see How to create an account. Cost centres do not replace the SNC accounts.

Where to find it?

• Settings › Accounting › Analytic accounting: accounts, plans and distribution models, with three Open links: Analytic accounts, Analytic plans and Analytic distribution models. This block belongs to the Administrator profile.
• Accounting › Review › Books and trial balances › Analytic items, Analytic trial balance and Analytic ledger (in the menu, under “Analytic analysis”). The Accountant profile also sees them.

Before you start

• Administrator profile to create plans, centres and distribution models.
• To view the trial balance and the items: Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager or Accountant profile.
• To split a supplier bill across centres (step 3): Administrator profile. The Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager and Accountant profiles do not have the analytic accounting right: the Analytic column does not appear on the bill lines. Today, only the Administrator has that right.
• The demo already has the plans Plano de projeto, Departamentos (Teste), Viaturas, Centro de Custo, Projeto financiado, Rubrica and Formação, all with Default Applicability “Optional”, and the centres Administração, Comercial and Operações.

How to use it

1. In Settings, in the analytic accounting block, click Open next to Analytic plans. The list shows the Name, the Default Applicability and the Colour of each plan; the cost centre is the Centro de Custo plan.
2. Open Analytic accounts. The list shows, per account, the Name, the Reference, the Customer, the Plan, the Debit, the Credit and the Balance. To create a centre, click New, type the Analytic Account (the name) and choose the Plan “Centro de Custo”.
3. To split an expense, as Administrator, open a supplier bill (Record › Supplier invoices › New), choose the supplier, the date and a line with the expense account (here 6241 Eletricidade, €100.00, with VAT at 23 %). In the line's Analytic column the Analytic window opens, with one column per plan: in the Centro de Custo plan choose Comercial; Percentage 100 and Subtotal €100.00. Click Confirm. Without a VAT rate on the line, the bill is refused (see “Common problems”). To avoid repeating the choice, New Model (in the Analytic window) opens Create Analytic Distribution Model, which comes filled in with the supplier, the account prefix (624) and the bill's company; on Save, it becomes a model you can open in Settings › Analytic accounting › Analytic distribution models. The model stores the Conditions to meet (partner, account prefix, product, company…) and the Distribution to apply.
4. In Review › Books and trial balances › Analytic items, see each split line: Date, Description, the column of each plan (here Centro de Custo) and the Value. In the example, the bill from step 3 gave a line “Eletricidade de novembro”, dated 01/11/2026, on Comercial with -€100.00; and “Eletricidade e água”, dated 09/09/2026, appears on Operações with -€210.00 (journal entry FTF/2026/00028, account 6241 Eletricidade). The Fiscal Manager and the Accountant see the lines.
5. In Review › Books and trial balances › Analytic trial balance, choose the period (here 01/01/2026 – 31/12/2026) and read the total per centre. Before the step 3 bill: Administração €11,250.00, Comercial €855.00 and Operações €12,390.00, Grand total €24,495.00 (this is what the screenshot shows). With the bill confirmed, Comercial became €955.00 and the Grand total €24,595.00.

Expected result

The analytic trial balance totals match those of the analytic accounts: 11,250.00 + 855.00 + 12,390.00 = €24,495.00 before the test bill, and +€100.00 on Comercial after it. Creating a centre or a plan creates no journal entries and does not touch the ledger. The analytic split of a document is created when the document is confirmed with the analytic distribution on its lines (or through a distribution model). The test bill from step 3 was cancelled at the end, and the analytic line disappeared with it.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: what the company should split across centres and compliance with the SNC.

Important notes

The balance changes sign between the list and the trial balance

In the Analytic accounts list, the Balance of the centres appears negative (for example -€11,250.00 on Administração, with €11,250.00 debit), and in the Analytic trial balance the same amount appears positive (€11,250.00). Do not use the sign of the list's Balance to compare with the trial balance: compare the Debit and the Credit.

You only see what was split

The analytic trial balance only shows the lines that have an analytic distribution: an expense posted without a centre does not appear in it, even though it is in the general ledger. To find out what has no centre, compare the total of the analytic trial balance with the general ledger of the expense accounts.

Common problems

I cannot find the analytic accounting block in Settings

• Cause: Settings belong to the Administrator profile; the Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager and Accountant profiles cannot open them.
• What to do: ask the administrator, or view the centres from the Review menu.

“Line … has no VAT tax”

• Symptom: when you click Confirm on the step 3 bill with no tax on the line, “Invalid Operation — Line "Eletricidade de novembro" of the invoice to Papelaria Central, Lda has no VAT tax. Choose a VAT tax (or a 0% VAT tax with an exemption reason, or a “not subject” tax).”
• What to do: click Close, choose the tax in the Taxes column and confirm again. The line's analytic distribution is kept.

I do not see the “Analytic” column on the bill

• Cause: today only the Administrator profile has the analytic accounting right; the Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager and the Accountant do not see it.
• What to do: ask the administrator to split the expense. Both profiles can then view the result in Analytic items and in the Analytic trial balance.