#Tracking Project Profibitability using Cost Center
To track expenses and profibility for a project, you can use Cost Centers. You should create separate Cost Center for each Project. This will allow you to.
- Allocating budget on expense for Projects.
- Tracking Profitability of Project.
Let's check steps on how Project and Cost Center should be linked, and used in the sales and purchase transactions.
In the sales and purchase transactions, if Project is selected, then Cost Center will fetched from the Project master.
Let's check how this setting will affect your sales and purchase entries.
### 2. Project and Cost Center in Sales & Purchase Transactions
#### 2.1 Project in the Sales Transactions
In the sales transactions (which are Sales Order, Delivery Note and Sales Invoice), Project will be selected in the More Info section. On selection of a Project, respective Cost Center will be updated for all the items in that transaction. Cost Center will be updated on in the transactions which has Cost Center field.
In the purchase transactions, Project is define for each line item. This is because you can create a consolidated purchase entry for various projects. On selection of Project, its default cost center will auto-fetch.
As per perpetual inventory valuation system, expense for the purchased item will be booked when raw-materials are consumed. On consumption of goods, if you are creating Material Issue (stock) entry, then Expense Cost (says Cost of Goods Sold) and Project's Cost Center should be updated in that entry.
You can define budgets against the Cost Center associated with a Project. At any point of time, you can refer Budget Variance Report to analysis the expense vs budget against a cost center.
