Profit Centers are used to track profitability of multiple enterprises within one company. This could be separate locations in the case of multiple plants or various enterprises at a single location (i.e. Feed/Grain vs. Fertilizer/Chemical).
Setup
The following window can be found by selecting Add or Edit at Accounting / Setup / Profit Centers.
- Profit Center ID – Use up to four characters to define the Profit Center ID. It is suggested to use a numbering system like 01 for the primary enterprise, 02 for the secondary, etc. This number ID is then used as the suffix on corresponding general ledger accounts.
- Description – Describe this Profit Center.
- Retained Earnings – Double-click in this field and select the G/L account that represents the Retained Earnings account for this Profit Center. This defaults to the account set at Setup / Preferences on the G/L tab. All Profit Centers may be set to post to the same or individual Retained Earnings accounts at end of year.
- Location ID – Optionally select the location related to this Profit Center. The location is used to filter G/L accounts to make it easier to find the location's instance of a specific account.
Process
The home office can optionally organize their general ledger accounts in such a way that financial statements may be run by Profit Center or consolidated among Locations/Profit Centers.
- Add a retained earnings account for each Profit Center in the general ledger.
- Define each Profit Center at Setup / Profit Centers, choosing the corresponding Retained Earnings account and location.
Example: Adding an A/P bill and looking for the location's Shop expense. - Edit existing general ledger accounts or add new general ledger accounts, assigning each one to a Profit Center and making the Account ID reflect that Profit Center by using the corresponding Location number suffix (or -00 in the case of an overhead or balance sheet account that is not associated with a particular Profit Center).
- Run a G/L Chart of Accounts report. Review this report, verifying that all accounts are assigned to a Profit Center.
