Cost Objects (SAP Business One)

On Cost unit is a business object to which costs and revenues are directly allocated in order to analyse the profitability of individual products, projects or services. Cost units answer the question: What were the costs incurred for? Transfer to SAP Business One projects this role. They collect all allocated expenses and income - from purchasing to internal services and sales.

Relevant context and area of application in SAP Business One:
Operating in SAP Business One projects as the primary cost units. They make it possible, Proceeds and expenses can be clearly allocated to an operating activity. The allocation can:

Automatic via account master data
Manual in journal entries, purchasing and sales documents, service and production orders

Costs can be allocated independently to Cost types, cost centers, Dimensions or projects can be recorded - depending on the desired evaluation logic.

Cost accounting and analysis:
SAP Business One offers several reports for analysing cost units, including

Project profitability reportshows the gross profit of a project
Cost centre reportcompares Effort and revenue by organisational unit
Reports in the general ledgercan be filtered to specific projects or combinations of projects and cost centres

Master data integration and vouchers:
Cost units (projects) can be integrated in the following master data and processes:

Asset accounting (e.g. assignment of project codes to asset transactions)
Production orders (recording of resource costs with reference to the project)
Purchasing documents (distribution of procurement costs on a project basis)
Postings in the general ledger

Resource and production costs:
In production and costing, cost units also have an indirect effect: resource costs (such as machine hours, energy consumption or maintenance) flow into the costing via the bill of materials and influence the costing. Production costs. Projects as cost units record the associated production costs.

Differentiation from related terms:
On Cost unit (project) stands for the What for - e.g. a customer order or internal project. A Cost centre describes the Where (e.g. department), a Cost type the What (e.g. personnel, material). Dimensions offer additional, flexible grouping options.

Example:
A company is carrying out a customer project "Trade fair appearance 2025". All expenses (printing costs, stand hire, travel expenses) are allocated to the project. At the end, the project report shows: expenditure: €22,000, revenue: €35,000, gross profit: €13,000 - clear, comprehensible and relevant for decision-making.