Allocate Costs to Accounts

Allocate a cost by creating several accounts and specifying the percentage of the total cost each account receives.

You can allocate costs at the department, job, position, or person level, and at the element eligibility level for priority accounts. Allocating costs at lower levels of the costing hierarchy requires greater maintenance, but offers greater control over reporting and tracking costs.

Review these points before allocating costs:

Allocate costs at the department, job, position, and person levels of the costing hierarchy
Allocate costs using a priority account

Allocate Costs at Different Levels

When you allocate a cost at the department, job, position, or person level, you specify the percentage each account receives of the cost. If the total allocation isn't 100 percent, when the application builds the cost account numbers, it places the unallocated cost in a default account. This table lists typical reasons for allocating costs at different levels.

Costing Hierarchy Level	Problem	Solution
Department	You take a facility out of normal operation while retooling a production line.	You allocate the labor costs for the facility's work to a different account.
Job or Position	You want to compare cost results for jobs in different cost centers.	You allocate costs at the job level to generate cost results based on job.
Person	You divide a person's time between two departments and want to charge each department.	You split the costs of the person's salary by allocating 50 percent of the salary cost to each department.

Allocate Costs Using a Priority Cost Account

Allocate costs using a priority account to charge the costing results for an element eligibility record to one or more accounts. This table describes the choices.

Note: You must enter an account number for each segment of the priority account.

Percentage Allocated	Example
Entire cost to a single cost account	You fund the entire hourly earning element for work performed in a lab from a single account. You create a priority account and specify 100 for the percentage.
Percentage of the cost to one or more accounts	You fund a percentage of an hourly earning element for work performed in a lab from a matching grant. You create a priority account and specify the percentage paid by the matching grant. The application derives the account number combination for the remaining percentage using the standard costing process.

Percentage Allocated

Example

Entire cost to a single cost account

You fund the entire hourly earning element for work performed in a lab from a single account.

You create a priority account and specify 100 for the percentage.

Percentage of the cost to one or more accounts

You fund a percentage of an hourly earning element for work performed in a lab from a matching grant.

You create a priority account and specify the percentage paid by the matching grant. The application derives the account number combination for the remaining percentage using the standard costing process.