Working with cost centers

Cost centers are used to identify which business units to charge costs to.

In BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, you can create global cost centers and cost centers specific to a tenant. Global cost centers can be used by all tenants. If you create cost centers for a particular tenant, those cost centers are not visible for other tenants. In BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, one needs to create primary and secondary cost centers. A user must be allocated with one primary cost center. Only a cloud administrator can add, edit, or delete cost centers for a tenant. 

This topic describes how to work with cost centers:

The following BMC Communities video (4:13) describes how to use cost centers so that when users order services through BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, the correct organization is charged.

 https://youtu.be/UCAbQMM4MnQ

Adding cost centers

As a cloud administrator, you can add cost centers to a tenant or global cost centers.

To add a cost center

1. From the Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window and select Tenants.
2. On the Tenants pane, in the Cost Centers area, click Add Cost Center .
3. On the Add Cost Center dialog box, enter the information in the requested fields.
   The following figure displays the Add Cost Center dialog box. 
    
   1. If you want to add a global cost center, from the Global Cost Center list, select Yes.
      By default, the value for the Global Cost Center list is No. If you select Yes, the Company list is disabled and a Global value is reflected in the field.  
   2. If you want to add a cost center for a specific tenant, select the name of the tenant from the Company list. 
      Only onboarded tenants are displayed in the Company list.
   3. In the Cost Center Code field, enter a unique cost center code.  
      For example, CCMRKT006. 
   4. In the Cost Center Name field, enter a name for the cost center. 
      The Allocation Method field is disabled as no allocation methods are supported currently. You cannot edit this field.
   5. In the Description field, enter description for the cost center. 

   6. From the Status field, select an appropriate status for the cost center. 
      The following table describes the available status.

      Status	Notes
      Proposed	Select Proposed when you want to add a cost center, which is in a review state. Cost centers in a proposed state are displayed in the Cost Centers table, but are not available for use. You cannot see this cost center when you want to assign it to a user.
      Active	Select Active when you want to activate the cost center immediately after saving. Active cost centers are displayed in the list when you want to assign it to a user.
      Inactive	Select Inactive to add a cost center that is inactive and cannot be used. An inactive cost center is displayed in the Cost Centers table.
      Obsolete	You cannot select Obsolete while creating a new cost center. You can edit a cost center and mark it as obsolete. A cost center that is marked as Obsolete is deleted from the GUI and is not visible in the Cost Centers table.

   7. Click Save.

Editing cost centers

You can only change the cost center name and status after it is created. You cannot edit the cost center code or change a tenant specific cost center to global. 

To edit cost centers

1. From the Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window and select Tenants.
2. On the Tenants pane, in the Cost Centers area, select the cost center, which you want to edit and click Edit .
3. On the Edit Cost Center dialog box, make changes as required. 
4. Click Save.

Deleting cost centers

You can only delete a cost center when it is in a Proposed state. The delete option is disabled if you select a cost center in any state. 

To delete cost centers

1. From the Administration Console, click the vertical Workspaces menu on the left side of the window and select Tenants.
2. On the Tenants pane, in the Cost Centers area, select the cost center, which you want to delete and click Edit.
3. On the Edit Cost Center dialog box, from the Status list, select Proposed.
4. Click Save.
5. From the Cost Centers table, select the cost center that you want to delete and click Delete .
   The cost centers is deleted from the table and is no longer used. 

Related topic

Tenants

Associating cost centers to cloud users