Billing Q&A: Creating a New Cost Type

September 2019    Tags: Costs, Reports, Tabs3 Billing

We recently added new transaction codes for various office expenses that we want to start tracking. However, we want to track these transactions as a separate group from the other expenses we already have. Is there a way to do this and be able to report on these expenses?

This can be accomplished by assigning these new transactions to a unique Cost Type. Cost Types can be used to group similar types of costs into one “category” of costs. Categorizing costs makes it possible to track billed and paid amounts by cost type. For example, you may want to assign all photocopy costs for the firm to one Cost Type and all long distance phone charges to another Cost Type.

Some reports, such as the Transaction File List, can be run for specific Cost Types by entering a Cost Type range on the Transaction tab, if available. Certain other reports, such as the Receipt Allocation Report, will automatically include Cost Type information. See the Tabs3 Billing Report Pack for more information on which reports include Cost Type information.

To add a new Cost Type

1. From the File menu, point to Open and select Miscellaneous.
2. On the Misc Desc tab, select the Cost Types option.
3. In one of the empty fields, enter the desired name for the new Cost Type.
4. Press Ctrl+S.

Once the new Cost Type is created, you can then assign it to transaction codes.

To assign a Cost Type to a transaction code

1. From the File menu, point to Open and select Miscellaneous.
2. On the Tcode tab, select the desired Tcode.
3. In the Cost Type field, select the new cost type you created.
4. Press Ctrl+S.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for each transaction code to which you want to assign the new Cost Type.

Note: Cost types are only available for Type 0 (normal) and Type 5 (miscellaneous) expense and advance transaction codes.