# Cost center > A cost center is an area of your business that you assign receipts to, such as office, marketing or a project. Reports then show for each cost center how much was spent and earned there. - Page: https://www.ciro-noise.de/glossar/kostenstelle - Deutsche Fassung: https://www.ciro-noise.de/glossar/kostenstelle.md A cost center answers the question of where the money in your business goes. Instead of only knowing that you spent €4,000 in March, you see how much of it went to marketing, to the office or to a specific client project. In CIRO NOISE you'll find cost centers under Finance › Cost centers. Each cost center has a code such as MARKETING or OPS, a name, an optional description and a color, so you can spot it quickly in lists and charts. Cost center accounting doesn't have to be complicated in a small business. Three or four cost centers are enough to see what each area costs. ## How cost centers work in CIRO NOISE You create a cost center with a code and a name. Each code exists only once in your organization, and CIRO NOISE writes it in capital letters. You then pick the cost center when you record a receipt. When you upload a receipt, the AI suggests a matching cost center based on your active ones and their descriptions. Rules for recurring items can carry a cost center as well, so the monthly software bill always lands in the right area. If you no longer need a cost center, set it to inactive. If you delete it, the linked receipts stay and only lose the assignment. ## Analyzing cost centers Under Finance › Reports, the cost center comparison shows expenses, income, balance and the number of receipts per cost center for each year. Receipts without an assignment are grouped as unassigned, so you can see right away where receipts are still missing a cost center. ## A real-world example A trades business with twelve employees sets up four cost centers: OFFICE, FLEET, WORKSHOP and MARKETING. Fuel receipts go to the fleet, the ad in the local paper goes to marketing. After one quarter the comparison shows that the fleet accounts for almost half of all spending, and the owner plans the next vehicle with these figures. ## Cost center versus category A category describes what was bought, such as office supplies, travel or software. A cost center describes what in the business it was bought for. A laptop therefore has the category hardware and can still belong to the cost center of a client project. ## Frequently asked questions about Cost center ### What is a cost center in simple terms? A cost center is an area of a business that you assign costs to, for example office, marketing or a project. In CIRO NOISE you assign a cost center to each receipt and then see the totals per area. ### How do I set up cost centers? In CIRO NOISE you create cost centers under Finance › Cost centers. Each cost center gets a unique code such as MARKETING, a name and, if you like, a description and a color. ### Is cost center accounting worth it for a small business? Yes, even a few cost centers show what each area costs. In CIRO NOISE a code and a name per cost center are enough, and the cost center comparison under Finance › Reports calculates the totals for you. ### What happens to receipts when I delete a cost center? When you delete a cost center in CIRO NOISE, all linked receipts stay and only lose the assignment. If you just want to stop offering the cost center, set it to inactive instead. ## Related terms - [Receipt](https://www.ciro-noise.de/en/glossary/receipt.md) - [Report](https://www.ciro-noise.de/en/glossary/report.md) - [Vendor](https://www.ciro-noise.de/en/glossary/vendor.md) See the feature: https://www.ciro-noise.de/en/features/accounting.md ## CIRO NOISE at a glance - CIRO NOISE is a workspace for small businesses and teams of up to about 50 people: wiki, tasks, customer requests, finance with quotes and invoices, customers (CRM), meetings, knowledge with AI, social media, password vault, and time tracking behind one login. - Price: the first 2 seats are free, with every feature. Each additional seat costs €25 per month plus VAT. No credit card to start. - Privacy: servers and AI run in EU data centers, content never trains AI models, and permissions apply per person and feature. - AI connection: Claude and other AI assistants connect through MCP, the open standard for AI tools, with exactly the permissions of the person. - Provider: CIRO GmbH, Eching, Germany. Contact: hello@ciro.gmbh, phone +49 89 24 88 31 22.