Cost Centers

Julia

Updated September 10, 2026 04:59

Cost centers let you tag and organize your subscription at the office, user, or license level without changing your invoices or billing entities.

You can create a cost center directory, apply percentage-based tags across offices, users, or licenses, and export CSV reports for internal attribution and reconciliation.

Who can use this

Admins and Billing Managers on all Dialpad products and license tiers can manage cost centers.

Refer to our Pricing Page to see if you have access to this feature. If you have any questions about your plan, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Dialpad Customer Care.

What are cost centers?

Cost centers are metadata tags used for reporting. They do not change billing, invoice totals, taxes, or billing entities.

You can apply cost center allocations at three levels:

Office
User
License

Each allocation must total exactly 100%, and each office, user, or license can include up to 10 cost centers.

If more than one allocation exists, Dialpad uses this precedence order: user, then license, then office. If no allocation exists at any level, the item appears as Unassigned in reports.

Before you begin

Cost centers appear under Billing in your Dialpad Admin Settings when it’s enabled for your company.

Each cost center includes these fields:

Code
Name
External reference (optional)
Status

Note

Cost center codes support:

Alphanumeric characters

Hyphens

Underscores

You can use a maximum of 20 characters, and they are automatically converted to uppercase.

Create a cost center

To create a cost center, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select My Company
Select Billing > Cost Centers
In the Cost allocations, select Directory
Select Add cost centers
Enter the cost center code and display name
(Optional) Enter an external reference to map the cost center to your ERP or general ledger system
Select Save

Edit or archive a cost center

To edit or archive a cost center, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select My Company
Select Billing > Cost Centers
In the Cost allocations, select Directory
In the Cost Center Directory, find the cost center you want to update
Select Edit to modify the cost center details, or select Archive to archive the cost center

Note

If you select Archive, select Archive in the confirmation window.
Select Save

Note

Archived cost centers remain visible in reports for historical accuracy, but you can’t use them for new allocations until you reactivate them.

To reactivate a cost center, select Reactivate from the Cost centers directory. Image showing where to reactivate cost centers

Set office, user, or license allocations

You can manage cost center allocations for these groups:

All Offices
All Licenses
All Users

To manage cost center allocations, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select My Company
Select Billing > Cost Centers
Select one of these tabs:
- All Offices
- All Users
- All Licenses
Search for the office, user, or license you want to update
Select Manage
Enter the percentage for each row

Note

Make sure the total equals 100% before you save.
Select Save allocation

Example

An office can be assigned 60% to Engineering and 40% to Sales.

If a user in that office has their own 100% allocation, the user allocation overrides the office allocation for reporting.

If a license has its own allocation and the user does not, the license allocation overrides the office allocation.

Export cost center reports

There are three types of CSV exports for cost centers:

Office Allocation Summary	A high-level view of how many licenses and users are attributed to each cost center within each office.
License Allocation Detail	A detailed reconciliation report showing every license, including unassigned licenses, and how its list price is split across cost centers.
User Allocation Detail	A detailed report focused on assigned users only.

To export a report, go to your Dialpad Admin Settings.

Select My Company
Go to Billing > Cost Centers
Select Export (.csv)
Choose the report type you want
Select Send report
Select Done

Note

Reports are delivered by email to the requesting user.

Important reporting behavior

Cost centers reports use your company’s pricing table and calculate attributed amounts from list price and allocation percentage. Because of this, exported values may not always match the exact amounts on your invoice.

Cost centers are designed for internal attribution and reporting only.

Frequently asked questions

Does cost centers change my invoice?

No. Cost centers does not change invoice totals, billing entities, taxes, or billing workflows.

What happens if I don’t set an allocation?

If no allocation exists at the user, license, or office level, the item appears as Unassigned at 100% in reports.

Can I split one item across multiple cost centers?

Yes. You can split an office, user, or license allocation across multiple cost centers as long as the total equals 100%.

What happens when I archive a cost center?

Archived cost centers stay visible in historical reports, but you can’t use them in new allocations until they are reactivated.

How are reports delivered?

Reports are sent by email to the person who requested them.

Can I bulk-assign allocations?

Yes. You can assign the same allocation to up to 100 users at once from the Users tab, and you can also manage license allocations in bulk by license type.