Cost centers let one account bill across many departments, projects, or matter codes. Each team member has a default cost center; every call they place is tagged with it, and FreshBooks produces one invoice per cost center at month-end so finance can charge back internally without any manual sorting.
Who can use it
Available on Business and Enterprise accounts. Only the account Owner or an Admin can create cost centers or change a member's default.1
Create your cost centers
Settings → Cost Centers- Go to Settings → Cost Centers and click New Cost Center.
- Give it a Name (e.g. Legal Department). Add an optional Code (e.g. LEG-100) if your finance team uses a GL account, project code, or matter code that should print on the invoice.
- Click Create Cost Center. Repeat for each department or project you want to bill separately.
Not sure whether to add a code? You can leave it blank and add one later — Edit is available on every row.
2
Assign a default per member
Settings → Team Members- Open Settings → Team Members. Each active member now shows a Cost Center dropdown next to their info.
- Pick the cost center that member normally bills to. From now on, every call they place is auto-tagged with that center.
- Leave a member on None if their calls should stay unassigned — those calls still bill to your account, they just land on a “no cost center” invoice at the end of the month.
The tag is frozen at call time. Changing a member's default later only affects future calls — old calls keep the tag they had when they were placed. To fix a mis-tagged past call, use the re-tag flow in the next section.
3
Re-tag past calls
Call HistoryOwners and admins can correct the cost center on any un-billed call.
- Open Call History. A Cost Center column shows next to every call, with a dropdown you can click to change.
- To fix many at once, tick the checkboxes on the left of each row (or the header checkbox to select the whole page). A green bar appears with a Set Cost Center button — pick the target and apply.
- Calls that have already been billed on a FreshBooks invoice show a locked pill instead of a dropdown. Contact support if one of those needs to be corrected.
Bulk re-tag will silently skip any calls that are already invoiced, marked paid, or refunded — the toast tells you how many were updated and how many were skipped.
4
How invoicing works
Month-end billingWhen your account is on NET terms and it's time to invoice, FreshBooks produces:
| Situation | What you get |
|---|---|
| All calls share the same cost center (or none) | One invoice, same as before you enabled cost centers. |
| Calls span multiple cost centers | One invoice per cost center, plus an extra invoice for any calls that weren't tagged. Each invoice's memo names the cost center so your finance team can post it against the right internal account. |
- Each invoice line still shows the caller name and member ID.
- Each invoice pays independently — you can settle one and hold another.
- Call history CSV exports gain two extra columns — Cost Center and Cost Center Code — so you can reconcile in Excel or feed a downstream system.
5
Deactivate a cost center
CleanupWhen a project ends or a department is retired, click Deactivate on that row. The cost center will:
- Disappear from the member-default dropdown and any per-call picker.
- Stay attached to every historical call already tagged with it (nothing rewrites).
- Show as Inactive on the list — click Reactivate anytime to bring it back.
Prefer Deactivate over deleting — deactivating keeps the audit trail intact. Deleting is a hard operation and drops the tag from historical calls.
Can members change their own default cost center?+
Not directly — only Owner and Admin can set or change any member's default (including their own). This keeps departmental billing consistent and prevents accidental changes.
Does the caller pick a cost center every time they call?+
No. Cost centers are set on the profile and applied automatically at call time — the calling experience doesn't change at all. If a specific call needs a different tag, Owner/Admin can re-tag it from Call History after the fact.
What about calls placed before I created a cost center?+
Those calls stay untagged (they land on the “no cost center” bucket at invoicing). Owner/Admin can bulk re-tag any un-invoiced call from Call History if you want to backfill.
Is there a limit on how many cost centers I can create?+
No practical limit for typical use. Each cost center must have a unique name (case-insensitive) and optionally a unique code within your account.
Ops asked me to set this up — can they help?+
Yes. Our ops team can create cost centers, assign member defaults, and re-tag calls on your behalf from the admin side. Reach out via Contact Support.