Definition
A profit center is an organizational unit in accounting that reflects a management-oriented structure of the organization for the purpose of internal control.
You can analyze operating results for profit centers using either the cost-of-sales or the period accounting approach.
By calculating the fixed capital as well, you can use your profit centers as investment centers.
Use
Profit Center Accounting at the profit center level is based on costs and revenues. These are assigned statistically by multiple parallel updating to all logistical activities and other allocations of relevance for a profit center.
The exchange of goods and services between profit centers can be valuated using the same valuation approach as in financial accounting or another approach (see
Multiple Valuation Approaches/Transfer Prices).Structure
The master data of a profit center includes the name of the profit center, the controlling area it is assigned to, and the profit center’s period of validity, as well as information about the person responsible for the profit center, the profit center’s assignment to a node of the standard hierarchy, and data required for communication (address, telephone number and so on).
Every profit center is assigned to the organizational unit Controlling area. This assignment is necessary because Profit Center Accounting displays values in G/L accounts.
The system transfers all the data to Profit Center Accounting together with the G/L account to which the data was originally posted. You can only aggregate data of this structure by using the same
Time-Based Master Data
Like cost centers, profit centers are valid for a specific time period. This has advantages in that:
Profit centers are time-dependent in two ways:
Time-based fields let you change information in the profit center master record, such as the person responsible for the profit center, at a specific point in time without having to create a new profit center and without losing any information about the previous person responsible.
Integration
Enterprise Organization
If you are using the enterprise organization, both profit centers and cost centers form part of it. For further information, see
Enterprise Organization.The Standard Hierarchy
In order to ensure that your data in Profit Center Accounting is consistent with that in other areas, you must assign each profit center to the
Standard Hierarchy in your controlling area.The standard hierarchy is used in the information system, allocations and various planning functions. You can also assign your profit centers to alternative hierarchical structures which are completely independent of the standard hierarchy. These structures are called
Profit Center Groups.Copying Cost Centers
If the profit centers in your organization are closely linked to your cost centers, you can simply copy your cost center master data to create your profit centers. For more information on this function, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Profit Center Accounting, under Master data.