How to Find Cost Center in SAP

Learning how to find cost center in SAP will come in handy at some point provided you continue to use SAP in your daily business operations. The cost center information will be required whenever you need to generate reports of different natures.

When you are learning how to find cost center in SAP you need to bear in mind the type of information that you want. Searching for cost centers can be done on multiple levels, so you need to be a bit specific in some circumstances.

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How to Find Cost Center in SAP

Searching For Cost Centers: What Are Your Options?

1. KS13

You will need to be very familiar with the transaction code KS13 when learning how to find cost center in SAP. It will be very useful.

The code KS13 will enable you to select the cost center that you need in terms of all costs centers that you are interested in, cost center range or cost center group. This code allows you to specify what you want displayed.

Once you use the code to access the cost center options, you will be able to Select Layout that you want, Change Layout if you prefer and then Save Layout based on your preferences. There are visible buttons for those three major options that you can use for that purpose.

The layout options you go for will enable you to select the fields that you want displayed.

Once you have made and saved your options, you will be able to run a report of the relevant cost centers. You can then export the reports or even download them to an excel sheet.

2. Other options

Apart from the KS13 T-code, you can utilize other options to search for cost centers in SAP. Some of them are outlined below.

  •  You can manually find out a particular cost center to which a profit center is assigned. This can be done using the code OBK9. However, this option is one that you should utilize if you have not managed to find directly a cost center for a known profit center.
  • Another manual option for finding a cost center when you know only the profit center, would be to use SE16 CSKS table. Using this option, you will use the available tables to find the profit center you are interested in, then obtaining the cost center to which it has been assigned. The option can take a while, especially if you have many profit centers of interest to you.
  • If you want to find a cost center to which a particular employee is assigned, then the SAP table PA001 is where you should be. You will then be able to use the details of the employee you are interested in, to find the cost center where that employee belongs.
  • On the other hand, if you want to find cost centers, which are under a particular employee’s jurisdiction, you will need to do things a little bit differently. Instead of using the PA001 table in SAP, you will need to use the CSKS table. Once you access that table, you will need to find the VERAK field. This field shows you the persons responsible for different cost centers. You can then use the transaction code SE16N and input the personnel number of the employee you are interested in. When you execute the code, you will be able to get access to the list of all the cost centers that the employee of interest is in charge of. This option works if you have filtered the CSKS table based on the personnel number.
  •  If you are interested in finding the employee in charge of a certain cost center based on his name, you will need to filter the CSKS table based on names of personnel instead of their ID numbers. You can then input that name of the employee on the CSKS-VERAK field. You will then be able to get a list of the cost centers, which operate under the management of the employee of interest. If you were looking for the employee using a personnel ID that corresponds to the name, then the lists in both situations should be similar.

Searching For Cost Centers: What You Should Know

When learning how to find cost center in SAP, there are issues that you should take note of. Some of them are discussed below.

  • There are times when a user may need to access cost centers as well as a particular element for all the cost centers. If you are the SAP administrator in charge, then you need to give that user the permission to access all the required cost elements within the one or more cost centers of interest. Otherwise, that user cannot access what he wants.
  • The data integrity must be maintained between CSKS-VERAK tables and the names within the HR department. Without doing so, then there is a possibility that you will not be able to access the right list of cost centers for which a particular employee is responsible for. You may also find it difficult to determine whether a particular employee is assigned to a cost center of interest. The names and personnel ID numbers much correspond across your SAP and other business systems if you are to obtain accurate information.
  • You need to be very specific when executing instructions to obtain information about cost centers. This will help you cut down on the time required to access the information that you need especially when you are in a hurry. For example, for easy accessibility, when you obtain a list of cost centers of interest as output, you can arrange them in alphabetical order to allow for easy access to information. On the other hand, filtering the commands on CSKS table based on the information you have makes work easier. If you have personnel numbers, then use that. It also helps if you have all the useful transaction codes in SAP listed nearby for your convenience.

Bottom Line

Learning how to find a cost center in SAP is incredibly beneficial for streamlining your business processes.

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Marissa Hart is the Lead Author & Editor ShareMe. ShareMe is a blog focused on SharePoint Online. SharePoint Online delivers the powerful features of SharePoint without the associated overhead of managing the infrastructure.