Importing Cost Centers

Cost centers can be imported directly in the company profile. This is useful when a company already has a list of cost centers and wants to add them to Equipme in bulk instead of creating each cost center manually.

The import helps teams prepare their cost center structure before employees are assigned, or when cost center data is not fully maintained through HR sync.

If you are setting up cost centers for the first time, Billing addresses & Cost Centers explains what a cost center is, how it connects to a billing address and what it can be assigned to.

When to use the cost center import

Use the cost center import when you want to add multiple cost centers at once.

This is especially useful in setups where:

the company has a larger cost center structure, cost centers should be prepared before employees are assigned, HR sync is not used for cost center data, or cost centers are not fully maintained in the connected HR system.

When employees are synchronized through HR sync and already have a cost center assigned, Equipme can create that cost center automatically. The import is meant for cases where cost centers should be created independently from employee synchronization.

Where to find the import

The cost center import is available in the company profile.

Go to the Cost center tab and select Import.

What can be imported

The import supports the main information needed to create cost centers in Equipme:

Cost center name or code The main identifier of the cost center.

Description Additional information that helps users understand what the cost center is used for.

Managers One or more managers can be added during the import.

Billing address A billing address can be linked to the cost center by using an existing billing address profile.

Managers and billing addresses are optional. You can also import cost centers without them and complete these details later.

Adding managers

Managers can be added during the import as comma-separated values.

Equipme checks whether the listed managers exist in the company. If a manager cannot be found, the import shows an error and the cost center cannot be imported with that invalid manager reference.

This helps prevent incorrect manager assignments during the import.

Linking billing addresses

Billing addresses are linked through the Billing Address Profile Name.

Instead of entering a full billing address as free text, use the profile name of an existing billing address in Equipme. The profile name is used to identify the correct billing address and connect it to the cost center.

The profile name must match exactly. If the name is written differently, contains a typo or is missing a space, Equipme cannot find the billing address profile and the import will show an error.

This approach avoids unreliable address matching, where small formatting differences in the full address could lead to incorrect or failed matches.

Optional fields

Managers and billing addresses can be left empty.

This allows teams to import the cost center structure first and add additional details later. For example, a company can import all cost centers before employees are assigned or before billing address information is fully prepared.

Important to know

Managers must already exist in the company if they are included in the import.

Billing addresses must already exist as billing address profiles if they should be linked during the import.

The Billing Address Profile Name must match exactly.

Cost centers can be imported without managers or billing addresses.

After the import

Once the structure is in place, you can see what each cost center actually carries and export how its allocation changed over a period.

Cost Management