How to Use Business Groups

Overview

Use business groups to group cost centresClosed US: Cost Center. A method for separating operational costs of the business for reporting and financial management. together. Cost centres can be included in more than one business group. You can then use security groups to allow employees to use only the cost centres in that business group. Business groups limit employees to only view and create work, such as leads, quotes, jobs, invoices, purchase orders and schedules, within the relevant cost centres.

In order to view content or perform actions referred to in this article you need to have the appropriate permissions enabled in your security group. Go to System A screenshot of a schedule icon with a grey calendar icon and an arrow. > Setup > Security Groups and access your security group to update your permissions. The relevant security group tab and specific permissions for this article can be found here:

Business Groups

A screenshot of a business group being created.

To create a business group:

  1. Go to System A screenshot of a schedule icon with a grey calendar icon and an arrow. > Setup > Accounts > Business Groups.
  2. Click Create Business Group.
  3. Enter the Name of the business group.
  4. If you have business group tracking turned on in How to Set Up Financial Defaults, select Track Group to link this business group with your accounting package.
    • If you do not select Track Group, the business group is not linked with your accounting package.
  5. Click Available Cost Centres to assign them. Click Assigned Cost Centres to remove them.
    • If a cost centre is assigned to multiple business groups that have tracking turned on, it is matched with the first business group in the list ordered by name with that cost centre assigned.
  6. Click Create.

Business groups that are not set up with the Track Group option are only available in Simpro Premium for reporting and limiting security groups to relevant cost centres.

If you have large projects with multiple cost centres, you may want to limit your employees' access so they can only work in the cost centres that are relevant to them.

By default, all security groups have access to All business groups.

A screenshot of the Business Group drop-down in a security group.

To assign a business group to a security group:

  1. After you have created your business groups, go to System A screenshot of a schedule icon with a grey calendar icon and an arrow. > Setup > Security Groups.
  2. Click the security group.
  3. Under Business Group, select the business group you wish to allow access to.
  4. Click Save and Finish to update your changes.

Assigning business groups limits the employee to work within the relevant cost centres. Business groups limit the cost centres that you can filter reports by, but they do not limit unfiltered results. Learn more about limiting access to reports in How to Set Up Security Groups.

Business group tracking allows your business groups in Simpro Premium to link with your business groups in your accounting package, so that you can report on how different areas of your business are performing financially.

To enable business group tracking:

  1. Go to System A screenshot of a schedule icon with a grey calendar icon and an arrow. > Setup > Defaults > Financial.
  2. Under Tracking, select Business Group Tracking.
  3. Click Save.

If you use business group tracking, you cannot use accounting category tracking. Learn more in How to Use Accounting Categories.

For additional training, complete an interactive material in the Simpro's Learning Toolbox. Learn more in About Simpro's Learning Toolbox.