A cost object is a hierarchical construct to which costs that occur within a company can be assigned. For example, cost centers, teams or projects. Cost objects are created at company (legal entity) level.
Cost objects can be:
hierarchical (parent-child relationship), used for cost object approval and for grouping costs.
restricted to either expenses or invoices, or used for both.
visible or hidden from all employees or specific employees
Only one cost object can be exported per line entry. You may want to split a cost among multiple cost centers/projects, choosing different cost objects, or use other cost objects all together. To do this, Yokoy “splits“ the line item, effectively generating two sub-line items with a single cost object assigned to each individual sub-line of the expense entry.
Using cost objects as a submitter
Cost objects are selected as part of the expense or invoice form. For example, when submitters create an expense, they see either their default cost object, or if none are set, the last selected cost object. For invoices, you can choose a default cost object per supplier so that Yokoy automatically smart-codes invoices from that supplier.
✏️ Note
Yokoy admins can choose not to display cost objects to submitters. In this case, the Finance team is responsible for checking and assigning cost objects as appropriate during review.
Depending on the company settings, submitters can update the cost object, changing the cost allocation entirely by selecting another cost object.
In expenses, submitters can add additional cost objects to an expense. This adds another row where the submitter can select another cost object and adjust the percentage or amount to allocate to each cost object. This “splits“ the expense line item, effectively generating two sub-line items with a single cost object assigned to each individual sub-line of the expense entry.
The amount allocated to each cost object must always add up to the total claim of the expense. If you adjust the amount or percentage of one cost object, the other cost object allocations are automatically adjusted. Similarly, the percentage breakdown must always add up to 100%. You can express percentages with up to two decimal places. For example, if you enter 33.337%, this will be rounded up to 33.34%.
✏️ Note
If submitters decide to split the expense, allocating part of the total claim amount to an additional category (and hence, cost object), the remaining amount is automatically adjusted in the cost object breakdown according to the percentage entered.
With invoices, submitters can accept the default cost object assigned to each invoice line item or select another one, as appropriate.
Using cost objects as a finance user
Finance users can consult the cost object assigned by submitters in expenses and invoices when reviewing the documents (Finance > Review).
Finance users always can see and select visible and restricted cost objects.
Finance users can select another cost object, add additional cost objects, or even choose an additional category (and hence cost object) before finishing the review.
Cost object approval
A cost object can be used determine the approval flow for expenses or invoices, either as part of the standard Yokoy approval strategy or a custom workflow built with the Workflow Designer.
In these cases, the cost object owner is responsible for approving any expenses or invoices assigned to the cost object.
Cost object scope
By default, when you set up cost objects, they can be used as cost carriers for both expenses and invoices.
However, you can choose to restrict the cost object to a specific domain in the cost object setup. For example, if you restrict the scope of a cost object to expenses, then users can only select the cost object within that context, i.e. in the expense form.
Cost object visibility
By default, cost objects are visible to all users (submitters, managers, and finance users). This means that submitters can see and select cost objects in expenses and invoices. However, you can restrict cost object visibility so that only finance users or specific users (depending on your organization‘s plan) can see them.