What is a cost element?

In e-timecard, employees charge all labor against a job and a cost element. Cost elements are the lowest level at which anyone can enter cost.

You maintain cost elements in a series of tables that make the elements available to specific jobs. Any number of jobs can share the same element table, and you can create any number of element tables.

You can designate cost elements as active, inactive, or for budgeting purposes only. If your numbering scheme changes, you can make old elements inactive so that no one can accidentally make charges to them.

Example

This sample cost report shows how you can use cost elements to distinguish a variety of cost items.

Element	Description	Current hours	Current cost	CTD cost
1010	Sci labor	14	1750.21	5250.02
1020	Prog labor	22	2090.54	6270.49
1030	Anly labor	10	900.41	3600.18
1040	Admin labor	6	270.00	270.00
Subtotal	Labor		5011.16	15390.69
2010	Compt		1210.00	3630.00
Subtotal	Computer		1210.00	3630.00
3010	Hotel		207.08	1656.33
3020	Per diem		680.00	2160.00
3030	Airfare			391.00
3040	Car rental		120.66	156.71
3050	Trvl misc			95.00
Subtotal	Travel		1007.74	4459.04
Total Cost			7228.90	23479.73

The naming or numbering scheme that you use for cost elements determines the order in which reports and invoices display them. Elements can appear in alphabetical or numerical order, depending on the scheme that you choose.