Independent Cost Centers

With 8x8 Independent Cost Center, bills are mapped to services manually assigned to the Cost Center independent of sites. You can assign services to a Cost Center based on your needs. The services do not need to be tied to a location or a site. Let’s say your company requires separate billing for all user-assigned services of two groups of Engineering and Product Marketing in the San Jose office site. You can create two Cost Centers: one for Eng, and one for PMO.

Independent Cost Center includes billing for:

  • User assignable services: Any license that can be assigned to a user including 8x8 Work licenses (X Series and Editions), 8x8 Contact Center licenses, non-provisioning licenses, additional local numbers, and toll-free numbers.These can be configured as desired.
  • Devices: All devices that are purchased via Equipment Purchase Plan or via Flex (leased)

You can create, edit, and delete Independent Cost Centers via templates in 8x8 Billing portal and 8x8 Admin Console.

Select Independent Cost Centers

You can create and manage an Independent Cost Center via the 8x8 Billing portal. The bills in the Independent Cost Centers are mapped to services manually assigned to the Cost Center. Depending on your selection for Cost Center Based Billing, you may receive single or multiple bills.

To select an Independent Cost Center:

  1. In the 8x8 Billing portal, go to Billing > Cost Center Management from the top navigation menu. Make sure you have opted in to the Cost Center.
  2. For Cost Center Type, select the Independent.

  3. For Cost Center Based Billing select:

    • Yes: to generate multiple bills based on the Cost Center set. If you have multiple Cost Centers, you receive multiple bills.
    • No: to set up a single consolidated bill for all your Cost Centers defined. If this option is selected, the bill By Cost Center (Editable) field is not available. This option is selected by default.

  4. Click save.
    The Cost Center setting is saved successfully. Next you need to select the billing contact and payment method, then add or edit Cost Centers.

Add Independent Cost Centers via template

Templates are the only way to create and manage an Independent Cost Center. The bills in the Independent Cost Centers are mapped to services manually assigned to the Cost Center. Depending on your billing type selection, you may receive a single or multiple bills.

Let’s say your company has multiple offices across the U.S. On the East coast, you have an office in New York, and on the West coast, you have offices in San Jose, Seattle, and San Francisco. Each office houses employees belonging to multiple departments such as Engineering, Sales, and Marketing. For your 8x8 service bills, you can opt in to receive a single consolidated bill for all offices or a separate bill by coast, state, city, or department. For example, you can get a separate bill for the Engineering department in San Jose, California, West Coast, USA or a combined bill for all of the San Jose offices. You can create Independent Cost Centers and customize billing to suit your business needs.

  1. In the 8x8 Billing portal, go to Billing > Cost Center Management from the top navigation menu.
  2. Go to the Cost Center Setup tab.

    Note: You can create and delete Independent Cost Centers via template, but using UI, you can only modify an Independent Cost Center.

  3. Click Download Template at the top-right corner of the page.
  4. The Cost Center template is downloaded as a CSV file and editable in Excel or Google Sheets ready for you to fill up the information.
  5. Open the template. A default Cost Center is already created.
  6. Enter the information in a hierarchical order. See the example below.
  7. Put an X in front of each row to be billed by the Cost Center. If you have selected (Yes) or asked for multiple bills, you see the Bill by Cost Center field in the template. If you have selected (No) or asked for a single bill, you do not see Bill by Cost Center field.
  8. Save the updates and close the template. 

Example: The customer Cost Center reference is a unique identifier you give to each field. Level 1 specifies the country name (USA), followed by region (West Coast), state (CA), city (San Jose), and department (Engineering) that comes under Level 5.

  • Customer Cost Center Reference (Editable)
  • Level 1 Name (Editable): Such as USA.
  • Level 2 Name (Editable): Such as West Coast.
  • Level 3 Name (Editable): Such as CA.
  • Level 4 Name (Editable): Such as San Jose.
  • Level 5 Name (Editable): Such as Engineering or Marketing.
  • Bill by Cost Center Field: Put x to bill by the Cost Center.
  • Delete Cost Center (Editable): Put x if you want this field to be deleted.

  1. In the 8x8 Billing portal, Open Billing > Cost Center Management from the top navigation menu.
  2. Move to the Cost Center Setup tab.
  3. Click Upload Files and select the newly updated template.
  4. Click Import Data and select the updated template. Expand to see the updates under Cost Centers.

Edit Independent Cost Centers via UI

To edit any Cost Center via UI:

  1. In the 8x8 Community Portal, go to Billing > Cost Center Management from the top navigation menu.
  2. Open the Cost Center Setup tab.
  3. Click next to a field and enter the updates.
  4. You can modify the Cost Centers Name and Cost Center Reference, Billing Contact and Payment Method.
  5. If you have opted in for the Cost Center based billing, you are able to edit Bill By Cost Center from the application.

Delete Independent Cost Centers

You can delete Independent Cost Centers via template only. To delete a Cost Center, put an x in the Delete Cost Center (Editable) field. After a Cost Center is marked with x to be deleted, upload the template in the application to see the updates.

Note: The default Independent Cost Center cannot be deleted but only edited.

To delete an Independent Cost Center via template:

  1. Open the Excel sheet with the site information from your computer.
  2. Put an X next to the sites you like to delete.
  3. Save the changes.
  4. In the 8x8 Billing portal, go to Billing > Cost Center Management from the top navigation menu.
  5. Open the Cost Center Setup tab.
  6. Click Upload Files. You will notice the Cost Center marked for deletion will be removed in the application.