Setting Up Procore Cost Codes and Cost Types

When implementing Procore, one of the first things you need to set up is your Cost Code list. This is a Company Level admin feature that provides the selectable list of Cost Codes that can be used for identifying/tracking the various types of work that are being performed by each trade, user, vendor, or subcontractor on your project. By default, Procore installs the CSI MasterFormat 16 Division codes, with all their subcategories. Now, that’s a great starting point but the truth is that, depending on the type of work you do, that can be way too much data to work with (that’s over 300 subcategories!) Or maybe, that’s just not the way your company tracks things. Either way, what you don’t want to do is change the way you work to meet the default Procore settings. The program is here to work for you, not the other way around!

This is where it can be really helpful to have a Certified Procore Consultant like ZenTek to help you out. We can handle setting up Cost Codes, and any other settings you need. We can even import your existing custom Codes for you with no issue. Having said that though, it’s really not difficult to set this up on your own. It’s usually just time consuming and not an effective use of your skills. If you want to delve into the setup on your own, this blog post will help.

Let’s start with definitions, so you know what we’re talking about:

Cost Codes: A cost code is a code that defines the specific type of work being completed on a construction project.

Cost Type: A cost type is a set of uniquely identified costs represented by an abbreviation and label. In Procore, several cost types are defined for use by default: L=Labor, E=Equipment, M=Materials, C=Commitment, OC=Owner Cost, SVC=Professional Services, and O=Other.

In other words, Cost Codes tell you the section of work (i.e., excavating, plumbing, etc.) and Cost Types tell you the type of effort (labor, equipment, etc.) Simple concepts, but setting them up can take some time, particularly if you want to import unique codes for your firm. Let’s start with that then. We can use the Procore Imports App to import your custom codes:

1. In your Procore Imports App, on the “Companies & Projects” page, select the company into which you want to import cost codes.
2. Click Continue.
3. Under the ‘Cost Codes’ section, click Add New Cost Codes.
4. Choose from the following options:
   • Save & Open Blank Template: Select this option to open, fill out, and save an Excel template for your cost codes.
   • Skip this step: Select this option to upload a completed XLSX or CSV file of your cost codes to Procore.
5. Choose Select Template File to upload an XLSX or CSV file of cost codes from your local device.
6. Click Process.
7. Review your cost codes for accuracy/errors
8. Choose from the following options:
   • Save records to computer: Select this option to save your records as a CSV and return to complete the import process at another time.
   • Import to Procore: Select this option to proceed with the import process.
9. Confirm your decision to import your cost codes list by typing your company’s name in the text field and clicking Proceed.
10. Click Finish.

Not a long set of steps, but there is a lot of work that goes into correctly formatting your Codes in Excel, so they can be read by Procore.

Next, if you work in only one specific MasterFormat Division (like Electrical), you may want to delete standard Cost Codes.

To delete Cost Codes:

1. Navigate to the company’s Admin tool.
2. Under ‘Company Settings’, click Cost Codes.
3. Delete an Existing Code or Division as follows:
   1. Highlight the code or division on the list.
   2. Click Delete.
   3. At the confirmation dialog box, click OK to confirm the delete action.

Again, not difficult to do, but with potentially hundreds to eliminate, it can cost you a bit of time to try and handle on your own!

Lastly, let’s talk about building your Cost Types list, for those of you who have the Financials package. These need to be created manually for your company, like so:

1. Navigate to the company’s Admin tool.
2. Under ‘Company Settings’, click Cost Types.
3. In the ‘Cost Types’ list, choose from these options:
   • Add a New Cost Type
     1. Enter the name for the new cost type in the Add a Cost Type box.
     2. Enter an abbreviation for the new cost type in the Add Abbreviation box.
     3. Click Add.

Remember that once the Cost Types are built, you’ll want to go back to the Cost Code settings and assign which Cost Types are available for each Cost Code. Once more, a reasonably simple process if you know how to do it but, as always, I recommend you reach out to ZenTek if you need help.

– James Coppinger