A Cost Unit

Is the quantitative unit of product or service in relation to which costs can be ascertained.

Examples:

Jobs, contracts, kilowatt hours, cost per patient day

A Cost Centre

Is “a location, person or item of equipment ( or group of these) in respect of which costs may be ascertained and related to cost units’

In a business, it is divided into sections called cost centre where costs are accumulated.

Example of Classification of Cost centre:

Production cost centre:

- where production takes place like machining and assembling department.

Service Cost Centre:

- which provides services to other cost centre like stores, production planning, store and maintenance.

Process Cost Centre:

- where a specific process or a continuous sequence of operations take place like refining process.