< Back to all Implementation resources

Charge Trees

There is often quite a bit of confusion for new users with the concepts of Charge Trees. In reality however, Charge Trees do not have to be complex or difficult to manage.

Charge Trees

Charge Trees in T&E are nothing more than logical groupings of charges. They can be setup by the type of charge, and nothing more complex than a Contract tree, and an Indirect tree, can suffice for some surprisingly large companies. Trees can be broken out by Client, by Location or by Project. If you are already running GCS or Costpoint, you can even use their Export Utilities to build your entire Tree structure based on how you have your charges and Workforce set up in the accounting system. When you are thinking about creating your Charge Trees, remember to keep things simple in the beginning. Charge Trees can be fluid and evolve over time to fit your business model and often the simplest structure will end up being the most efficient.

Charge Branches

Charge Trees are broken into smaller more manageable groupings by Charge Branches. In a simple setup this is often the Top Level Account or Project, especially if you are relying on GCS or Costpoint to build your trees. In most situations this is a logical and very easy setup for the employees to learn to use. If you are building and maintaining your Trees and Branches by hand, you can be very creative in how you design your Branches.

Here are a few hints if you ARE setting things up manually.

  • Think about your employees when designing your Branches. Remember that ultimately your employees are the end users of your Tree & Branch design. Make it logical and easy for them to use. It is tempting for some to have Branches off of their Branches, and in some cases that’s logical and warranted. However, that concept can be taken to the extreme and it only results in Employee dissatisfaction when having to lookup a new charge.
  • Think about yourself when designing your Branches. Remember when you are designing your masterpiece, you have to maintain it, or you have to teach someone how to maintain it. In the beginning, keep things simple and let your business needs dictate the design as your company grows.