---
title: Budgets and cost centers example
description: The most common business entity to associate financial information is the cost center.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-business-management/cost-management/c\_BudgetsAndCostCentersExample.html
release: australia
product: Cost Management
classification: cost-management
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Budgets and cost centers, Cost Management, Strategic Portfolio Management]
---

# Budgets and cost centers example

The most common business entity to associate financial information is the cost center.

The example here shows how cost centers can be allocated expenses based on service usage. This example uses that information to compare with a defined budget for the cost centers.

A budget is a placeholder for an amount of planned spending for one or more cost centers. To view an example, navigate to **Financial Management** > **Budgets** and select the **Investments** budget:

This budget has a defined start and end date, planned amount, and actual amount. In the **Cost Center** related list, **Trading** is a member.

For all expense allocations assigned to the **Trading** cost center during the budget time periods, the allocations will be totaled to populate the actual budget field. The related expense allocation records can also be viewed in the **Expense Allocations** related list.

**Parent Topic:**[Budgets and cost centers](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/it-business-management/cost-management/c_BudgetsAndCostCenters.md)