What is primary Cost element and secondary cost element?

Every Profit and Loss GL account that needs to be controlled has to be
defined as a cost element in SAP. Just as in FI General Ledger Accounts
exist, in Controlling we have Cost element.

Each FI General Ledger Account that is a Profit and Loss Account is also
created as a Cost element in SAP.

Primary Cost Elements are those which are created from FI general
Ledger Accounts and impact the financial accounts eg. Travelling
expenses, consumption account infact, any Profit and Loss GL account

Secondary Cost Elements are those which are created only in
controlling and does not affect the financials of the company. It is used
for internal reporting only. The postings to these accounts do not affect
the Profit or Loss of the company.

The following categories exist for secondary cost elements:

21 Internal Settlement:
Cost elements of this category is used to settle order costs to objects in
controlling such as cost centers, pa segments etc.

31 Order/Results Analysis:
Used to calculate WIP on the order/project

41 Overhead
Used to calculate indirect costs from cost centers to orders

42. Assessment
Used to calculate costs during assessment

43 Internal Activity Allocation
Used to allocate costs during internal activity allocation such as Machine
Labour etc