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Copyright © 2023 – FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) a
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FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification is licensed under CC BY 4.0
FOCUS is an open-source specification for cloud billing data. It
defines a common schema for billing data, aligns terminology with the
FinOps Framework and defines a minimum set of requirements for billing
data. The specification provides clear guideline for billing data
generators to produce FinOps-serviceable data. The specification enables
FinOps practitioners to perform common FinOps capabilities such as
chargeback, cost allocation, budgeting and forecasting etc. using a
generic set of instructions, regardless of the origin of the FOCUS
compatible dataset.
Thanks to the following FOCUS members for their contributions to this
specification.
This section is non-normative.
FOCUS aims to establish a community-driven specification for
consumption-based billing data. Due to the lack of a broadly adopted
specification, infrastructure and services providers have resorted to
proprietary billing schemas and terminology. However, the lack of
conformance amongst the billing data generators has forced FinOps
practitioners to employ disparate, best-effort schemes which each
practitioner must develop individually for each
provider in order to perform essential FinOps capabilities such
as chargeback, cost allocation, budgeting and forecasting.
The FOCUS specification’s schema definition and FinOps aligned
terminology provide a clear guide for producing FinOps-serviceable
billing datasets. Datasets conforming to FOCUS enable FinOps
practitioners to perform common FinOps capabilities, like the ones
mentioned above, using a generic set of instructions, regardless of the
origin of the dataset.
This project is sponsored by the FinOps Foundation. This work initially
started under the Open Billing working group under the FinOps
Foundation. The decision was made in Jan 2023 to begin to migrate the
work to a newly formed project under the Linux Foundation called the
FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) to better support the
creation of a specification.
This specification is designed to be used by three major groups:
The FOCUS working group will develop an open-source specification for
billing data. The schema will define data dimensions, metrics, a set of attributes about
billing data, and a common lexicon for describing billing data.
The following principles were considered while building the
specification.
The keywords “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”,
“SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “NOT RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and
“OPTIONAL” in this specification are to be interpreted as described in
BCP14 [RFC2119][RFC8174] when, and only
when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
An implementation of this specification is not compliant if it fails
to satisfy one or more of the “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”,
or “SHALL NOT” requirements defined in the specification. Conversely, an
implementation of the specification is compliant if it satisfies all the
“MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, and “SHALL NOT” requirements
defined in the specification.
There are no current resources available to test for specification
conformance or validators to run on sample data. When one becomes
available, this section of the specification will be updated with
details.
The FOCUS specification defines a group of columns that provide
qualitative values (such as dates, resource, and provider information)
categorized as “dimensions” and quantitative values (numeric values)
categorized as “metrics” that can be used for performing various FinOps
capabilities. Metrics are commonly used for aggregations (sum,
multiplication, averaging etc.) and statistical operations within the
dataset. Dimensions are commonly used to categorize, filter, and reveal
details in your data when combined with metrics. The Columns are
presented in Alphabetical order.
Availability Zone is a
provider assigned identifier for a physically separated and isolated
area within a Region that provides high availability and fault
tolerance. Availability Zone is commonly used for scenarios like
analyzing cross-zone data transfer usage and the corresponding cost
based on where resources are
deployed.
The AvailabilityZone column SHOULD be present in the billing data.
This column MUST be of type String and MAY contain null values.
AvailabilityZone
Availability Zone
A provider assigned identifier for a physically separated and
isolated area within a Region that provides high availability and fault
tolerance.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | False |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
The Billed Cost represents a
charge serving as the basis for invoicing, inclusive of the impacts of
all reduced rates and discounts while excluding the amortization of relevant
purchases (one-time or recurring) paid to cover future eligible charges.
This cost is denominated in the Billing
Currency. The Billed Cost is commonly used to perform FinOps
capabilities that require cash-basis accounting such as cost allocation,
budgeting, and invoice reconciliation.
The BilledCost column MUST be present in the billing data and MUST
NOT be null. This column MUST be of type Decimal, MUST conform to Numeric Format, and be denominated in the
BillingCurrency. The aggregated BilledCost for a billing period MUST match
the charge received on the invoice for the same billing
period.
BilledCost
Billed Cost
A charge serving as the basis for invoicing, inclusive of all reduced
rates and discounts while excluding the amortization of upfront
charges (one-time or recurring).
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Metric |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | Decimal |
Value format | Numeric Format |
Number range | Any valid decimal value |
A Billing Account ID is a provider assigned identifier for a billing account.
Billing accounts are commonly used for scenarios like grouping
based on organizational constructs, invoice reconciliation and cost
allocation strategies.
The BillingAccountId column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type String and MUST NOT contain null values.
BillingAccountId MUST be a globally unique identifier within a
provider.
See Appendix:
Grouping constructs for resources or services for details and
examples of the different grouping constructs supported by FOCUS.
BillingAccountId
Billing Account ID
The identifier assigned to a billing account by the
provider.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A Billing Account Name is a display name assigned to a billing account.
Billing accounts are commonly used for scenarios like grouping
based on organizational constructs, invoice reconciliation and cost
allocation strategies.
The BillingAccountName column MUST be present in the billing data.
This column MUST be of type String. The BillingAccountName MUST NOT be
null if a display name can be assigned to a billing account.
BillingAccountName MUST be unique within a customer when a customer has
more than one billing account.
See Appendix:
Grouping constructs for resources or services for details and
examples of the different grouping constructs supported by FOCUS.
BillingAccountName
Billing Account Name
The display name assigned to a billing account.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
Billing Currency is an
identifier that represents the currency that a charge for resources or services was billed in. Billing
Currency is commonly used in scenarios where costs need to be grouped or
aggregated.
The BillingCurrency column MUST be present in the billing data.
BillingCurrency MUST match the currency used in the invoice generated by
the invoice issuer. This column MUST be of type String and MUST NOT
contain null values. BillingCurrency MUST conform to Currency Code Format requirements.
BillingCurrency
Billing Currency
Represents the currency that a charge was billed in.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | Currency Code Format |
Billing Period End represents the end date and time of the billing period.
The BillingPeriodEnd column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type Date/Time and MUST NOT contain null values.
BillingPeriodEnd column MUST conform to Date/Time Format. The sum of the BilledCost column for rows in a given billing
period MUST match the sum of the invoices received for that
billing period for a billing account.
BillingPeriodEnd
Billing Period End
The end date and time of the billing period.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | Date/Time |
Value format | Date/Time Format |
Billing Period Start represents the start date and time of the billing period.
The BillingPeriodStart column MUST be present in the billing data.
This column MUST be of type Date/Time and MUST NOT contain null values.
BillingPeriodStart column MUST conform to Date/Time Format. The sum of the BilledCost metric for rows in a given billing
period MUST match the sum of the invoices received for that
billing period for a billing account.
BillingPeriodStart
Billing Period Start
The beginning date and time of the billing period.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | Date/Time |
Value format | Date/Time Format |
A Charge Category indicates whether the row represents an upfront or
recurring fee, cost of usage that already occurred, an after-the-fact adjustment (e.g., credits), or
taxes. The Charge Category is commonly used to identify prepaid
purchases separately from usage-based charges, to separate taxes that
may require special handling, or to apply finer-grained allocation logic
to purchases or adjustments.
The ChargeCategory column MUST be present and MUST NOT be null. This
column is of type String and MUST be one of the allowed values.
ChargeCategory
Charge Category
Indicates whether the row represents an upfront or recurring fee,
cost of usage that already occurred, an after-the-fact
adjustment (e.g., credits), or taxes.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | Allowed values |
Allowed values:
Value | Description |
---|---|
Adjustment | Any adjustments that are applied after the original usage or purchase row. Adjustments may be related to multiple charges. |
Purchase | Charges for the acquisition of a service or resource bought upfront or on a recurring basis. |
Tax | Applicable taxes that are levied by the relevant authorities. Tax charges may vary depending on factors such as the location, jurisdiction, and local or federal regulations. |
Usage | Charges based on the quantity of a service or resource that was consumed over a given period of time. |
A Charge Description provides a high-level context of a row without requiring additional
discovery. This column is a self-contained summary of the charge’s
purpose and price. It typically covers a select group of corresponding
details across a billing dataset or provides information not otherwise
available.
The Charge Description column MUST be present within the dataset,
MUST be of type String, and SHOULD NOT be null. Providers SHOULD specify
the length of this column in their publicly available documentation.
ChargeDescription
Charge Description
Self-contained summary of the charge’s purpose and price.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
Charge Frequency indicates how often a charge will occur. Along with
the charge period related columns,
the Charge Frequency is commonly used to understand recurrence periods
(e.g., monthly, yearly), forecast upcoming charges, and differentiate
between one-time and recurring fees for purchases.
The ChargeFrequency column MUST be present in the billing data and
MUST NOT be null. This column is of type String and MUST be one of the
allowed values. When ChargeCategory is
“Purchase”, ChargeFrequency MUST NOT be “Usage-Based”.
ChargeFrequency
Charge Frequency
Indicates how often a charge will occur.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | Allowed values |
Allowed values:
Value | Description |
---|---|
One-Time | Charges that only happen once and will not repeat. One-time charges are typically recorded on the hour or day when the cost was incurred. |
Recurring | Charges that repeat on a periodic cadence (e.g., weekly, monthly) regardless of whether the product or service was used. Recurring charges typically happen on the same day or point within every period. The charge date does not change based on how or when the service is used. |
Usage-Based | Charges that repeat every time the service is used. Usage-based charges are typically recorded hourly or daily, based on the granularity of the cost data for the period when the service was used (referred to as charge period). Usage-based charges are not recorded when the service is not used. |
Charge Period End represents the end date and time of the charge period.
The ChargePeriodEnd column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type Date/Time and MUST NOT contain null values.
ChargePeriodEnd column MUST conform to Date/Time Format.
ChargePeriodEnd
Charge Period End
The end date and time of a charge period.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | Date/Time |
Value format | Date/Time Format |
Charge Period Start represents the starting date and time of the charge period.
The ChargePeriodStart column MUST be present in the billing data.
This column MUST be of type Date/Time and MUST NOT contain null values.
ChargePeriodStart column MUST conform to Date/Time Format.
ChargePeriodStart
Charge Period Start
The beginning date and time of a charge period.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | Date/Time |
Value format | Date/Time Format |
Charge Subcategory indicates what kind of usage or adjustment the row represents. Charge Subcategory is
a supplemental detail to the Charge
Category. It provides additional context to describe the primary
category of charge.
This linkage to the parent Charge Category means that for every entry
under Charge Category, there can be a corresponding Charge Subcategory
that further refines the nature of the charge. It’s a nested level of
detail that allows users to see not just what type of charge was
incurred. Current sub-categorization currently applies to Charge
Category values “Usage” and “Adjustment”. Support for others will be
added as needed.
When Charge Category is “Usage” and the charge is related to a commitment, the Charge
Subcategory indicates whether the row represents committed usage or is
an amortized charge for
the unused portion of the commitment. Charge Subcategory is
commonly used for scenarios like calculating commitment
utilization when Charge Category is “Usage”.
When Charge Category is “Adjustment”, the Charge Subcategory
indicates what kind of after-the-fact adjustment the record
represents and is commonly used to identify changes like credits and
refunds.
ChargeSubcategory MUST follow the requirements listed below:
ChargeSubcategory
Charge Subcategory
Indicates what kind of usage or adjustment the row
represents.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | Allowed values |
Allowed values when ChargeCategory is “Usage”:
Value | Description |
---|---|
On-Demand | Usage charges that are not associated with a commitment |
Used Commitment | Usage charges that are associated with consumption of a commitment’s underlying basis. |
Unused Commitment | Amortized usage charges for the portion of a commitment that has not been used. For example, if an organization has a commitment-based discount that is not fully utilized, the unused portion falls under this category. It highlights an area where the organization is not fully leveraging its commitments, which could be a lost cost-saving opportunity. |
Allowed values when ChargeCategory is “Adjustment”:
Value | Description |
---|---|
Refund | Negative charges that were previously billed and are being returned by the provider. Providers can have multiple types of refunds such as resolving a tax error or for returned or exchanged commitment-based discounts. |
Credit | Negative charges granted by the provider for various scenarios, like negotiated benefits, usage discounts, or promotional credits. |
Rounding Error | Positive or negative charges that are needed to ensure raw billing data aggregations match the total cost on the invoice, which may be rounded. |
General Adjustment | Positive or negative charges the provider applies that do not fall into other adjustment category values. |
Commitment Discount Category indicates whether the commitment-based
discount identified in the CommitmentDiscountId column is based
on usage quantity or cost (aka “spend”).
The CommitmentDiscountCategory column MUST be present in the billing
data. This column MUST be of type String, MUST be null when CommitmentDiscountId is null, and MUST
NOT be null when CommitmentDiscountId is not null. The
CommitmentDiscountCategory MUST be one of the allowed values.
CommitmentDiscountCategory
Commitment Discount Category
Indicates whether the commitment-based discount identified
in the CommitmentDiscountId column is based on usage quantity or cost
(aka “spend”).
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | Allowed Values |
Allowed values:
Value | Description |
---|---|
Spend | Commitment-based discounts that require a predetermined amount of spend. |
Usage | Commitment-based discounts that require a predetermined amount of usage. |
A Commitment Discount ID is the identifier assigned to a commitment-based
discount by the provider. Commitment Discount ID is commonly
used for scenarios like chargeback for commitments and savings
per commitment-based discount.
The CommitmentDiscountId column MUST be present in the billing data.
This column MUST be of type String and MUST NOT contain null values when
a charge is related to a commitment-based discount. When a
charge is not associated with a commitment-based discount, the
column MUST be null. CommitmentDiscountId MUST be unique within the
provider.
CommitmentDiscountId
Commitment Discount ID
The identifier assigned to a commitment-based discount by
the provider.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A Commitment Discount Name is the display name assigned to a commitment-based
discount.
The CommitmentDiscountName column MUST be present in the billing
data. This column MUST be of type String. The CommitmentDiscountName
value MUST be null if the charge is not related to a
commitment-based discount and MAY be null if a display name
cannot be assigned to a commitment-based discount.
CommitmentDiscountName MUST NOT be null if a display name can be
assigned to a commitment-based discount.
CommitmentDiscountName
Commitment Discount Name
The display name assigned to a commitment-based
discount.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
Commitment Discount Type is a provider-assigned name to identify the
type of commitment-based
discount applied to the row.
The CommitmentDiscountType column MUST be present in the billing
data. This column MUST be of type String, MUST be null when CommitmentDiscountId is null, and MUST
NOT be null when CommitmentDiscountId is not null. Providers MUST use a
consistent value-format and a set of values for CommitmentDiscountType
values within their billing datasets.
CommitmentDiscountType
Commitment Discount Type
A provider-assigned identifier for the type of commitment-based
discount applied to the row.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | False |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
Effective Cost represents a cost inclusive of the impacts of all
reduced rates and discounts, augmented with the amortization of relevant
purchases (one-time or recurring) paid to cover future eligible charges.
The amortized portion included should be proportional to the Pricing Quantity and the time granularity of
the data. This cost is denominated in the Billing Currency. The Effective Cost is
commonly utilized to track and analyze spending trends.
This column resolves two challenges that are faced by
practitioners:
The EffectiveCost column MUST be present in the billing data and MUST
NOT be null. This column MUST be of type Decimal, MUST conform to Numeric Format, and be denominated in the
BillingCurrency. The aggregated EffectiveCost for a billing period MAY
NOT match the charge received on the invoice for the same billing
period.
In cases where the SkuPriceId is null, the
following applies:
EffectiveCost
Effective Cost
Cost inclusive of the impacts of all reduced rates and discounts,
augmented with the amortization of relevant purchases (one-time
or recurring) paid to cover future eligible charges.
Providers should distribute the commitment purchase amount
instead of including a row at the beginning of a period so
practitioners do not need to manually distribute the fee themselves.
Eligible purchases should be amortized using a methodology
determined by the provider that reflects the needs of their customer
base and is proportional with the Pricing Quantity and the time
granularity of the row. Should a practitioner desire to
amortize relevant purchases using a different approach, the
practitioner can do so using the Billed Cost
for the line item representing the initial purchase.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Metric |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | Decimal |
Value format | Numeric Format |
Number range | Any valid decimal value |
An Invoice Issuer is an entity responsible for invoicing for the resources or services consumed. It is commonly
used for cost analysis and reporting scenarios.
The InvoiceIssuer column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type String and MUST NOT contain null values.
See Appendix: Origination of cost
data section for examples of Provider, Publisher and Invoice Issuer values that can be
used for various purchasing scenarios.
InvoiceIssuerName
Invoice Issuer
The name of the entity responsible for invoicing for the
resources or services consumed.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
List Cost represents the cost calculated by multiplying List Unit Price and the corresponding Pricing Quantity. List Cost is denominated
in the Billing Currency and is commonly
used for calculating savings based on various rate optimization
activities, by comparing it with Effective
Cost.
The ListCost column MUST be present in the billing data and MUST NOT
be null. This column MUST be of type Decimal, MUST conform to Numeric Format, and be denominated in the
BillingCurrency. When a ListUnitPrice is not null, multiplying the
ListUnitPrice by PricingQuantity MUST produce the ListCost.
In cases where the ListUnitPrice is null, the following applies:
ListCost
List Cost
Cost calculated by multiplying List Unit Price and the corresponding
Pricing Quantity.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Metric |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | Decimal |
Value format | Numeric Format |
Number range | Any valid decimal value |
The List Unit Price represents the suggested provider-published unit
price for a single Pricing Unit of the
associated SKU, exclusive of any discounts. This price is denominated in
the Billing Currency. The List Unit Price
is commonly used for calculating savings based on various rate
optimization activities.
The ListUnitPrice column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be a Decimal within the range of non-negative decimal
values, MUST conform to Numeric Format, and
be denominated in the BillingCurrency. ListUnitPrice MUST NOT be null if
SkuPriceId is not null and MUST be null if
SkuPriceId is null. When ListUnitPrice is not null, multiplying
ListUnitPrice by PricingQuantity MUST
equal ListCost.
ListUnitPrice
List Unit Price
The suggested provider-published unit price for a single Pricing Unit
of the associated SKU, exclusive of any discounts.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Metric |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | Decimal |
Value format | Numeric Format |
Number range | Any valid non-negative decimal value |
Pricing Category describes the pricing model used for a charge at the
time of use or purchase. It can be useful for distinguishing between
charges at the List Unit Price or a reduced
price and exposing optimization opportunities, like increasing commitment-based discount
coverage.
The PricingCategory column adheres to the following requirements:
PricingCategory
Pricing Category
Describes the pricing model used for a charge at the time of use or
purchase.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | Allowed values |
Allowed values:
Value | Description |
---|---|
On-Demand | Charges priced at the standard rate for the billing account. This includes any flat rate and volume/tiered pricing but does not include dynamic or commitment-based discount pricing. |
Dynamic | Charges priced at a variable rate determined by the provider. This includes any product or service with a unit price the provider can change without notice, like interruptible or low priority resources. |
Commitment-Based | Charges with reduced prices due to a commitment-based discount specified by the Commitment Discount ID. |
Other | Charges priced in a way not covered by another pricing category. |
The Pricing Quantity represents the volume of a given resource or service used or purchased based on
the Pricing Unit. Distinct from Usage Quantity (complementary to Usage Unit), it focuses on pricing and cost, not
resource and service consumption.
PricingQuantity MUST be present in the billing data. This column MUST
be of type Decimal and MUST conform to Numeric
Format. The value MAY be negative in cases where ChargeSubcategory is “Refund”. This column
MUST NOT be null if SkuPriceId is not null and
MUST be null if SkuPriceId is null. When unit prices are not null,
multiplying PricingQuantity by a unit price MUST produce a result equal
to the corresponding cost metric.
PricingQuantity
Pricing Quantity
The volume of a given resource or service used or
purchased based on the Pricing Unit.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Metric |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | Decimal |
Value format | Numeric Format |
Number Range | Any valid decimal value |
The Pricing Unit represents a provider-specified measurement unit for
determining unit prices, indicating how a provider rates measured usage
and purchase quantities considering pricing rules like block pricing. Common
examples include the number of hours for compute appliance runtime (e.g.
Hours
), gigabyte-hours for a storage appliance (e.g.,
GB-Hours
), or an accumulated count of requests for a
network appliance or API service (e.g., 1000 Requests
).
Pricing Unit complements the Pricing
Quantity metric. Distinct from the Usage
Unit, it focuses on pricing and cost, not resource and service consumption, often at a
coarser granularity.
The PricingUnit column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type String. It MUST NOT be null if SkuPriceId is not null and MUST be null if
SkuPriceId is null. Units of measure used in PricingUnit SHOULD adhere
to the values and format requirements specified in the UnitFormat attribute.
The PricingUnit value MUST be semantically equal to the corresponding
pricing measurement unit value provided in:
PricingUnit
Pricing Unit
A provider-specified measurement unit for determining unit prices,
indicating how a provider rates measured usage and purchase quantities
after applying pricing rules like block pricing.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | Unit Format |
A Provider is an entity that made the resources or services available for purchase.
It is commonly used for cost analysis and reporting scenarios.
The Provider column MUST be present in the billing data. This column
MUST be of type String and MUST NOT contain null values.
See Appendix: Origination of cost
data section for examples of Provider, Publisher and Invoice Issuer
values that can be used for various purchasing scenarios.
ProviderName
Provider
The name of the entity that made the resources or
services available for purchase.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A Publisher is an entity that produced the resources or services that were purchased. It
is commonly used for cost analysis and reporting scenarios.
The Publisher column MUST be present in the billing data. This column
MUST be of type String and MUST NOT contain null values.
See Appendix: Origination of cost
data section for examples of Provider,
Publisher and Invoice Issuer values that
can be used for various purchasing scenarios.
PublisherName
Publisher
The name of the entity that produced the resources or
services that were purchased.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A Region is a provider assigned identifier for an isolated geographic
area where a resource is
provisioned in or a service is
provided from. Region is commonly used for scenarios like analyzing cost
and unit prices based on where resources are deployed.
Region MUST be present in the billing data and MUST be of type
String. Region MUST NOT be null when a resource or
service is operated in or managed from a distinct region.
Region values MUST be consistent within the provider and MUST be the
same values used to indicate the region when provisioning or purchasing
the resource or service.
Region
Region
Isolated geographic area where a resource is provisioned in
or a service is provided from.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A Resource ID is an identifier assigned to a resource by the provider. The
Resource ID is commonly used for cost reporting, analysis, and
allocation scenarios.
The ResourceId column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type String. The ResourceId value MAY be a nullable
column as some cost data rows may
not be associated with a resource. ResourceId MUST appear in
the cost data if an identifier is assigned to a resource by the
provider. ResourceId SHOULD be a fully-qualified identifier that ensures
global uniqueness within the provider.
ResourceId
Resource ID
Identifier assigned to a resource by the provider.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
The Resource Name is a display name assigned to a resource. It is commonly used for
cost analysis, reporting, and allocation scenarios.
The ResourceName column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type String. The ResourceName value MAY be a nullable
column as some cost data rows may
not be associated with a resource or because a display name
cannot be assigned to a resource. ResourceName MUST NOT be null
if a display name can be assigned to a resource.
Resources not provisioned interactively or only have a system
generated ResourceId MUST NOT duplicate the
same value as the ResourceName.
ResourceName
Resource Name
Display name assigned to a resource.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
Resource Type describes the kind of resource the charge applies to. A
Resource Type is commonly used for scenarios like identifying cost
changes in groups of similar resources and may include values
like Virtual Machine, Data Warehouse, and Load Balancer.
The ResourceType column MUST be present within billing data. This
column MUST be of type String and MUST NOT be null when a corresponding
ResourceId is not null. When a corresponding
ResourceId value is null, the ResourceType column value MUST also be
null. Providers MUST use a consistent value-format and a set of values
for ResourceType values within their billing datasets.
ResourceType
Resource Type
The kind of resource the charge applies to.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
The Service Category is the highest-level classification of a service based on the core function
of the service. Each service should have one and only
one category that best aligns to its primary purpose. The Service
Category is commonly used for scenarios like analyzing costs across
providers and tracking the migration of workloads across fundamentally
different architectures.
The ServiceCategory column MUST be present and MUST NOT be null. This
column is of type String and MUST be one of the allowed values.
ServiceCategory
Service Category
Highest-level classification of a service based on the core
function of the service.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | Allowed Values |
Allowed values:
Service Category | Description |
---|---|
AI and Machine Learning | Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning related technologies. |
Analytics | Data processing, analytics, and visualization capabilities. |
Business Applications | Business and productivity applications and services. |
Compute | Virtual, containerized, serverless, or high-performance computing infrastructure and services. |
Databases | Database platforms and services that allow for storage and querying of data. |
Developer Tools | Software development and delivery tools and services. |
Multicloud | Support for interworking of multiple cloud and/or on-premises environments. |
Identity | Identity and access management services. |
Integration | Services that allow applications to interact with one another. |
Internet of Things | Development and management of IoT devices and networks. |
Management and Governance | Management, logging, and observability of a customer’s use of cloud. |
Media | Media and entertainment streaming and processing services. |
Migration | Moving applications and data to the cloud. |
Mobile | Services enabling cloud applications to interact via mobile technologies. |
Networking | Network connectivity and management. |
Security | Security monitoring and compliance services. |
Storage | Storage services for structured or unstructured data. |
Web | Services enabling cloud applications to interact via the Internet. |
Other | New or emerging services that do not align with an existing category. |
A service represents an
offering that can be purchased from a provider (e.g., cloud virtual
machine, SaaS database, professional services from a systems
integrator). A service offering can include various types of
usage or other charges. For example, a cloud database service
may include compute, storage, and networking charges.
The Service Name is a display name for the offering that was
purchased. The Service Name is commonly used for scenarios like
analyzing aggregate cost trends over time and filtering data to
investigate anomalies.
The ServiceName column MUST be present in the cost data. This column
MUST be of type String and MUST NOT contain null values.
ServiceName
Service Name
An offering that can be purchased from a provider (e.g., cloud
virtual machine, SaaS database, professional services from a
systems integrator).
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | False |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A SKU ID is an unique identifier that defines a provider-supported
construct for organizing properties that are common across one or more
SKU Prices. SKU ID can be
referenced on a catalog or price
list published by a provider to look up detailed information
about the SKU. The composition of the properties associated with the SKU
ID may differ across providers. Some providers may not support the SKU construct and instead associate
all such properties directly with the SKU Price. SKU ID is
commonly used for analyzing cost based on SKU related
properties above the pricing constructs.
The SkuId column MUST be present in the billing data. This column
MUST be of type String. The SkuId MUST NOT be null when SkuPriceId is not null. SkuId MUST equal
SkuPriceId when a provider does not support an overarching SKU ID
construct.
SkuId
SKU ID
An unique identifier that defines a provider-supported construct for
organizing properties that are common across one or more SKU
Prices.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A SKU Price ID is a unique identifier that defines the unit price
used to calculate the charge. SKU Price ID can be referenced on a price list published by a
provider to look up detailed information, including a corresponding list
unit price. The composition of the properties associated with the SKU
Price ID may differ across providers. SKU Price ID is commonly used for
analyzing cost based on pricing properties such as Terms and Tiers.
The SkuPriceId column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type String. SkuPriceId MUST define a single unit
price used for calculating the charge. The ListUnitPrice MUST be associated with the
SkuPriceId in the provider published price list. The SkuPriceId
MUST NOT be null when ChargeCategory is
“Purchase” or “Usage”. SkuPriceId MUST NOT be null when ChargeSubcategory is “Refund” and the
refund is related to charges with a specific SkuPriceId. A given value
of SkuPriceId MUST be associated with one and only one SkuId, except in cases of commitment discount
flexibility.
SkuPriceId
SKU Price ID
Unique identifier that defines the unit price used to calculate the
charge.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A Sub Account ID is a provider assigned identifier assigned to a sub account. Sub account ID is
commonly used for scenarios like grouping based on organizational
constructs, access management needs, and cost allocation strategies.
The SubAccountId column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type String. If a provider supports a sub
account construct, that value MUST appear in this column. If a
provider does not support a sub account construct (only has a
billing account](#glossary:billing-account)) or does support a
sub account construct, but the charge does not apply to a
sub account, the SubAccountId column MUST be null.
See Appendix:
Grouping constructs for resources or services for details and
examples of the different grouping constructs supported by FOCUS.
SubAccountId
Sub Account ID
An ID assigned to a grouping of resources or
services, often used to manage access and/or cost.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
A sub account name is a display name assigned to a sub
account. Sub account Name is commonly used for scenarios like
grouping based on organizational constructs, access management needs,
and cost allocation strategies.
The SubAccountName column MUST be present in the billing data. This
column MUST be of type String. If a provider supports setting a display
name for sub accounts, that value MUST appear in this column.
If a provider does not support a sub account construct (only
has a billing account)
or does support a sub account construct, but the charge does
not apply to a sub account, the SubAccountName column MUST be
null.
See Appendix:
Grouping constructs for resources or services for details and
examples of the different grouping constructs supported by FOCUS.
SubAccountName
Sub Account Name
A name assigned to a grouping of resources or
services, often used to manage access and/or cost.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | <not specified> |
The Tags column represents the set of tags assigned to tag sources that also account
for potential provider-defined or user-defined tag evaluations. Tags are
commonly used for scenarios like adding business context to billing data
to identify and accurately allocate charges.
A tag becomes finalized when a single
value is selected from a set of possible tag values assigned to the tag
key. When supported by a provider, this can occur when a tag value is
set by provider-defined or user-defined rules.
The Tags column adheres to the following requirements:
Provider-defined Tags additionally adhere to the following
requirements:
The following is an example of one user-defined tag and one
provider-defined tag, respectively, with tag key, foo
. The
first tag is user-defined and not prefixed. The second tag is
provider-defined and prefixed with acme/
, which the
provider has specified as a reserved tag key prefix.
Within a provider, tag keys may be associated with multiple values,
and potentially defined at different levels within the provider, such as
accounts, folders, resource
and other resource grouping constructs. When finalizing,
providers must reduce these multiple levels of definition to a
single value where each key is associated with exactly one value. The
method by which this is done and the semantics are up to each provider,
but must be documented within their respective documentation.
As a example, let’s assume 1 sub
account exists with 1 virtual machine with the following
details, and tag inheritance favors Resources over Sub
Accounts.
The table below represents a finalized billing dataset with these
resources. It also shows the finalized state after all
resource-oriented, tag inheritance rules are processed.
ResourceType | ResourceId | Tags |
---|---|---|
Sub Account | my-sub-account | { “team”: “ops”, “env”: “prod” } |
Virtual Machine | my-vm | { “team”: “web”, “env”: “prod” } |
Because the the Virtual Machine Resource did not have an
env
tag, it inherited tag, env:prod
(italicized), from its parent sub account. Conversely, because
the Virtual Machine Resource already has a team
tag
(team:web
), it did not inherit team:ops
from
its parent sub account.
Tags
Tags
The set of tags assigned to tag sources that also account
for potential provider-defined or user-defined tag evaluations.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Dimension |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | JSON |
Value format | Key-Value Format |
The Usage Quantity represents the volume of a given resource or service used or purchased based on
the Usage Unit. Usage Quantity is often derived
at a finer granularity or over a different time interval when compared
to the Pricing Quantity (complementary to
Pricing Unit), and focuses on
resource and service consumption, not pricing and
cost.
UsageQuantity MUST be present in the billing data. This column MUST
be of type Decimal and MUST conform to Numeric
Format. The value MAY be negative in cases where ChargeSubcategory is “Refund”. This column
MUST NOT contain null values when SkuPriceId
is not null.
UsageQuantity
Usage Quantity
Volume of a given resource or service used or
purchased based on the Usage Unit.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Metric |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | Decimal |
Value format | Numeric Format |
Number range | Any valid decimal value |
Usage Unit represents the units of a given resource or service used or purchased in
combination with Usage Quantity. Usage Unit
is often listed at a finer granularity or over a different time interval
when compared to the Pricing Unit
(complementary to Pricing Quantity), and
focuses on resource and service consumption, not
pricing and cost.
The UsageUnit column MUST be present in the billing data. This column
MUST be of type String and MUST NOT contain null values when the ChargeCategory is “Usage”. Units of measure
used in UsageUnit SHOULD adhere to the values and format requirements
specified in the UnitFormat attribute. The
UsageUnit column MUST NOT be used as the basis for determining values
related to any pricing or cost metric.
UsageUnit
Usage Unit
Units of a given resource or service used or
purchased in combination with Usage
Quantity.
Constraint | Value |
---|---|
Column type | Metric |
Column required | True |
Allows nulls | True |
Data type | String |
Value format | Unit Format recommended |
1.0
Attributes are requirements that apply to the billing datasets.
Requirements on data content can include naming conventions, data types,
formatting standardizations, etc. Attributes may introduce high-level
requirements for data granularity, recency, frequency, etc. Requirements
defined in attributes are necessary for servicing FinOps
capabilities accurately using a standard set of instructions
regardless of the origin of the data.
Column IDs provided in cost data which follow a consistent naming
convention reducing friction for FinOps practitioners that consume the
data for analysis, reporting, and other use cases.
All columns defined in the FOCUS
specification MUST follow the naming requirements listed below.
ColumnNamingConvention
Column Naming Convention
Naming convention for columns appearing in billing data.
Id
orName
suffix in the Column ID. Display Name for a Column MAYId
orName
suffix in the Column ID. Display Name for a Column MAYName
suffix if it is considered superfluous.Category
suffix must bex_
prefix to identify them as external, custom columns andColumns that contain currency information in cost data following a
consistent format reduces friction for FinOps practitioners that consume
the data for analysis, reporting, and other use cases.
All columns capturing a currency value, defined in the FOCUS
specification, MUST follow the requirements listed below. Custom
currency-related columns SHOULD also follow the same formatting
requirements.
CurrencyCodeFormat
Currency Code Format
Formatting for currency columns appearing in billing data.
None
Columns that provide date and time information conforming to
specified rules and formatting requirements ensure clarity, accuracy,
and ease of interpretation for both humans and systems.
All columns capturing a date/time value, defined in the FOCUS
specification, MUST follow the formatting requirements listed below.
Custom date/time-related columns SHOULD also follow the same formatting
requirements.
DateTimeFormat
Date/Time Format
Rules and formatting requirements for date/time related columns
appearing in billing data.
None
A discount is a pricing construct where providers offer a reduced
price for services. Providers
may have many types of discounts, including but not limited to
commercially negotiated discounts, commitment-based discounts when you
agree to a certain amount of usage or spend, and bundled discounts where
you receive free or discounted usage of one product or service
based on the usage of another. Discount Handling is commonly used in
scenarios like verifying discounts were applied and calculating cost
savings.
Some discount offers can be purchased from a provider to get reduced
prices. The most common example is a commitment-based discount, where
you “purchase” a commitment to use or spend a specific amount within a
period. When a commitment isn’t fully utilized, the unused amount
reduces the potential savings from the discount and can even result in
paying higher costs than without the discount. Due to this risk, unused
commitment amounts need to be clearly identifiable at a granular level.
To facilitate this, unused commitments are recorded with a separate row
for each charge period where the commitment was not fully utilized. In
order to show the impact of purchased discounts on each discounted row,
discount purchases need the purchase amount the be amortized over the
term the discount is applied to (e.g., 1 year) with each charge period
split and applied to each row that received the discount.
Amortization is a process used to break down and spread purchase
costs over a period of time or term of use. When a purchase is
applicable to resources, like commitment-based discounts, the amortized
cost of a resource takes the initial payment and term into account and
distributes it out based on the resource’s usage, attributing the
prorated cost for each unit of billing. Amortization enables users of
billing data to distribute purchase charges to the appropriate audience
in support of cost allocation efforts. Discount Handling for purchased
commitments is commonly used for scenarios like calculating utilization
and implementing chargeback for the purchase amount.
While providers may use different terms to describe discounts, FOCUS
identifies a discount as being a reduced price applied directly to a
row. Any price or cost reductions that are awarded after the fact are
identified as a “Credit” Charge Subcategory. One example might be when a
provider offers a reduced rate after passing a certain threshold of
usage or spend.
All rows defined in FOCUS MUST follow the discount handling
requirements listed below.
DiscountHandling
Discount Handling
Indicates how to include and apply discounts to usage charges or
rows.
None
Columns that provide Key-Value information are often used in place of
separate columns for enumerating data which would be inherently sparse
and/or without predetermined keys. This consolidates related information
and provides more consistency in the schema. Key-value pairs are also
referred to as name-value pairs, attribute-value pairs, or field-value
pairs.
All key-value related columns defined in the FOCUS
specification MUST follow the key-value formatting requirements listed
below.
KeyValueFormat
Key-Value Format
Rules and formatting requirements for columns appearing in billing
data which convey data as key-value pairs.
true
, false
, ornull
.None
Cost data rows that don’t have a
value that can be presented for a column must be handled in a consistent
way to reduce friction for FinOps practitioners that consume the data
for analysis, reporting, and other use cases.
All columns defined in the FOCUS
specification MUST follow the null handling requirements listed below.
Custom columns SHOULD also follow the same formatting requirements.
NullHandling
Null Handling
Indicates how to handle columns that don’t have a value.
None
Columns that provide numeric values conforming to specified rules and
formatting requirements ensure clarity, accuracy, and ease of
interpretation for humans and systems. The FOCUS
specification does not require a specific level of precision for numeric
values. The level of precision required for a given column is determined
by the provider and should be part of a data definition published by the
provider.
All columns capturing a numeric value, defined in the FOCUS
specification, MUST follow the formatting requirements listed below.
Provider-generated numeric value capturing columns SHOULD adopt the same
format requirements over time.
NumericFormat
Numeric Format
Rules and formatting requirements for numeric columns appearing in
billing data.
Allowed values:
Data Type | Type Description |
---|---|
Integer | Specifies a numeric value represented by a whole number or by zero. Integer number formats correspond to standard data types defined by ISO/IEC 9899:2018 |
Decimal | Specifies a numeric value represented by a decimal number. Decimal formats correspond to ISO/IEC/IEEE 60559:2011 and IEEE 754-2008 definitions. |
Allowed values:
Data Type | Precision | Definition | Range / Significant Digits |
---|---|---|---|
Integer | Short | 16-bit signed short int ISO/IEC 9899:2018 |
-32,767 to +32,767 |
Integer | Long | 32-bit signed long int ISO/IEC 9899:2018 |
-2,147,483,647 to +2,147,483,647 |
Integer | Extended | 64-bit signed two’s complement integer or higher |
-(2^63 – 1) to (2^63 – 1) |
Decimal | Single | 32-bit binary format IEEE 754-2008 floating-point (decimal32) |
9 |
Decimal | Double | 64-bit binary format IEEE 754-2008 floating-point (decimal64) |
16 |
Decimal | Extended | 128-bit binary format IEEE 754-2008 floating-point (decimal128) or higher |
36+ |
This format requires that single numeric values be represented using
an integer or decimal format without additional characters or
qualifiers. The following lists provide examples of values that meet the
requirements and those that do not.
Values Meeting Numeric Requirements:
Values NOT Meeting Numeric Requirements
None
Billing data frequently captures data measured in units related to
data size, count, time, and other dimensions. The Unit Format
attribute provides a standard for expressing units of measure in columns
appearing in billing data.
All columns defined in FOCUS
specifying Unit Format as a value format MUST follow the requirements
listed below.
UnitFormat
Unit Format
Indicates standards for expressing measurement units in columns
appearing in billing data.
<plural-units>
– “GB”, “Seconds”<singular-unit>-<plural-time-units>
–<plural-units>/<singular-time-unit>
–<quantity> <plural-units>
– “1000 Tokens”,<plural-units>/<interval> <plural-time-units>
Data size unit names MUST be abbreviated using one of abbreviations
in the following table. For example, a unit name of “TB” is a valid unit
name, and a unit name of “terabyte” is an invalid unit name. Data size
abbreviations can be considered both the singular and plural form of the
unit. For example, “GB” is both the singular and plural form of the unit
“gigabyte”, and “GBs” would an invalid unit name. Values that exceed
10^18 MUST use the abbreviation for exabit, exabyte, exbibit, and
exbibyte, and values smaller than a byte MUST use the abbreviation for
bit or byte. For example, the abbreviation “YB” for “yottabyte” is not a
valid data size unit name as it represents a value larger than what is
listed in the following table.
The following table lists the valid abbreviations for data size units
from a single bit or byte to 10^18 bits or bytes.
Data size in bits | Data size in bytes |
---|---|
b (bit) = 10^1 | B (byte = 10^1) |
Kb (kilobit = 10^3) | KB (kilobyte = 10^3) |
Mb (megabit = 10^6) | MB (megabyte = 10^6) |
Gb (gigabit = 10^9) | GB (gigabyte = 10^9) |
Tb (terabit = 10^12) | TB (terabyte = 10^12) |
Pb (petabit = 10^15) | PB (petabyte = 10^15) |
Eb (exabit = 10^18) | EB (exabyte = 10^18) |
Kib (kibibit = 2^10) | KiB (kibibyte = 2^10) |
Mib (mebibit = 2^20) | MiB (mebibyte = 2^20) |
Gib (gibibit = 2^30) | GiB (gibibyte = 2^30) |
Tib (tebibit = 2^40) | TiB (tebibyte = 2^40) |
Pib (pebibit = 2^50) | PiB (pebibyte = 2^50) |
Eib (exbibit = 2^60) | EiB (exbibyte = 2^60) |
A count-based unit is a noun that represents a discrete number of
items, events, or actions. For example, a count-based unit can be used
to represent the number of requests, instances, tokens, or
connections.
If the following list of recommended values does not cover a
count-based unit, a provider MAY introduce a new noun representing a
count-based unit. All nouns appearing in unit that are not listed in the
recommended values table will be considered count-based units. A new
count-based unit value MUST be capitalized.
Count |
---|
Count |
Unit |
Request |
Token |
Connection |
Certificate |
Domain |
Core |
A time-based unit is a noun that represents a time interval.
Time-based units can be used to measure consumption over a time interval
or in combination with another unit to capture a rate of consumption.
Time-based units MUST match one of the values listed in the following
table.
Time |
---|
Year |
Month |
Day |
Hour |
Minute |
Second |
If the unit value is a composite value made from combinations of one
or more units, each component MUST also align with the set of
recommended values.
Instead of “per” or “-” to denote a Composite Unit, slash (“/”) and
space(” “) MUST be used as a common convention. Count-based units like
requests, instances, and tokens SHOULD be expressed using a value listed
in the count dimension. For example, if a usage unit is
measured as a rate of requests or instances over a period of time, the
unit SHOULD be listed as “Requests/Day” to signify the number of
requests per day.
None
1.0
The following table contains a set of commonly performed FinOps
scenarios that were used as a basis for developing this specification.
These use cases were developed by FinOps practitioners.
Persona | Capability | Use Case | FOCUS Columns |
---|---|---|---|
Business / Product Owner | Budget Management | As a Business/Product Owner, I need to compare actual usage costs incurred within a time period to the amount forecasted. |
BilledCost BillingAccountId BillingAccountName ChargePeriodStart ChargePeriodEnd ChargeCategory Provider |
Engineering & Operations | Budget Management | As an Engineering Manager who wants to reduce their billed cost for Compute for a specific provider, I want to understand what is my current rate of Commitment based discount (without negotiated discounts) per type of commitment, so that I can strategize further purchases |
BillingPeriodStart CommitmentDiscountType EffectiveCost Provider ServiceName SubAccountId SubAccountName |
Engineering & Operations | Data Analysis and Showback | As an Engineer, I want to understand the costs of the components that belong to an application |
ChargeDescription ChargePeriodStart EffectiveCost ResourceId ResourceName ResourceType ServiceCategory ServiceName SKUId Tags |
Engineering & Operations | Data Analysis and Showback | As an Engineer, I want to understand the costs of the components for a specific resource |
ChargePeriodStart EffectiveCost ResourceId ResourceName SKUId |
Engineering & Operations | Data Analysis and Showback | As an Engineer, I want to understand the costs of all components and resources within a subaccount |
ChargePeriodStart EffectiveCost ResourceId ResourceName SKUId SubAccountID |
Engineering & Operations | Data Analysis and Showback | As an Engineering & Operations person I would like to analyze the usage of serverless requests on a weekly basis to identity potential optimization candidates |
BilledCost Provider ChargePeriodStart ChargePeriodEnd SkuId UsageQuantity Tags UsageUnit |
Engineering & Operations | Data Analysis and Showback | As an Engineer, I need to extract a ranked list of the top 10 service cost drivers within a sub account from a time period |
ChargePeriodStart EffectiveCost SubAccountID SubAccountName ServiceName |
Engineering & Operations | Workload Management & Automation | As an Engineer I need to ensure my costs within a region are distributed across the different availability zones in an expected manner. |
Provider AvailabilityZone Region BillingPeriodStart EffectiveCost |
Engineering & Operations | Workload Management & Automation | As an Engineering manager, I need to see the cost of each compute resource in a production SubAccount I’m responsible for. |
ResourceID ResourceName ChargePeriodStart ChargePeriodEnd ServiceName ServiceCategory PricingQuantity EffectiveCost |
Finance | Budget Management | As a person in Finance, I need to update cloud budget with actual cost details within a billing period |
BilledCost BillingPeriodStart BillingPeriodEnd Provider |
Finance | Budget Management | As a person in Finance, I need to update budget, by application, with actual cost details within a billed time period |
BilledCost BillingPeriodStart BillingPeriodEnd Provider Tags |
Finance | Budget Management | As a person in Finance, I need to track tax costs month over month. |
BillingPeriodStart BilledCost ChargeCategory Provider |
Finance | Budget Management | As a Financial Analyst or member of the company’s treasury, I would like to understand what volume of commitment based charges are going to reoccur in the coming financial year |
ChargeFrequency BillingPeriodStart BilledCost |
Finance | Data Analysis and Showback | As a Finance person of a company that sells SaaS services, I need to determine the resource quantity and type used by a customer so that a monthly invoice can be issued to the customer. |
Provider BillingPeriodStart SKU UsageQuantity UsageUnit Tags |
Finance | Data Analysis and Showback | As a person in Finance, I need a report of all cost associated with a product from all geographic locations for a given month. |
BilledCost BilledCurrency BillingAccountId BillingAccountName BillingPeriodEnd Provider Tags |
Finance | FinOps & Intersecting Frameworks | As a person in Finance, I need a report of service-level cost within a specific Sub Account as a part of a private pricing negotiation. |
BillingPeriodStart EffectiveCost Provider ServiceName SubAccountID SubAccountName |
Finance | Forecasting | As a person in Finance, I need to forecast amortized costs on a month over month basis, based on historical trends |
BillingPeriodStart ChargeType EffectiveCost PricingUnit Provider ServiceType ServiceCategory |
Finance | Forecasting | As a person in Finance, I need to forecast cashflow on a month over month basis, based on historical trends |
BillingPeriodStart ChargeType ChargeDescription BilledCost PricingUnit Provider ServiceType ServiceCategory |
FinOps Practitioner | Data Analysis and Showback | As a FinOps practitioner, I need to analyze service costs month over month, over a time period |
EffectiveCost BillingPeriodStart Provider ServiceName |
FinOps Practitioner | Data Analysis and Showback | As a FinOps practitioner, I need to analyze service costs, by region, over a time period |
EffectiveCost BillingPeriodStart Provider Region ServiceName |
FinOps Practitioner | Data Analysis and Showback | As a FinOps practitioner, I need to analyze Compute Engine service costs month over month for a period of time to identify accounts spending the most money on Compute Engine |
BilledCost BillingPeriodStart Provider ResourceId ResourceName ServiceName SubAccountId SubAccountName |
FinOps Practitioner | Data Analysis and Showback | As a FinOps practitioner, I want to monitor how much we are spending on a specific SaaS product purchased via the cloud service provider’s marketplace. |
ChargePeriodStart ChargePeriodEnd EffectiveCost InvoiceIssuer Provider Publisher |
FinOps Practitioner | Data Analysis and Showback | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to understand what we are spending across providers, billing periods, and service categories |
Provider BillingPeriodStart BilledCost BillingCurrency ServiceCategory |
FinOps Practitioner | FinOps & Intersecting Frameworks | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to verify the accuracy of the cloud service provider invoices |
Provider BillingAccountID BillingAccountName BillingPeriodStart BilledCost BillingCurrency |
FinOps Practitioner | FinOps & Intersecting Frameworks | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to verify the accuracy of the cloud service provider invoices and the underlying services |
Provider BillingAccountID BillingAccountName BillingPeriodStart BilledCost BillingCurrency ServiceName |
FinOps Practitioner | FinOps & Intersecting Frameworks | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to reconcile discounts on the cloud service provider invoices and the underlying services |
Provider BillingAccountId BillingAccountName BillingPeriodStart BilledCost BillingCurrency EffectiveCost ListCost ServiceName |
FinOps Practitioner | FinOps & Intersecting Frameworks | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to analyze usage data of resources |
ChargePeriodStart ChargeCategory EffectiveCost Provider QuantityInUsageUnit ResourceId ServiceName SKUId UsageUnit |
FinOps Practitioner | Forecasting | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to forecast costs, based on historical usage trends and rates |
BillingPeriodStart ChargeType ChargeDescription EffectiveCost Provider UsageQuantity Region ServiceCategory ServiceName SKUId UsageUnit |
FinOps Practitioner | Managing Anomalies | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to see the daily costs across all cloud providers, billing accounts, and sub accounts |
BillingAccountId SubAccountId ChargePeriodStart ChargePeriodEnd Provider EffectiveCost |
FinOps Practitioner | Managing Anomalies | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to see the daily costs across all cloud providers, billing accounts, sub accounts, and region |
BillingAccountId SubAccountId ChargePeriodStart ChargePeriodEnd EffectiveCost Provider Region |
FinOps Practitioner | Managing Anomalies | As a FinOps practitioner, I need to see the daily costs across all cloud providers, billing accounts, sub accounts, and service |
BillingAccountId SubAccountId ChargePeriodStart ChargePeriodEnd EffectiveCost Provider ServiceName |
FinOps Practitioner | Managing Commitment Based Discounts | As a FinOps Practitioner, I want to track all commitment based discounts purchased for a time period |
Provider BillingAccountID CommitmentDiscountId CommitmentDiscountType BilledCost ChargePeriodStart ChargeCategory |
FinOps Practitioner | Managing Commitment Based Discounts | As a FinOps Practitioner, I want to track unused commitment charges in any given time period so that I consider them in my future commitment planning or remedy them |
ChargeSubcategory (filter) CommitmentDiscountID BilledCost ChargePeriodStart |
FinOps Practitioner | Resource Utilization & Efficiency | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to analyze the fleet diversity in order to run a campaign to standardize application architecture. |
ChargeType ChargeDescription ChargePeriodStart Provider ResourceType SubAccountID ServiceName |
FinOps Practitioner | Resource Utilization & Efficiency | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to analyze the fleet diversity in order to run a campaign to standardize application architecture within a specific service |
ChargeType ChargeDescription ChargePeriodStart Provider ResourceType SubAccountID ServiceName |
FinOps Practitioner | Resource Utilization & Efficiency | As a FinOps Practitioner, identify total refunds within a billing period. |
Provider BillingAccountID ServiceCategory BilledCost BillingPeriodStart ChargeSubcategory |
FinOps Practitioner | Resource Utilization & Efficiency | As a FinOps Practitioner, identify refunds across sub accounts within a billing period. |
Provider BillingAccountID ServiceCategory BilledCost BillingPeriodStart ChargeSubcategory SubAccountID |
FinOps Practitioner | Workload Management & Automation | As a FinOps Practitioner, I need to do an analysis on compliance to data residency requirements across all regions |
ChargePeriodStart Provider Region SubAccountID |
Procurement | Data Analysis and Showback | As a person in Procurement, I need to understand what we are spending, across billing periods, across service categories to focus negotiations toward highest costing items |
Provider BillingAccountID BillingAccountName BillingCurrency BilledCost BillingPeriodStart ServiceCategory ServiceName |
Procurement, Finance, FinOps Practitioner |
FinOps & Intersecting Frameworks | Multiple personas in an organization need to know the top SKU Codes based on spend, so that they can achieve multiple goals such as contract negotiation, SKU based forecasting, or high unit cost cleanup activities. |
ChargePeriodStart ChargePeriodEnd ListCost PricingUnit ListUnitPrice PricingQuantity SKUId SKUPriceId Provider |
A charge representing a modification to billing data to account for
certain events or circumstances not previously captured, or captured
incorrectly. Examples include: billing errors, service disruptions, or
pricing changes.
The distribution of upfront costs over time to accurately reflect the
consumption or benefit derived from the associated resources or
services. Amortization is valuable when the commitment period (time
duration of the cost) extends beyond the granularity of the source
report.
A collection of geographically-separated locations containing a data
center or cluster of data centers. Each availability zone (AZ) should
have its own power, cooling, and networking, to provide redundancy and
fault tolerance.
A charge that serves as the basis for invoicing. It includes the
total amount of fees and discounts, signifying a monetary obligation.
Valuable when reconciling cash outlay with incurred expenses is
required, such as cost allocation, budgeting, and invoice
reconciliation.
A container for resources and/or services that are billed together in
an invoice. A billing account may have sub accounts, all of whose costs
are consolidated and invoiced to the billing account.
An identifier that represents the currency that a charge for
resources and/or services was billed in.
The time window that an organization receives an invoice for,
inclusive of the start date and exclusive of the end date. It is
independent of the time of usage and consumption of resources and
services.
A pricing approach where the cost of a particular resource or service
is determined based on predefined quantities or tiers of usage. In these
scenarios, the Pricing Unit and the corresponding Pricing Quantity can
be different from the Usage Unit and Usage Quantity.
A row in a FOCUS compatible cost and usage dataset.
The time window in which a charge was incurred, inclusive of the
start date and exclusive of the end date. A charge can start and/or end
at any time within a charge period window. The charge period for
continuous usage should match the time granularity of the dataset (e.g.,
1 hour for hourly, 1 day for daily).
A customer’s agreement to consume a specific quantity of a service or
resource over a defined period, usually also creating a financial
commitment throughout the entirety of the commitment period. Some
commitments also hold Providers to certain assurance levels of resource
availability.
Also known as Commitment Discount, this is a commitment for an amount
of usage or spend throughout a specified term, in exchange for
discounted unit pricing on that amount. The commitment may be based on
quantities of resource units or monetary value, with various payment
options and time frames.
A company or organization that provides remote access to computing
resources, infrastructure, or applications for a fee.
A specification-defined categorical attribute that provides context
or categorization to billing data.
Cost inclusive of the impacts of all reduced rates and discounts,
augmented with the amortization of relevant purchases (one-time or
recurring) paid to cover future eligible charges.
A tag with one tag value chosen from a set of possible tag values
after being processed by a set of provider-defined or user-defined
rules.
FinOps Cost
and Usage Specification (FOCUS)
An open source specification that defines requirements for billing
data.
A category of compute resources that can be paused or terminated by
the CSP within certain criteria, often advertised at reduced unit
pricing when compared to the equivalent non-interruptible resource.
The suggested provider-published unit price for a single Pricing Unit of the associated SKU, exclusive of
any discounts. This price is denominated in the Billing Currency.
A FOCUS defined column that provides numeric values, allowing for
aggregation operations such as arithmetic operations (sum,
multiplication, averaging etc.) and statistical operations.
Managed Service
Provider (MSP)
A company or organization that provides outsourced management and
support of a range of IT services, such as network infrastructure,
cybersecurity, cloud computing, and more.
A term that describes a service that is available and provided
immediately or as needed, without requiring a pre-scheduled appointment
or prior arrangement. In Cloud Computing, virtual machines can be
created and terminated as needed, i.e. on demand.
An individual who performs FinOps within an organization to maximize
the business value of using cloud and cloud-like services.
An entity that made internal or 3rd party resources and/or services
available for purchase.
A comprehensive list of prices offered by a provider.
A unique component that incurs a charge.
A row in a FOCUS compatible cost and usage dataset.
An offering that can be purchased from a provider, and can include
many types of usage or other charges; eg., a cloud database service may
include compute, storage, and networking charges.
A construct composed of the common properties of a product offering
associated with one or many SKU Prices.
The unit price used to calculate a charge that is associated to one
SKU. SKU Prices are usually referenced from provider’s price list and
unique to various providers.
A sub account is an optional provider-supported construct for
organizing resources and/or services connected to a billing account. Sub
accounts must be associated with a billing account as they do not
receive invoices.
A metadata label assigned to a resource to provide information about
it or to categorize it for organizational and management purposes.
A Resource or Provider-defined construct for grouping resources
and/or other Provider-defined construct that a Tag can be assigned
to.
This section is non-normative.
Providers natively support various constructs for grouping resources
or services. These grouping constructs are often used to mimic
organizational structures, technical architectures, cost
attribution/allocation and access management boundaries, or other
customer-specific structures based on requirements.
Providers may support multiple levels of resource or service grouping
mechanisms. FOCUS supports two distinct levels of groupings that are
commonly needed for FinOps capabilities like chargeback, invoice
reconciliation and cost allocation.
The table below highlights key properties of the two grouping
constructs supported by FOCUS.
Property | Billing account | Sub account |
---|---|---|
Requirement level | Mandatory | Optional |
Receives an invoice? | Yes | No |
Invoiced at | Self | Associated billing account |
Examples | AWS: Management Account* GCP: Billing Account Azure MCA: Billing Profile Snowflake: Organizational Account |
AWS: Member Account GCP: Project Azure MCA: Subscription Snowflake: Account |
* For organizations that have multiple AWS Member Accounts
within an AWS Organization, consolidated billing is enabled by default
and invoices are received at Management Account level. A Member Account
can be removed from AWS consolidated billing whereby the removed account
receives independent invoices and is responsible for payments.
Cost data presented in the billing datasets originates from various
sources depending on the purchasing mechanism. There are at least 3
different pieces of information that are important for understanding
where cost originated from.
The value for each of these may be different depending on the various
purchasing scenarios for resources or services. Use cases for purchasing
direct, via a Managed Service Provider (MSP), via a cloud marketplace,
and from internal service offerings were considered. The table below
presents a few scenarios to show how the value for each dimension may
change based on the purchasing scenario.
# | Scenario | Provider | Publisher | Invoice Issuer |
---|---|---|---|---|
1.1 | Purchasing cloud services directly from cloud provider |
Cloud service provider | Cloud service provider | Cloud service provider |
1.2 | Purchasing cloud services from the cloud provider where the cloud region is operated by a 3rd party |
Cloud service provider | Cloud service provider | Entity operating the region for the cloud service provider |
2.1 | Purchasing cloud services via MSP | Managed Service Provider | Cloud service provider | Managed Service Provider |
2.2 | Purchasing cloud-agnostic resources or services built/sold by an MSP |
Managed Service Provider | Managed Service Provider | Managed Service Provider |
2.3 | Purchasing labor services from managed service provider |
Managed Service Provider | Managed Service Provider | Managed Service Provider |
3.1 | Purchasing a cloud marketplace offering that runs on the cloud provider |
Cloud service provider | Company building the software or services (Cloud service provider OR third-party software or services company) |
Cloud service provider |
3.2 | Purchasing a cloud marketplace offering that is not running directly on your cloud infrastructure (e.g,. SaaS product, Professional Services) |
Cloud service provider | Company producing the SaaS or services product |
Cloud service provider |
3.3 | Purchasing a SaaS product that is not directly running on your cloud infrastructure from a 3rd party reseller managed cloud marketplace |
Cloud service provider | SaaS provider | Reseller |
4.1 | Purchasing SaaS software directly from provider |
SaaS provider | SaaS provider | SaaS provider |
4.2 | Purchasing SaaS software that additionally runs on your cloud resources (in addition to #4.1) |
Cloud service provider | Cloud service provider | Cloud service provider |
5.1 | Purchasing internal infrastructure or services offerings running on-premise |
Internal product name | Internal product name | Internal product name |
5.2 | Purchasing internal infrastructure or services offerings running on cloud |
Internal product name | Internal product name | Internal product name |
5.3 | Associated software license cost for use on an on-premise infrastructure platform (Where license cost is presented separately in cost data) |
Internal product name | Company producing the software | Internal product name |
Explore the goals of FOCUS, view sample use cases, and learn about gathering FOCUS conformed datasets.
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