Chargeback & Allocation¶
Chargeback & Allocation distributes cloud costs — including shared infrastructure, credits, discounts, and commitments — to the teams, cost centers, and business owners responsible for them.
When to use it¶
- You need to show each team or business unit exactly what their cloud usage costs.
- You want to fairly distribute shared infrastructure costs (databases, networking, logging, etc.).
- You need to reconcile allocated totals with source billing records.
Open Chargeback & Allocation¶
Go to Cost Management > Chargeback & Allocation from product navigation.
Review allocations¶
- Select the reporting period and organization scope.
- Review allocation totals and coverage percentage.
- Open Overview Details for the line-item breakdown.
- Use Top Cost Centres to inspect the highest-spending allocated units.
- Use Top Shared Costs to see how shared infrastructure is distributed.
- Verify credits, discounts, and common costs before publishing figures.
Allocation tabs¶
Depending on your tenant configuration, you may see:
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Overview | Total allocated costs by business owner or team |
| Savings Allocation | How commitment savings (RIs, Savings Plans) are distributed |
| Credit Allocation | How cloud credits are applied across cost centers |
| Common Cost Allocation | How shared infrastructure costs are split |
| Total Cost Allocation | Combined view of direct and allocated costs |
Before you enable chargeback¶
- Agree on allocation rules with finance and team leads before publishing chargeback figures.
- Check Perspective coverage — allocation rules that rely on tags or Perspectives will only be accurate if coverage is complete.
- Set expectations about shared cost treatment — decide whether shared costs are split equally, by usage weight, or by fixed percentage.
Best practices¶
- Separate direct costs from shared costs in your allocation model.
- Reconcile allocated totals with the source billing total for the same period and cost type.
- Re-run allocation after billing corrections or late credits are applied.
- Review allocation rules quarterly or when organizational structures change.
Troubleshooting¶
Allocation configuration requires allocation-management permissions. If the page reports that a selected experience is unavailable, contact an administrator. See Login and access issues.