Azure cost visibility
Trace Azure cost from total to billing line.
The Ledger keeps billed and effective cost distinct, then lets you group charges by cost group, service, and resource. Expand the bill until the owner and underlying rows are clear.
Traceability
Every summary returns to the same billing rows.
Start with the scope of the question. The Ledger then gives finance and engineering the same route from a changed total to the resource behind it.
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Set the scope before comparing periods.
Choose the period, provider, cost group, virtual tags, and billed or effective cost basis.
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Group the bill around ownership.
Roll charges up by cost group, then service and resource, so the changed amount has an accountable team.
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Inspect the rows behind the change.
Expand the resource to its charges, or open the affected resource in the Azure portal when the team needs to investigate.
Working views
Start broad, then shape the analysis.
Overview identifies where to look. Explorer handles the question a preset breakdown does not answer.
Overview
Find the period and cost group that changed.
Review total spend, period-over-period movement, cost by group, and active anomalies. Set the provider, cost group, period, virtual tags, and cost basis before opening a deeper report.
- Choose billed or effective cost for the question you are answering
- Keep the cost-group scope explicit before opening the detail
Explorer
Build the view your question needs.
Group the same cost rows by the dimension that matters, switch the chart, or express spend as a business rate. Save an analysis you expect to use again.
- Group by the available cost dimensions and combine them for the investigation
- Switch between charts and breakdowns without changing the underlying rows
- Save the view so the analysis is ready for the next review
Access boundary
Shared views keep each recipient’s access boundary.
A saved-view link carries the report arrangement. It does not carry the sender’s permission. Each recipient sees only the cost groups their CloudMonitor access allows.
- Workspace admin
- Sees every cost group and can manage users, allocation rules, virtual tags, and workspace settings.
- Cost group owner or member
- Sees the groups they belong to, plus Unallocated. Ownership adds control over that group’s budget, team, and archive status.
Ask Finn
Ask Finn starts the investigation; The Ledger confirms it.
Live Ask Finn answers are limited to active, licensed organization administrators and verified support staff using Support mode. Finn can use organization-wide CloudMonitor cost data, so report filters and cost-group permissions do not narrow an answer. Check any number used in a report against The Ledger with the same period, scope, and cost basis.
Compare July with June for Platform Engineering using effective cost. Which services changed most?
Separate recurring movement from anomalies and unallocated spend.
Add the period, cost group, and billed or amortized cost basis.
Trace a cost change in the live product.
Use sample data to move from Overview to The Ledger and Explorer before connecting your Azure export.
