---
title: How to manage a cost group team
canonical: "https://cloudmonitor.ai/docs/how-to/how-to-add-owners-and-members-to-a-cost-group/"
description: "Give people access to a cost group's costs, promote an owner, and remove someone who has moved on."
---

Cost group membership is how people get to see a group's spend. It's also how they get the right to
triage anomalies and recommendations attributed to it.

:::note[Cost group owners only]
You need to be an **Owner** of the cost group you're changing. Admins can manage every cost group.
Owners are set from **Manage team** on the cost group.
:::

## Open it

Settings ▸ **Cost Groups** ▸ the row's **⋮** menu ▸ **Manage team**. Or **Manage team** in the header
of the group's own page.

The screen says what it does:

> Team members and owners can access this cost group. Manage their access here. New users are added as members.

## Add someone

**Add member** lists the people you can add — **licensed, active users** who aren't already on the
team. Tick as many as you need, or select all, and confirm.

Everyone added arrives as a **Member**. Promote afterwards if they should be an owner; there's no
role picker on the add step, which keeps the common case to two clicks.

If the list is empty or shorter than you expect, the people you're after either don't have a license
or haven't been invited yet. See
[how to invite users](/docs/how-to/how-to-invite-users-and-assign-roles/).

## Owner or member?

| | Member | Owner |
|---|:---:|:---:|
| See the group's costs | ✅ | ✅ |
| Triage anomalies and recommendations attributed to it | ✅ | ✅ |
| Edit the group's details | ❌ | ✅ |
| Set its budget | ❌ | ✅ |
| Manage its team | ❌ | ✅ |
| Archive it | ❌ | ✅ |

Use the row's **⋮** menu to promote or demote.

Owner is a working role rather than a status. If someone is going to be asked "why did this go up?",
they probably want to be an owner so they can act on the answer.

## Removing someone

Same menu, **Remove member**. It removes access to this group only — it doesn't touch their
CloudMonitor account or their membership of other groups.

For someone leaving the organization, archive the user under Settings ▸ Users & Access instead. That
keeps their history intact while removing every access they had.

## The last owner is protected

You can't demote or remove the only owner. Both options are disabled and relabelled —
**Remove member (last owner)** — with the reason:

> Every cost group needs at least one owner

Add the new owner first, then remove the old one. A group with no owner is one nobody can change.

## If you can't do any of this

The screen tells you you don't have permission to manage the team. You're a member rather than an
owner. Ask an existing owner or an admin — see
[Roles and access](/docs/reference/roles-and-permissions/).

## A note on the Unallocated group

Everyone is a member of the built-in Unallocated group automatically, so unattributed spend is
visible to the whole organization. You don't need to add anyone to it.