---
title: Finding your way around
canonical: "https://cloudmonitor.ai/docs/using-cloudmonitor/finding-your-way-around/"
description: "A tour of the CloudMonitor screen: the menu on the left, the filters along the top, and what everything on a report page is for."
---

CloudMonitor has three parts you'll use constantly: the **menu** down the left, the **filters** along
the top, and the **report** in the middle. Learn those and everything else follows.

## The menu

**Overview** is pinned at the top — your home page. Below it, screens are grouped by what you're
trying to do rather than by what kind of data they hold:

- **Inform** — where did the money go? Start here when you need to explain a number.
- **Optimize** — where could we spend less? Savings opportunities and commitment coverage.
- **Operate** — what needs attention today? Anomalies, budgets, and the day-to-day surfaces.

You may also see **Tokenomics**, covering spend on AI tools. It's an optional module, so not every
organization has it. The same is true of one or two screens inside the other groups — if something in
these docs isn't in your menu, that's usually why, and each page says so.

Only the group containing your current screen stays open, so the menu doesn't grow unmanageable. Use
**Collapse menu** at the bottom to shrink it to icons; hovering an icon then opens its group.

For the complete list of screens and what each one answers, see
[every screen and what it's for](/docs/reference/screen-index/).

### Settings is a separate menu

**Settings**, at the foot of the sidebar, swaps the menu for the configuration screens — cost groups,
allocation rules, budgets, virtual tags, and workspace-level settings. Most of it needs an admin
role. See [Roles and access](/docs/reference/roles-and-permissions/).

Below it sit **Send feedback**, which opens an email to the CloudMonitor team, and
**Help & support** — covered in [Getting help](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/getting-help/).

If your organization has applied its own branding, a small **Powered by CloudMonitor** mark stays at
the bottom of the menu.

## The top bar

On the left are the global filters — the date range, provider, cost group and virtual tags. They
apply to **every** report, not just the one you're looking at, which is worth internalizing early.
See [filtering every report at once](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/global-filters/).

On the right:

- **Ask CloudMonitor**, if your organization has it — ask a question about your costs in plain
  English.
- A **bell** for alerts, covering both cost anomalies and budget thresholds.
- Your **avatar**, which opens your account menu and
  [profile and preferences](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/profile-and-preferences/).

You may also see a badge here. **Demo mode** means you're looking at sample data from a fictional
company, not your own spend.

## A report page

Every report has the same anatomy. The title sits at the top with a small **ⓘ** beside it — hover
that for one sentence explaining what the page is for and where its numbers come from. It's the
fastest way to orient yourself on a screen you haven't seen before, and it's written by the same
people who built the screen.

Below that is the report itself. Most are tables you can group, sort and drill into; see
[working with tables and charts](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/tables-and-charts/).

## On a phone or tablet

The menu collapses behind a hamburger button and slides over the page; tap outside it to dismiss. On
narrower screens the filter chips fold into a single **Filters** button, with a badge showing how
many you have set. Everything is reachable — nothing is desktop-only.