---
title: The Cost Groups report
canonical: "https://cloudmonitor.ai/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/cost-groups/"
description: "Every cost group's spend at a glance, with budget, owners and how recently each was updated."
---

Every cost group's spend for the period, side by side. This is the report you open before a budget
conversation or a chargeback run.

:::note[Two screens share this name]
**Cost Groups** under Inform is this report — spend, read-only. **Cost Groups** under Settings is
the editor, where groups are created and their teams managed. Same name, different jobs, and only
the second one needs an admin.
:::

## What's in the table

It's a cost grid, so it groups and drills like every other. On top of the spend figures it pulls in
information from the cost groups themselves:

- **Budget** and budget year-to-date
- **Owners** — who's accountable
- **Last updated**

If any group has a cost center set, the table rolls up by cost center first, then by group. That
gives finance a view that lines up with the accounting system rather than with CloudMonitor's own
hierarchy.

Two markers worth knowing:

- **System** — the built-in Unallocated group. It can be renamed but never removed, because every
  charge has to land somewhere.
- The short **code** beside a name — used by allocation rules to route spend by naming convention.

## "Requires repair" on a budget

A budget stored in a different currency from your workspace's reporting currency shows a dash and a
**Requires repair** badge instead of a figure.

CloudMonitor never converts currencies, so it won't guess. Someone needs to re-enter the amount in
the current reporting currency — see the currency note in
[effective cost vs billed cost](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/effective-vs-billed-cost/).

## Getting to one group

Click any row, or use **Open cost group** in its **⋮** menu, to reach
[inside a cost group](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/inside-a-cost-group/) — the full picture for
that one group, including its budget, members and history.

If you can manage the group, the same menu offers editing.

## What you can see

Admins see every group. Everyone else sees the groups they belong to. If this report looks emptier
than you expect, that's usually why — see
[Roles and access](/docs/reference/roles-and-permissions/).

## Filters

Every global filter applies. Note the interaction: filtering to one cost group and then opening this
report gives you one row, which is rarely what you want. Clear the cost group filter to compare
groups against each other.