---
title: "\"Start here: finance and leadership\""
canonical: "https://cloudmonitor.ai/docs/using-cloudmonitor/start-here-leadership/"
description: "If you need the number rather than the detail behind it, this is the short path through CloudMonitor and the screens worth your time."
---

You need a number you can take into a meeting, and a straight answer when someone asks whether it's
going up. You do not need to know what a resource group is.

Set your view to **Leadership** (your avatar ▸ Profile & preferences ▸ View). Your home page becomes
the **Executive Overview**, leading with spend, forecast, **Realised savings YTD** and
**Budget variance**. CloudMonitor also opens on AI tool adoption rather than the operational
overview, on the assumption that's the question you arrived with.

:::tip[Your view doesn't restrict anything]
Choosing Leadership changes what CloudMonitor puts in front of you. It does not hide data from you
or grant you anything — that is set by your role. Switch views whenever you like.
:::

## The three-minute version

1. [Your Overview](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/overview/) — spend, forecast, budget position,
   savings realized. If you only ever open one screen, this is it.
2. [Budgets & Forecasts](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/budgets-and-forecasts/) — how each budget
   is tracking, with a month-end projection.
3. [Savings & Waste](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/savings-and-waste/) — what's being left on the
   table, ranked by value.

Two things worth setting up front:

- **The Period** at the top drives every figure. Financial-year presets follow your organization's
  financial year, not the calendar.
  See [filtering every report at once](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/global-filters/).
- **Cost basis** decides whether a prepaid year lands in one month or spreads across twelve. For
  comparing teams or months, you want effective cost — the default. See
  [effective cost vs billed cost](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/effective-vs-billed-cost/), which is worth
  five minutes before you quote a figure to anyone.

## Questions you'll be asked, and where they're answered

| The question | The screen |
|---|---|
| What did we spend, and is it going up? | [Your Overview](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/overview/) |
| Are we going to blow the budget? | [Budgets & Forecasts](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/budgets-and-forecasts/) |
| Which part of the business does this belong to? | [The Cost Groups report](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/cost-groups/) |
| What are we doing about it? | [Savings & Waste](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/reports/savings-and-waste/) |
| What is AI actually costing us? | **AI Spend**, if your organization has that module |

[Every screen and what it's for](/docs/reference/screen-index/) lists the rest.

## A caveat worth carrying

Some figures are estimates rather than invoiced amounts — projected savings in particular are
modeled, not money that has moved. Each screen's **ⓘ** says which it is. It's worth checking before
a number goes in a board pack.

## Getting a number you can trust

If a figure looks wrong, it's almost always the **Period** or the **cost basis**. Check those two
before escalating; between them they explain most surprises.

If you want the detail behind a number, hand the question to whoever runs cloud cost day to day and
point them at [Start here: FinOps and IT](/docs/using-cloudmonitor/start-here-practitioner/).