Budgets

Cost Center supports you with budget templates and custom budgets. You can use templates to quickly create budgets, or you can create custom budgets if your use case is complex and involves a lot of different details.

1. Log in to Cost Center.
2. Choose Budget Management > Budgets.
3. Click Create Budget.
4. Select Monthly Budget for Service Types and click Create Budget.
5. Configure Budget Name, Budget Scope, and Budgeted Amount, select recipients, and click Save.

   Table 1 Parameters for creating a monthly budget for service types

   Parameter	Description
   Custom parameters: You can customize the following parameters, in which the budget name and alert recipients have been preset as those for common scenarios.
   Budget Name	Enter a unique budget name.
   Budget Scope	Specify the service types for your budget. NOTE: After you specify the budget scope, Cost Center will track your costs on a monthly basis.
   Budgeted Amount	Net original costs (actual payments) after cash coupons are applied. Before the billing date, this is the estimated amount without any cash coupons applied.
   Recipients	The contacts who will receive alerts. The account contact is the default recipient. Up to 10 recipients can be added for each budget. If you want to add or modify recipient information, go to the Recipient Management page in the Message Center. NOTE: Recipients will receive an alert when: The actual cost exceeds 85% of the budgeted amount. The actual cost exceeds 100% of the budgeted amount. The forecasted cost exceeds 100% of the budgeted amount.
   Preset parameters: Common budget parameters have been preset so that you can create a budget more simply. If you need to modify the budget, go to the budget list, locate the budget, and click Edit in the Operation column.
   Budget Type	The type of the budget you created
   Reset Period	Monthly
   Budget Duration	Recurring
   Start Time	The month when you created the budget
   Allocation	Fixed
   Cost Type	Net original costs (actual payments)
   Thresholds	Alerts will be sent when the actual cost exceeds 85% or 100% of the budgeted amount, or the forecasted cost exceeds 100% of the budgeted amount.

6. If needed, you can locate a budget and click Edit in the Operation column to modify the budget details and scope. For details about budget parameters, see Creating a Custom Budget.

   

7. Confirm budget details and click Save.

1. Log in to Cost Center.
2. Choose Budget Management > Budgets.
3. Click Create Budget.
4. Select Monthly Budget for Business Units and click Create Budget.
5. Configure Budget Name, Budget Scope, and Budgeted Amount, select recipients, and click Save.

   Table 2 Parameters for creating a monthly budget for business units

   Parameter	Description
   Custom parameters: You can customize the following parameters, in which the budget name and alert recipients have been preset as those for common scenarios.
   Budget Name	Enter a unique budget name.
   Budget Scope	Specify the business units (linked accounts, enterprise projects, cost tags, and cost categories) for your budget. NOTE: When you select Linked Account: If you are using a master account and want to create a budget for your member accounts, select these member accounts from Linked Account. If you are not using a master account, you can only create a budget for the account you are using. When you select Enterprise Projects: If you are using a master account, you can select enterprise projects by linked account, except the default enterprise project and those not categorized. If you are not using a master account, you can only create a budget for enterprise projects in the account you are using.
   Budgeted Amount	Net original costs (actual payments) after cash coupons are applied. Before the billing date, this is the estimated amount without any cash coupons applied.
   Recipients	The contacts who will receive alerts. The account contact is the default recipient. Up to 10 recipients can be added for each budget. If you want to add or modify recipient information, go to the Recipient Management page in the Message Center. NOTE: Recipients will receive an alert when: The actual cost exceeds 85% of the budgeted amount. The actual cost exceeds 100% of the budgeted amount. The forecasted cost exceeds 100% of the budgeted amount.
   Preset parameters: Common budget parameters have been preset so that you can create a budget more simply. If you need to modify the budget, go to the budget list, locate the budget, and click Edit in the Operation column.
   Budget Type	The type of the budget you created
   Reset Period	Monthly
   Budget Duration	Recurring
   Start Time	The month when you created the budget
   Allocation	Fixed
   Cost Type	Net original costs (actual payments)
   Thresholds	Alerts will be sent when the actual cost exceeds 85% or 100% of the budgeted amount, or the forecasted cost exceeds 100% of the budgeted amount.

6. If needed, you can locate a budget and click Edit in the Operation column to modify the budget details and scope. For details about budget parameters, see Creating a Custom Budget.

   

7. Confirm budget details and click Save.

1. Log in to Cost Center.
2. Choose Budget Management > Budgets.
3. Click Create Budget.
4. Select Zero Spend Monthly Budget and click Create Budget.
5. Configure Budget Name, Budget Scope, and Budgeted Amount (the default value is 0 and cannot be changed), select recipients, and click Save.

   Table 3 Parameters for creating a zero spend monthly budget

   Parameter	Description
   Custom parameters: You can customize the following parameters, in which the budget name and alert recipients have been preset as those for common scenarios.
   Budget Name	Enter a unique budget name.
   Budget Scope	Select all costs, service types, or business units (linked accounts, enterprise projects, cost tags, and cost categories).
   Budgeted Amount	The default value is 0 and cannot be changed.
   Recipients	The contacts who will receive alerts. The account contact is the default recipient. Up to 10 recipients can be added for each budget. If you want to add or modify recipient information, go to the Recipient Management page in the Message Center. NOTE: Recipients will receive a budget alert if the actual payment exceeds $0 USD.
   Preset parameters: Common budget parameters have been preset so that you can create a budget more simply. If you need to modify the budget, go to the budget list, locate the budget, and click Edit in the Operation column.
   Budget Type	The type of the budget you created
   Reset Period	Monthly
   Budget Duration	Recurring
   Start Time	The month when you created the budget
   Allocation	Fixed
   Budgeted Amount	0
   Cost Type	Net original costs (actual payments)
   Thresholds	Alerts will be sent when the actual payment exceeds $0 USD.

6. If needed, you can locate a budget and click Edit in the Operation column to modify the budget details and scope. For details about budget parameters, see Creating a Custom Budget.

   

7. Confirm budget details and click Save.

• You can create a custom budget to set parameters specific to your use case. For example, you can customize the reset period, start date, and budget scope.

Dynamic budget plans are only supported for cost budgets and usage budgets.

There are four options. For details, see Baseline Time Range.

• Last quarter/month actual
• Current quarter/month forecast
• Last several quarters/months average
• Last several quarters/months compound growth rate

1. Log in to Cost Center.
2. Choose Budget Management > Budgets.
3. Click Create Budget.
4. Select Custom Budget and click Create Budget.
5. Select Usage budget and click Next.
6. Configure the budget name, details, and scope, and click Next.

   Table 6 Parameters for creating a usage budget

   Category	Parameter	Description
   Specify Budget Name	Budget Name	Enter a unique budget name.
   Configure Budget Details	Usage Type	The way a pay-per-use cloud service is billed. Select the usage type you want to budget against.
   	Reset Period	The reset period for a budget, which can be: Daily: Budget evaluation begins at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the start date and will be reset to zero at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on each day moving forward. Monthly: Budget evaluation begins at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the 1st day of the start month and will be reset to zero at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the 1st day of each month moving forward. Quarterly: Budget evaluation begins at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the 1st day of the start quarter and will be reset to zero at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the 1st day of each quarter moving forward. Yearly: Budget evaluation begins at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the start date and will be reset to zero at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on January 1st of each year moving forward.
   	Budget Duration	Recurring: You select a start date on which the recurring budgets will begin renewing. Expiring: You set a time range, outside which expiring budgets will not renew.
   	Allocation	Fixed: The budgeted amount is fixed for each reset period. Monthly/Quarterly: The amount is budgeted on a monthly or quarterly basis. Dynamic: The amount is automatically budgeted based on the configured baseline time range.
   	Baseline Time Range	There are four options. For details, see Dynamic Budgeting. Last quarter/month actual Current quarter/month forecast Last several quarters/months average Last several quarters/months compound growth rate
   	Budgeted Usage	If Allocation is Fixed, you just set the budget amount to a fixed value. If Reset Period is Daily or Yearly, you just set the budget amount to a fixed value. If Allocation is Monthly or Quarterly, you need to set the budgeted amounts one by one. If the budgeted amount is not set for a period, the amount most recently configured will be applied. For example, if the budgeted amount was not set for May 2021, the budgeted amount of April 2021 would be used for May 2021. If you set Allocation to Dynamic, you do not need to set budgeted amount manually. Because your dynamic budget depends on your cost data, your upcoming budget amounts can fluctuate as your costs change. Cost Center will notify all alert recipients of the newly adjusted budgeted amount on the 5th day in each month or quarter.
   Define Budget Scope	Define Budget Scope	Define a budget scope as required. You can use filters such as enterprise project, linked account, and region. You will see usage budgets for the last 12 months in the pan on the right. NOTE: If you are using a master account and want to create a budget for your member accounts, select these member accounts from Linked Account.
   	Usage	Pay-per-use Packages RIs By default, Pay-per-use is selected.

7. Under Alert Thresholds, configure Thresholds and Recipients and click Next.

   Table 7 Parameters for creating alerts for a usage budget

   Parameter	Description
   Thresholds	A maximum of five thresholds can be set for each budget. The following alerting conditions are supported: Actual >: If the actual usage reaches a certain usage or a certain percentage of a budgeted usage, an alert will be reported. Forecasted >: If the forecasted usage reaches a certain usage or a certain percentage of a budgeted usage, an alert will be reported. For details about how to create a forecast-based budget, see Creating a Forecasting-based Budget. The threshold can be a certain usage or a certain percentage of the budgeted usage. Usage (Byte): If the actual usage reaches this value, an alert will be reported. (%) of budgeted usage: If the actual usage reaches a certain percentage of budgeted usage, an alert will be reported.
   Recipients	The contacts who will receive alerts. The account contact is the default recipient. Up to 10 recipients can be added for each budget. If you want to add or modify recipient information, go to the Recipient Management page in the Message Center.

8. Confirm budget details and click Save.

1. Log in to Cost Center.
2. Choose Budget Management > Budgets.
3. Click Create Budget.
4. Select Custom Budget and click Create Budget.
5. Select RI utilization budget or RI coverage budget. Then, click Next.
6. Configure the budget name, details, and scope, and click Next.

   Table 8 Parameters for creating an RI utilization/coverage budget

   Category	Parameter	Description
   Specify Budget Name	Budget Name	Enter a unique budget name.
   Configure Budget Details	Reset Period	The reset period for a budget, which can be: Daily: Budget evaluation begins at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the start date and will be reset to zero at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on each day moving forward. Monthly: Budget evaluation begins at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the 1st day of the start month and will be reset to zero at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the 1st day of each month moving forward. Quarterly: Budget evaluation begins at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the 1st day of the start quarter and will be reset to zero at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the 1st day of each quarter moving forward. Yearly: Budget evaluation begins at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on the start date and will be reset to zero at 00:00 GMT+08:00 on January 1st of each year moving forward.
   	Budget Duration	Recurring: You select a start date on which the recurring budgets will begin renewing. Expiring: You set a time range, outside which expiring budgets will not renew.
   	Allocation	Fixed: You can allocate a fixed value for each budget.
   	Budgeted Utilization (%)	The budgeted utilization of RIs in the reset period. Example: If you set the monthly budgeted utilization to 80% for ECSs, you can configure alerts (for example, via SMS or email) to warn you when the actual monthly RI utilization (RI hours used/RI hours purchased x 100%) is lower than 80%.
   	Budgeted Coverage (%)	The budgeted coverage of RIs in the reset period. Example: If you set the monthly budgeted coverage to 80% for ECSs, you can configure alerts (for example, via SMS or email) to warn you when the actual monthly RI coverage (RI covered hours/Total resource running hours x 100%) is lower than 80%.
   Define Budget Scope	Define Budget Scope	Define a budget scope as required. Specifically, you can set filters such as Linked Account, Region, and AZ on the left pane, and you will see the RI utilization or coverage from the last 12 months in the pane on the right. NOTE: If you are using a master account and want to create a budget for your member accounts, select these member accounts from Linked Account.

7. Under Alert Thresholds, configure Thresholds and Recipients and click Next.

   Table 9 Parameters for creating alerts for an RI utilization/coverage budget

   Parameter	Description
   Thresholds	If the actual usage reaches the value of Budgeted Utilization or Budgeted Coverage, an alert will be sent.
   Recipients	The contacts who will receive alerts. The account contact is the default recipient. Up to 10 recipients can be added for each budget. If you want to add or modify contact information, go to Recipient Management in the Message Center.

8. Confirm budget details and click Save.