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Allocation Rules

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To create sub-billing centers and to modify their allocation rules, you must have the Manage billing centers role. For more information, see Managing Billing Center Access. For complete descriptions of each role available in Flexera One, see Flexera One Roles.

Allocation Rules are a prioritized list that costs are matched against, and then properly allocated to a corresponding Billing Center. Each Allocation Rule specifies a tag (key=value) or Cloud Account numbers, and a target Billing Center. Allocation Rules exist at the Organization level and can optionally be created within any billing center to define the sub-billing centers. For details, see Create Sub-Billing Center and Allocation Rules. Multiple Allocation Rules can target the same Billing Center.

This section describes the following allocation rule features:

Rule Priority​

Allocation Rules are applied in ascending numerical order. It is possible that a single cost could match multiple rules (that is, a Server that matches a Cloud Account Rule and a Cloud Tag Rule); in these cases, the first processed rule (lower numbered) takes priority.

Create Allocation Rules​

Complete the steps below to create an allocation rule.

To create an Allocation Rule:

  1. Go to the Billing Centers page ( Cloud > Cost Optimization > Billing Centers ) and click Allocation Rules .
  2. Click Create New Rule .
note

When creating allocation rules to define sub-billing centers, note the method with which rules are applied top-down. For details, see How Billing Center Hierarchies Work.

After clicking Create New Rule , complete the following features, as needed, for the new allocation rule:

Cloud Tag Rules​

Complete the steps below to create a new cloud tag rule.

To create a new Cloud Tag Rule:

  1. Under Rule Type , select Cloud tag .
  2. In the Rule Definition string text box, enter a tag key-value pair. Any number of asterisks (*) can be used as a wildcard value in either of the tag fields. For example: *code=1234 or env=Prod*.
  3. Select a Billing Center from the drop-down list to which costs should be allocated.
note

Tag keys and values are case-sensitive.

Cloud Account Rules​

Complete the steps below to create a new cloud account rule.

To create a new Cloud Account Rule:

  1. Under Rule Type , select Cloud account(s) .
  2. Under Rule Definition click Choose Cloud Accounts to select the vendor accounts you would like associated with this rule.
  3. Select a Billing Center from the drop-down list to which costs should be allocated.

Multiple Cloud Tags​

In charge-back scenarios where one tag key is used with multiple values, the Multiple Cloud Tags option can be used to quickly create allocation rules and billing centers for all values of the chargeback tag. Complete the steps below to create multiple cloud tags.

To create Multiple Cloud Tags:

  1. Under Rule Type , select Multiple cloud tags .
  2. In the first Rule Definition text box, enter the tag key to be used for all the created allocation rules. In the second Rule Definition text box, enter all of the possible tag values for that key.
    • Example: assume that you have resources tagged with the following tags that you wish to use for billing center allocation:
    • project = secretProjectA
    • project = Maintenance
    • project = Special
    • For tag key you would enter project.
    • For multiple tag values enter each tag value, one per line, as listed below.
    • SecretProjectA
    • Maintenance
    • Special
  3. When each allocation rule is created, determine whether a Billing Center already exists with a name matching the given tag vale.
    • If a billing center has a name that matches the given tag value, the rule is set to that billing center.
    • If no billing center has a name that matches the tag value, choose one of the following options:
    • C reate a new billing center with the same name as the tag value.
    • This option will create a new billing center with the name set to the value of the tag. This is the most common approach.
    • Do not create a new allocation rule.
    • This option will skip the creation of the allocation rule altogether.

After completing the above steps, three new allocation rules are created along with new billing centers (assuming that no billing center exists named secretProjectA, Maintenance, or Special) in the Allocation Rules tab.

Azure Resource Group(s)​

Complete the steps below to create a new Azure Resource Group(s) rule.

To create a new Azure Resource Group(s) rule:

  1. Under Rule Type , select Azure Resource Group(s) .
  2. In the Rule Definition text box, enter resource group value(s) for the allocation rule. Each resource group must be prefixed by its subscription ID, followed by a forward slash. For multiple resource group values, enter each resource group value on a separate line, as shown below:
    • 11234-ashydgfh-lsdkfhjoi/my-resourcegroupname
    • 13434-kjlhsdgj-rotuyrykl/my-resourcegroupname
    • 13434-kjlhsdgj-rotuyrykl/abc-resourceGroupName

    • Resource Group Names are matched case-insensitively.

  3. Select a Billing Center from the drop-down list to which costs should be allocated.

Edit Allocation Rules​

Complete the steps below to edit an allocation rule.

To edit an Allocation Rule:

  1. Click the pencil icon next to the target rule. A pop-up window will present the same fields that were set when the rule was created.
  2. Edit the Rule Definition (Cloud Tag or Cloud Accounts) and/or the associated Billing Center .
  3. Click Update Rule .
note

When Allocation Rules are updated, ALL historical costs are re-allocated based on the new Allocation Rules. This process may take several minutes to finish and display correctly on the dashboard.

Delete Allocation Rules​

Complete the steps below to delete an allocation rule.

To delete an Allocation Rule:

  1. Click the trash can icon next to the target rule.
  2. When the Delete Rule pop-up window appears, click Delete .

Create a New Billing Center While Creating an Allocation Rule​

Complete the steps below to create a new billing center while creating an allocation rule.

To create a new billing center while creating an Allocation Rule:

  1. Click Create New Rule .
  2. Click + Create a new Billing Center.
  3. Under Rule Definition , enter a key and value (Example: env=QA*).
  4. Enter the Billing Center Name (Example: QA).
  5. CIick Save .
  6. In the Allocation Rules tab, view the new Billing Center with the new allocation rule.

Monthly CSV Reports in Billing Centers​

Monthly CSV reports are available for any user with organization-wide access to Cloud Cost Optimization. Reports are not yet available on a per-billing center level basis. For users with sufficient privileges, simply navigate to the top-level Billing page for the organization and select Monthly Reports . The page lists all available monthly reports along with the date at which they were most recently generated.

By default, Cloud Cost Optimization ensures that the current and prior month CSV reports are updated on a regular basis. Contact Flexera Support to regenerate prior months on-demand.

The CSV reports provide a resource-level view of the information. Each row in the report corresponds to a unique resource, and the cost for the resource is the total cost for the month. Note that some resources in cloud bills do not have a resource ID. Such resources have a null value for the resource ID and are grouped together in the monthly report.

The CSV reports also provide some data points that are not available elsewhere, including resource IDs and Azure Resource Group information.

The billing_center field contains a top-down list of the billing center hierarchy that the cost is allocated to. Each level in the hierarchy is separated by a pipe | character.