Cost reports overview
What a cost report keeps, which report Cost reports opens on, what you need before you start, and how to open any report quickly.
A cost report is one question about the workspace's cost kept under a title: its date range, groupings, filter, chart and what it counts. Opening it recomputes the figures for that definition, so it shows the same question every time, on its own page, on a dashboard, through a share link or in a scheduled email.
Selecting Cost reports under Reporting opens the workspace's default report. It is named after the workspace, marked Default, and shows all costs across every connected account, with no filter. Every report, saved or new, is explored and changed on the same page with the same controls. A change on that page is an unsaved draft until you save it into the report or as a new one.
Before you start
- Connect at least one cloud provider to the workspace and let its first collection finish. Until then the report page says "No cloud providers connected", or its table says "No cost data yet".
- Every team role can open cost reports, change what they show on the page, and export it. Saving, changing settings, sharing and scheduling reports needs the Editor team role in a workspace your team can edit. See Access model.
What a report keeps
| Part of the report | Where you change it |
|---|---|
| Date range: a named range such as "Last month" that moves with the calendar, or fixed dates | Date range, above the chart |
| Up to three groupings, and a filter | Group by, Add filter and CQL, above the chart |
| Granularity, chart type and measure | Granularity, Chart and Measure, on the chart card |
| What it counts, and the comparison with the previous period | Options, on the chart card |
| Title, forecast, unit cost and a fixed comparison range | Settings, under More actions in the report's header |
A saved report can be shared by link, delivered on a schedule and pinned to a dashboard. A new report can do none of these until it is saved.
Report workflow
- Open Cost reports under Reporting. The workspace's default report opens.
- Change the date range, grouping, filter or chart on the page; see Explore cost data.
- Select Save changes to keep the change in the open report, or Save as new to keep it as a report of its own; see Save and manage reports.
- Share the saved report by link or deliver it by email; see Share and schedule reports.
- Pin it to a dashboard; see Overview and dashboards.
Open a report quickly
The report's title is a switcher: select it to list every report of the workspace, search them, or start a New report; see Save and manage reports.
Select Quick search… in the header, or press ⌘K on a Mac or Ctrl+K elsewhere, to open the command palette. Type to narrow it; with no match it says "No results found." It has four groups:
- Navigation: every page in the sidebar and in Settings.
- Saved items: the workspace's reports, dashboards, budgets, saved filters, segments and virtual tags by name, each with its kind. A report, dashboard or budget opens its page. A saved filter opens a new report filtered by it, a segment a new report filtered to it, and a virtual tag a new report grouped by it; a shared segment owns no cost of its own and opens Segments. A filed report also shows its folder, so typing a folder's name finds the reports in it. When one of these lists cannot be loaded, the group says so.
- Actions: Create new report opens a new report, Create new budget and Connect provider open their forms.
- Help: Keyboard shortcuts and Documentation.
How it behaves
- Reports show committed cost in the workspace's currency. When a range holds several billing currencies, a note says how they are shown; see Currency settings.
- Your plan sets how far back cost history reaches. A range that starts earlier is cut back with the message "Cost history before a given date is not included in your plan, so this range starts there." The missing days are withheld, not shown as zero.
- A workspace without any report opens a new one. If the list of reports cannot be loaded, Cost reports says "Reports could not be loaded" and "The list of reports failed to load, so no report was opened.", with Retry.