# Cost reporting for an AWS Organization

An AWS Organization bills through one management account, and its member accounts are where the teams spend. This guide connects the organization once, makes every member account visible, turns accounts into owners with segments, puts a budget on each, and delivers a report on a schedule. Each step links to the page that owns the detail.

## Before you start

- An organization role in Costfluent that can add connections, and access to the organization's management account in AWS; see [Access model](/concepts/access-model).
- The member accounts you will report on, and which team owns each. The Organizations console lists them.

## 1. Connect the management account

Connect the management account, and only it: its export covers every member account, and a member account connected as well would count its cost twice, so Costfluent refuses it. Until the first export arrives, 24 to 72 hours later, the rows come from Cost Explorer and carry accounts and services but no resources or tags. See [Connect AWS](/connect/aws).

## 2. Check the member accounts

Open the connection from the **Manage** tab: its **Accounts** card lists the management account as **Collecting** and each member account as **Covered**. An account missing there is not a member of the organization you connected. See [After connecting](/connect/aws#after-connecting).

## 3. See cost per account

In the explorer, group by **Sub-account**: each row is one member account, by its ID, and **Select values** in a filter lists the same accounts. Add **Service** as a second grouping to see what each account runs. See [Explore cost data](/cost-reports/explore).

## 4. Make accounts into owners

Add one segment per team, or per account where an account is a team. Then add one rule per segment with a **Sub-account** condition that names the team's account IDs; a team that owns several accounts needs one rule listing them all. Preview each rule and watch coverage rise until the unallocated share is one you can explain. See [Segments and allocation rules](/allocation/segments).

## 5. Put a budget on each segment

Create a monthly budget per segment and choose that segment under **Measures**: it counts the segment's allocated cost, its direct cost and its share of shared cost, and crosses its thresholds at 50, 80 and 100 percent. Pick the team's channel under **Send to**. See [Budgets](/planning/budgets).

## 6. Deliver the report

Save a report grouped by **Segment**, then **Sub-account**, over the current month, and schedule it monthly to the people who review it; for one team, save a report filtered to its accounts and schedule that one to the team. See [Save and manage reports](/cost-reports/manage) and [Share and schedule reports](/cost-reports/share-and-schedule).

## Keep it true

- A new member account appears under **Sub-account** with its first cost, and under no segment until a rule names it. Add it to the owning team's rule; the rule restates past months too.
- Moving an account between teams is a rule change, not a report change.

## Related

- [Showback for teams](/guides/showback-for-teams)
- [Budget routine](/guides/budget-routine)