Introducing Multi-Source Custom Billing Views: Unified Cost Management Across Multiple Organizations on AWS

In today’s ever-evolving digital era, businesses face intricate financial landscapes, especially when managing costs across various organizational structures. AWS has taken a significant step forward to demystify this complexity with the recent launch of multi-source custom billing views. These new capabilities empower organizations to attain a unified, streamlined approach to cost management, extending across multiple AWS accounts.

The Need for Unified Cost Management

Managing costs effectively is the lifeline of modern-day businesses. As organizations grow, often through acquisitions or diverse business units, their AWS architecture becomes sprawling with multiple organizations (payer accounts). Previously, accessing cost data from these different entities meant dealing with them in isolation, posing challenges in comprehensive financial oversight.

Enter AWS’s newly introduced multi-source custom billing views—an innovative toolkit designed to consolidate cost and usage data across multiple organizations, facilitating a cohesive analysis and forecasting method. These tools are pivotal for businesses aiming to enhance their financial governance without restructuring their AWS billing accounts.

Exploring the Benefits of Multi-Source Custom Billing Views

Imagine your enterprise expanding its reach by acquiring another company that operates its AWS setup independently. With AWS’s newest offering, a FinOps admin can effortlessly integrate and visualize costs from both the parent and acquired organizations through a single pane of glass. This seamless integration is achieved through AWS Cost Explorer and AWS Budgets, simplifying budget planning and cost control.

These custom billing views are not just a technological advancement but also a strategic tool for organizational alignment. By providing an aggregate view of financial data, businesses can better strategize and align their financial goals across various organizational branches, from subsidiaries to acquired entities.

Getting Started with Multi-Source Custom Billing Views

Before diving into these new features, there are essential prerequisites you must meet:

• Enable AWS Cost Explorer: Ensure that this is active for every organization.

• Migrate to Fine-Grained Access Controls: Update permissions to allow the creation of custom billing views.

• Use AWS Resource Access Manager: To share and manage billing views across multiple accounts, proper permissions are necessary.

Crafting Your Multi-Source Billing Experience

Allow me to walk you through a practical scenario of setting up a multi-source custom billing view. Suppose your company has recently acquired AnyCompany B, and you need an inclusive financial overview that includes this entity:

1. Create a Billing View for AnyCompany B: Navigate to the Billing and Cost Management console under AnyCompany B’s management account to set up a view encapsulating all its associated cost data.

2. Share the Created View: Once established, share this billing view with AnyCompany A’s management account using the AWS Resource Access Manager, ensuring comprehensive access and associating the necessary permissions.

3. Accept the Resource Share: From AnyCompany A’s account, accept the shared billing view. This critical step enables synchronized access across both organizations.

4. Create a View for AnyCompany A: Similarly, establish a billing view for AnyCompany A to encapsulate all necessary financial data.

5. Combine the Views: At this juncture, consolidate both views into a single multi-source custom billing view. This amalgamated view allows for monitoring and analyzing consolidated data effectively using AWS Cost Explorer and Budgets.

Financial Considerations and Best Practices

Accessing multi-source custom billing views through graphical interfaces like Cost Explorer and AWS Budgets doesn’t incur additional costs. Programmatic access via API brings nominal charges. Each API query costs $0.01 per source in the billing view, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses.

Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Financial Management

AWS’s multi-source custom billing views mark a transformative shift in financial visibility, simplifying the intricate process of managing AWS costs across various organizational structures. By utilizing existing AWS Cost Management tools, organizations can seamlessly achieve financial coherence without piling up technological complexity.

This innovation not only streamlines financial processes but also empowers businesses to make informed, strategically aligned decisions, propelling them towards sustained growth and success. For those interested in exploring this feature further, the AWS Billing and Cost Management console awaits with resources tailored to your needs.

As we continue to pivot towards integrated cloud solutions, AWS remains at the forefront of enabling businesses to harness digital transformation effectively. Let’s embrace these advancements, leading with insight and foresight into a financially sound future.