steve_norman asked a question.
CCO - How to depict Azure Portal Billing costs vs Azure Portal Usage costs?
I have a requirement for CCO dashboards to match Microsoft Invoice amounts on a monthly basis. I understand that by design, CCO uses Azure Cost analysis data vs Azure Billing data (see How Flexera One CCO reconciles with your Azure bill) and have no issue with this design, none the less I am looking for suggestions on whether any mechanisms exist in CCO that could support this requirement. Adding a Bill Adjustment doesn't seem feasible, as adjustments are not based on a percentage vs. a dollar difference that varies by month. I can download monthly billing data and build summarization views, but this would all be off platform. Thank you for any insights.
@steve_norman
I agree with your analysis. I personally think that you may want to leverage a “Usage vs. Invoice” side‑by‑side narrative, e.g. instead of forcing CCO to equal the invoice, have it depict two numbers intentionally:
This could potentially be implemented in CCO dashboards by keeping native CCO cost metrics untouched and clear labeling, e.g.
Using this approach the difference is explained, not hidden. And you may also want to expose the delta, and then maybe use an explanation along the lines of “Flexera CCO is our authoritative source for usage‑based optimization and forecasting. Microsoft invoices remain the authoritative source for payable amounts. Where they differ, we explicitly surface and explain the delta rather than distorting either system.”
These are just thoughts "off the top" from my side, and you may want to consult with Flexera's or our partners' FinOps practitioners to get better recommendations. And I would very much welcome others to chime in on this topic and maybe share their experiences.
Thanks,
John Sorensen