FOCUS Format Converter for Smaller Cloud Providers and AI API Bills
The FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) gives cloud bills a common format, and the big clouds now export it. Startups also pay smaller hosts, AI API providers and SaaS tools whose bills arrive in their own formats. Build converters that turn those bills into valid FOCUS data, a validator, and a dashboard that shows total cost and unit cost (per customer or per feature) across every provider in one place.
Intermediate
A small team, or one strong student willing to learn something new.1 semester · 2 students
7 to ship
3 optional extrasSuggested stack
What you should ship
- A study of the FOCUS specification and a list of required columns and rules you will support
- Converters for at least four non-FOCUS sources, such as a smaller cloud host's invoice export, two AI API usage exports and a SaaS invoice CSV
- A validator that checks converted data against the specification and explains each failure
- A merged cost dataset combining converted data with a native FOCUS export from one major cloud (using sample data where you do not have an account)
- Allocation rules that tag costs to teams, customers or features, and a unit cost view (for example cost per active customer)
- A dashboard and a monthly cost report
- Sample data and documentation so others can reuse the converters
If you have time left
- Currency conversion with daily rates and PKR, INR or BDT reporting
- Contributing a converter upstream to an open source FOCUS project
- Forecasting next month's bill per provider
The problem: one company, many bills, no common format
A small software company might use a major cloud for its main app, a cheaper host for staging, two AI API providers, a monitoring SaaS and a CDN. Each bill has a different format, different names for the same ideas and different time granularity. Answering "what does one customer cost us each month?" means a spreadsheet nobody trusts.
The FinOps Foundation created FOCUS to solve this. Major clouds including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud now provide FOCUS-format exports, and the specification has grown to cover SaaS and invoice data. As of mid-2026, version 1.4 is the current release. But many smaller providers and AI API vendors do not export FOCUS.
What already exists and the gap
- FOCUS exports from the major clouds.
- The FinOps Foundation's open source tools, including sample data and a converter for some cloud formats.
- Commercial FinOps platforms that ingest many sources for larger customers.
The gap is the long tail: open, tested converters for the smaller hosts, AI API usage exports and SaaS bills that startups in emerging markets actually use, plus unit cost reporting on top.
Inspiration
The FinOps Framework stresses unit economics: cost per customer, per transaction or per feature, not just total spend. A common format is what makes unit costs possible across providers.
What you build
- Converters and a validator for several sources.
- A merged dataset and allocation rules.
- A dashboard with total and unit costs.
The technically interesting part
- Mapping semantics, not just columns. Is an AI API's charge usage-based or a commitment? What is the billing period? FOCUS is precise about these ideas.
- Validation. Turn the specification's rules into automated checks with helpful error messages.
- Allocation. Shared costs need fair rules. Show the effect of different allocation choices on unit costs.
How you will evaluate it
- Validator pass rate for each converter on sample and real-shaped data.
- Reconciliation: converted totals match the original invoice totals exactly.
- A walkthrough with a startup founder or finance person: can they answer cost questions faster?
Path to a product
Startups and agencies need a cheap way to see all their technology costs in one place. A hosted service with converters as its moat, or consulting on FinOps for small companies, are realistic paths, and FinOps skills are increasingly in demand.
Scope warning
Use sample data or your own small accounts with strict budgets. Never put real company bills in a public repository. Do not build a general BI tool; use DuckDB plus a simple dashboard.
Learn what you need on Sefism
- FinOps roadmap: cost visibility, allocation, unit economics and FOCUS.
- FinOps cheat sheet: the key terms and practices in one page.
- FinOps Framework: the principles and capabilities behind the tool.
- DuckDB documentation: querying the merged dataset.
- dbt documentation: transformation and tests.
- How do I practise AWS, Azure or Google Cloud without a surprise bill?: keep your own test accounts safe.
- What is FinOps, and is it a good career?: what FinOps work looks like as a job.
Get help with this idea
The risk is converters that look right but do not reconcile with the invoice. Tauseef can help you read the specification, choose sources and design the reconciliation checks. If you are new here, create a free account first.
Ideas and guidance, not finished projects
These are project ideas and scoping guidance, published free for students to use as a starting point. I do not build, write, or sell final-year projects, and I do not complete coursework for anyone. Take an idea, make it yours, and build it.
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