Microsoft FinOps toolkit
Microsoft's free, open source collection of FinOps tools and learning material: FinOps hubs for cost reporting, Power BI starter reports, optimisation and governance workbooks, a PowerShell module and open data such as sample FOCUS exports. Useful for practice even if you never use Azure at work.
GitHub repo
Other
Microsoft
A weekend to explore
Intermediate
Free
What it is
The FinOps toolkit is an open source collection of learning resources and customisable tools from Microsoft, built to help teams adopt FinOps capabilities on the Microsoft Cloud. It ships monthly releases on GitHub, with a public roadmap, discussions and office hours.
What is in it
- FinOps hubs: open, extensible cost reporting that ingests Cost Management exports (including FOCUS) into a data store you can query and report on.
- Power BI reports: starter kits for cost summaries, rate optimisation, invoicing and governance, so you do not build a dashboard from nothing.
- FinOps workbooks: Azure Monitor workbooks for cost optimisation and governance checks.
- Azure Optimization Engine: an extensible solution for custom optimisation recommendations.
- PowerShell module and Bicep modules: automate exports, hubs and other setup.
- Open data: pricing units, regions, resource types, services mapped to FOCUS service categories, and sample export files.
Why it is useful for learners
The sample exports and open data mean you can practise reading and querying real-shaped FOCUS billing data without a company bill. Load a sample file into DuckDB or Power BI and you can practise allocation, showback and unit cost queries on day one. The Power BI reports show how an experienced team lays out a cost review, which is a good model for your own.
How to use it well
Start with the documentation on Microsoft Learn (search "FinOps toolkit overview"), download a sample export from the open data page, and rebuild one chart from the starter reports yourself. If you have an Azure subscription, deploy a FinOps hub only after setting a budget, because a hub creates storage and data processing resources that cost money.
Prerequisites and time
Basic SQL or Power BI and a rough idea of a cloud bill. Exploring the repo and samples takes a weekend.
Free or paid
The toolkit is free and open source. Deploying hubs into Azure uses billable Azure resources.
Best for: learners who want realistic billing data to practise on, and Azure teams building their first FinOps reports.
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