Stage 2 of 9 · 7 lessons · ~2 weeks

Reading the bill and tagging

Get fluent in AWS Cost Explorer and Data Exports (CUR 2.0 and FOCUS), then make the bill say who spent what: cost allocation tags and their activation, a written tagging policy, tag policies in AWS Organizations, and a plan for spend that cannot be tagged.

Start: Cost Explorer: grouping and filtering

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

Do this

Learn the main grouping and filter options in your cost tool.
Turn on the detailed billing export and confirm the first files or rows arrive.
Write a five-key tagging policy with allowed values.
Apply the tags from infrastructure code, not by hand.
Activate or enable the tags in your cost tool where the cloud requires it.
Write three SQL queries and check that one matches the invoice total.

Start with· follow one of these

CourseFree
AWS Cloud Financial Management training (Skill Builder)
Amazon Web Services · Beginner
Free: FinOps fundamentals Part II covers cost allocation and reporting on AWS
BookPaid
Cloud FinOps, 2nd edition (O'Reilly)
O'Reilly Media · Intermediate · Paid book
Paid: the chapters on allocation and tagging strategy explain the reasoning behind a good policy

Practise

Microsoft FinOps toolkit
Free sample cost exports to practise queries on, whichever cloud you chose
DuckDB Documentation
Query a billing CSV or Parquet file with SQL on your laptop, no database to set up

Keep handy

AWS Billing and Cost Management documentation
The official guides for every AWS cost tool named in this stage
FOCUS: the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification
Learn the common column names now; they make every provider's export easier to read

Also worth your time

Organizing and tracking costs using AWS cost allocation tags (opens in a new tab)Read
User-defined and AWS-generated tags, activation and the 24-hour delay
Kimball Dimensional Modeling TechniquesGo deeper
If you will build cost data models, the classic patterns for facts and dimensions apply directly

Before moving on: A detailed billing export turned on in your cloud account, a written five-key tagging policy applied to every resource you own, and three saved queries or views: cost by service, cost by team tag with an untagged bucket, and top resources, with the total matching the invoice.

Tauseef's advice

Turn on the detailed export today, before you think you need it. Every FinOps team I know has wished it had history from further back. Then keep the tagging policy short. Five keys that are always right beat thirty that are sometimes right.