Budget Management¶
Budget Management is an important part of TrueWatch FinOps capabilities. It helps you set monthly/quarterly/annual limits on cloud resource consumption and automatically sends alert notifications when consumption reaches the threshold, enabling proactive cost control.
Feature Overview¶
With Budget Management, you can:
- Set consumption budgets across five dimensions: Global, Product, Cloud Account, Region, and Cloud Provider;
- Configure actual threshold alerts (for example, 80% warning and 100% over-budget), and receive automatic notifications when consumption reaches the threshold;
- View budget execution progress and spending trends in real time on the Overview page and the budget details page;
- Trace budget alert history to understand the trigger details and delivery status of each alert.
Prerequisites¶
Before using Budget Management, make sure that:
- Cloud account integration has been completed and billing data is being collected normally;
- The current account role is Workspace Owner or Administrator (members with read-only access cannot create/edit/delete budget rules);
- The workspace has a billing currency configured (the budget amount unit follows the workspace billing currency and cannot be selected independently).
Create a Budget¶
Steps¶
- Go to the Overview > Budget Analysis tab and click + Create Budget;
- Or go to the Budgets page and click the + Create Budget button.
Configuration Items¶
| Configuration Item | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Budget Name | Yes | Custom name, for example, "Monthly Total Budget" or "ECS Budget" |
| Budget Dimension | Yes | Global / Product / Cloud Account / Region / Cloud Provider |
| Dimension Value | Depends on the dimension | For non-Global dimensions, select from existing billing data in the dropdown |
| Budget Amount | Yes | Enter numbers only; the currency symbol is automatically prefixed (based on the workspace) |
| Budget Cycle | Yes | Monthly / Quarterly / Annual; cannot be modified after creation |
| Alert Threshold | No | 80% warning and 100% over-budget are enabled by default; custom integers from 1 to 100 are supported |
| Notification Targets | Yes | Reuses TrueWatch Notification Targets (Members/Teams/Email/Webhook) |
Note
- Duplicate budgets are not allowed for the same dimension + dimension value combination (for example, if a "Product-ECS" budget already exists, a second one cannot be created);
- The budget amount must be greater than 0.
Budget List¶
The Budget List page displays all budget rules in the current workspace and supports the following operations:
List Fields¶
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Budget Name | Rule name; click to view details |
| Dimension | Global / Product / Cloud Account / Region / Cloud Provider |
| Budget Amount | Budget amount (including currency symbol) |
| Cycle | Monthly / Quarterly / Annual |
| Used | Cumulative used amount in the current cycle |
| Progress | Usage rate progress bar with color-coded status |
| Status | Normal / Warning / Over Budget / Disabled |
| Actions | Edit / Delete |
Sorting Rules¶
The list is sorted by status by default: Over Budget > Warning > Normal > Disabled. Within the same status, budgets are sorted by usage rate from high to low.
Quick Filters¶
The left side supports quick filtering by status, dimension, and cycle to help you quickly locate the target budget.
Delete a Budget¶
Clicking Delete opens a confirmation dialog:
Note
Deletion cannot be undone, and related alert rules will also become invalid.
After confirming the deletion, the budget rule and its associated alert history will be removed.
Budget Details¶
Click a budget name to enter the details page. View the following content from top to bottom:
Top Bar¶
Displays the budget name, current status, disable button, and the Explorer link.
Four-Metric Overview¶
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Budget Amount | The configured limit for this budget |
| Used This Month | Cumulative used amount in the current cycle |
| Remaining Budget | Budget amount - Used amount (displayed as a negative number when over budget) |
| Remaining Days | Number of days remaining in the current cycle |
Progress Bar¶
Visually displays the used percentage and marks the warning threshold position.
- Green: Normal (usage rate < threshold%)
- Yellow: Warning (threshold% ≤ usage rate < 100%)
- Red: Over Budget (usage rate ≥ 100%)
Configuration Information¶
Displays the complete budget configuration: name, dimension, cycle, threshold, notification targets, and creation time.
Consumption Trend Chart¶
Displays the cumulative consumption line under this budget dimension, along with the budget limit red line and the warning threshold line.
Alert History¶
The table displays all historical alert records for this budget:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Trigger Time | Alert trigger time (to the minute) |
| Alert Type | Warning / Over Budget |
| Trigger Details | Used amount / Budget amount (usage rate%), trigger reason |
| Delivery Status | Submitted / Submission Failed |
| Notification Targets | The list of members/teams that actually received the notification |
Note
The delivery status "Submitted" indicates that the notification task has been successfully submitted to the sending queue; it does not mean that the notification was finally delivered by the recipient's mail server.
Budget Status Determination¶
Budget status is calculated in real time based on the usage rate:
| Status | Determination Condition | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Over Budget | Usage rate ≥ 100% | Red |
| Warning | Threshold% ≤ usage rate < 100% | Yellow |
| Normal | Usage rate < threshold% | Green |
| Disabled | Manually disabled by the user | Gray |
Usage rate formula:
Here, Used Amount is the cumulative actually paid consumption amount within the current cycle that matches the budget dimension, as of 24:00 of the previous day.
Data Freshness¶
Budget Management data is updated on a daily basis:
- Billing data collection: runs once a day;
- Budget progress update: runs at 00:30 every day;
- Data displayed on the page is as of 24:00 of the previous day and does not include the current day's consumption.