Budget Management¶
Budget Management is an important component of TrueWatch's FinOps capabilities. It helps you set monthly, quarterly, or annual caps on cloud resource consumption and identify budget risks in advance through consumption progress and trend forecasts.
Features Overview¶
With Budget Management, you can:
- Set consumption budgets by five dimensions: Global, Product, Cloud Account, Region, and Cloud Provider;
- Configure actual threshold alerts (e.g., 80% warning, 100% over budget), with automatic notifications when consumption reaches the threshold;
- Enable forecast overspend warnings to receive alerts before actual overspending occurs;
- View budget execution progress, projected end-of-period consumption, and consumption trends on the Overview and Budget Details pages;
- Trace budget alert history to understand trigger details and notification status for each alert.
Prerequisites¶
Before using Budget Management, ensure that:
- Cloud account integration is complete and billing data is being collected normally;
- Your current account role is Workspace Owner or Administrator (members with read-only permissions cannot create, edit, or delete budget rules);
- The workspace has a settlement currency configured (budget amounts follow the workspace settlement currency and cannot be selected separately).
Create 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 Fields¶
| Configuration Item | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Budget Name | Yes | Custom name, such as "Monthly Total Budget" or "ECS Budget" |
| Budget Dimension | Yes | Global / Product / Cloud Account / Region / Cloud Provider |
| Dimension Value | Depends on dimension | For non-Global dimensions, select from existing billing data via dropdown |
| Budget Amount | Yes | Enter numbers only; the currency symbol is automatically prefixed (following the workspace) |
| Budget Period | Yes | Monthly / Quarterly / Annual; cannot be modified after creation |
| Alert Threshold | No | 80% warning and 100% over budget are checked by default; supports custom integers from 1-100 |
| Forecast Overspend Warning | No | When enabled, sends an alert when projected end-of-period consumption reaches 90% of the budget, or when consumption is projected to exceed the budget within the next 7 days |
| Notification Targets | Yes | Reuses TrueWatch Notification Targets (members/teams/email/Webhook) |
Forecast results are automatically generated by the system. "Forecast Overspend Warning" only controls whether forecast alerts are sent; it does not affect forecast results shown on the page.
Note
- Duplicate creation is 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) |
| Period | Monthly / Quarterly / Annual |
| Used | Cumulative amount used in the current period |
| Progress | Usage rate progress bar with color-coded status |
| Projected End-of-Period | Projected cumulative consumption at the end of the period based on current consumption trends; displays "—" when no forecast is available |
| Status | Normal / Warning / Projected Overspend / Over Budget / Disabled |
| Actions | Edit / Delete |
Sorting Rules¶
The list is sorted by status by default: Over Budget > Projected Overspend > Warning > Normal > Disabled. Within the same status, items are sorted by usage rate from high to low.
Quick Filters¶
Quick filters by status, dimension, and period are available on the left. Use the "Projected Overspend" filter to quickly find projects that may exceed the budget within the current period.
Delete Budget¶
Clicking Delete opens a confirmation dialog:
Note
Deleted budgets cannot be recovered, and related alert rules will no longer take effect.
After confirming deletion, the budget rule and its associated alert history will be removed.
Budget Details¶
Click a budget name to enter the details page, where the following content is displayed from top to bottom:
Top Bar¶
Displays the budget name, current status, a disable button, and a link to the Explorer.
Four KPI Metrics¶
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Budget Amount | The configured upper limit of the budget |
| Used This Period | Cumulative amount used in the current period |
| Projected End-of-Period | Projected cumulative consumption at the end of the period |
| Projected Overspend Amount | Amount by which projected end-of-period consumption exceeds the budget |
When no forecast is available, "Projected End-of-Period" and "Projected Overspend Amount" display "—".
Progress Bar¶
Visualizes 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, period, threshold, forecast overspend warning, notification targets, and creation time.
Spending Trend Chart¶
The trend chart displays cumulative actual consumption and projected consumption for the current period:
- The solid line indicates cumulative actual consumption;
- The dashed line indicates projected consumption from the current date to the end of the period;
- The chart also marks the budget warning threshold, budget limit, today's position, and the projected first date of overspending.
You can use the Show Forecast toggle to show or hide the forecast line. This toggle only affects the chart display and does not affect budget status or alerts.
Based on a linear trend of cumulative consumption in the current period, updated daily, for budget reference only.
Alert History¶
The table displays all historical alert records for this budget:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Trigger Time | Time the alert was triggered (accurate to the minute) |
| Alert Type | Warning / Forecast Warning / Merged Warning / Over Budget |
| Trigger Details | Actual consumption, projected end-of-period consumption, and the corresponding trigger reason |
| Send Status | Submitted / Send Failed |
| Notification Targets | List of members/teams that actually received the notification |
If actual consumption and forecast results both reach the alert conditions at the same time, the system sends only one notification and explains both reasons in it. For example:
Actual consumption has reached 80% of the budget. Consumption is projected to exceed the budget in 4 days, with projected end-of-period consumption of ¥1,128.
Note
A send status of "Submitted" means the notification task has been successfully submitted to the sending queue; it does not guarantee final delivery by the receiving server.
Budget Status Determination¶
Budget statuses are described as follows:
| Status | Determination Condition |
|---|---|
| Over Budget | Actual usage rate ≥ 100% |
| Projected Overspend | Projected end-of-period consumption reaches or exceeds the budget amount |
| Warning | Actual usage rate reaches the alert threshold, or projected end-of-period consumption reaches 90% of the budget |
| Normal | Neither current consumption nor forecast results reach the alert conditions |
| Disabled | Manually disabled by the user |
Usage Rate Calculation Formula:
Used Amount refers to the cumulative actual paid consumption that matches the budget dimension within the current period, as of 24:00 yesterday.
Data Freshness¶
Budget Management data is updated on a daily basis:
- Billing data collection: runs once per day;
- Budget progress update: runs at 00:30 every day;
- Data shown on the page is current as of 24:00 yesterday and does not include same-day consumption;
- Consumption forecasts are updated daily and only cover the current budget period;
- When available consumption data is insufficient, the page displays "Insufficient data. Consumption forecast cannot be generated." and forecast alerts are not sent;
- When forecasts are temporarily unavailable, actual consumption progress and actual threshold alerts remain fully functional;
- Disabled budgets do not generate consumption forecasts.