Data dictionary Familiarize yourself with the columns used in FinOps hubs, Power BI, and PowerShell solutions.

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Most of the columns in FinOps toolkit solutions originate in Cost Management or the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS). Below is a list of all columns you can expect to see in our solutions. For simplicity, the data dictionary does not include the x_ prefix used to denote “external” or non-FOCUS columns, so x_AccountName is listed under AccountName.

Name Description
AccountName Name of the identity responsible for billing for this subscription. This is your EA enrollment account owner or MOSA account admin. Not applicable to MCA.
AccountOwnerId Email address of the identity responsible for billing for this subscription. This is your EA enrollment account owner or MOSA account admin. Not applicable to MCA.
AccountType Derived. Indicates the type of account. Allowed values: EA, MCA, MG, MOSA, MPA.
AvailabilityZone Area within a resource location used for high availability. Not available for all services. Not included in Microsoft Cloud cost data.
BilledCost Amount owed for the charge after any applied discounts. If using FinOps hubs, you will need to include the Cost Management connector to see all billed costs. Maps to CostInBillingCurrency for actual cost in Cost Management.
BilledCostInUsd BilledCost in USD.
BilledPricingCost BilledCost in the pricing currency.
BillingAccountId Unique identifier for the billing account. “BillingAccount” columns map to the EA billing account and MCA billing profile. “x_BillingAccount” is the same as Cost Management.
BillingAccountName Name of the billing account. “BillingAccount” columns map to the EA billing account and MCA billing profile. “x_BillingAccount” is the same as Cost Management.
BillingCurrency Currency code for all price and cost columns.
BillingExchangeRate Exchange rate to multiply by when converting from the pricing currency to the billing currency.
BillingExchangeRateDate Date the exchange rate was determined.
BillingPeriodEnd Exclusive end date of the invoice period. Usually the first of the next month at midnight.
BillingPeriodStart First day of the invoice period. Usually the first of the month.
BillingProfileId Unique identifier of the scope that invoices are generated for. EA billing account or MCA billing profile.
BillingProfileName Name of the scope that invoices invoices are generated for. EA billing account or MCA billing profile.
CapacityCommitmentId Unique identifier of the capacity commitment, if applicable. Only available for virtual machines.
ChargeCategory Indicates whether the row represents an upfront or recurring fee, cost of usage that already occurred, an after-the-fact adjustment (e.g., credits), or taxes. Allowed values: Usage, Purchase, Adjustment, Tax. Maps to ChargeType in Cost Management.
ChargeDescription Brief, human-readable summary of a row.
ChargeFrequency Indicates how often a charge will occur. Allowed values: One-Time, Recurring, Usage-Based. Maps to Frequency in Cost Management.
ChargeId Derived. Unique identifier (GUID) of the charge.
ChargePeriodEnd End date and time of a charge period.
ChargePeriodStart Beginning date and time of a charge period. Maps to Date in Cost Management.
ChargeSubcategory Indicates the kind of usage or adjustment the row represents. Maps to ChargeType in Cost Management.
CommitmentDiscountKey Derived. Unique key used to join with instance size flexibility data.
CommitmentDiscountCategory Derived. Indicates whether the commitment-based discount identified in the CommitmentDiscountId column is based on usage quantity or cost (aka “spend”). Allowed values: Usage, Spend.
CommitmentDiscountId Unique identifier (GUID) of the commitment-based discount (e.g., reservation, savings plan) this resource utilized. Maps to BenefitId in Cost Management.
CommitmentDiscountName Name of the commitment-based discount (e.g., reservation, savings plan) this resource utilized. Maps to BenefitName in Cost Management.
CommitmentDiscountNameUnique Derived. Unique name of the commitment (e.g., reservation, savings plan), including the ID for uniqueness.
CommitmentDiscountType Derived. Label assigned by the provider to describe the type of commitment-based discount applied to the row. Allowed values: Reservation, Savings Plan.
CommitmentCostSavings⚠️ Derived. Amount saved from commitment discounts only. Does not include savings from negotiated discounts. Formula: x_OnDemandCost - EffectiveCost.
CommitmentCostSavingsRunningTotal⚠️ Derived. Calculates the accumulated or running total of CommitmentCostSavings for the day, including all previous day’s values.
CommitmentUnitPriceSavings⚠️ Derived. Amount the unit price was reduced for commitment discounts. Does not include negotiated discounts. Formula: x_OnDemandUnitPrice - x_EffectiveUnitPrice.
CommitmentUtilization Derived. Calculates the commitment utilization percentage for the period. Calculated as the sum of CommitmentUtilizationAmount divided by the sum of CommitmentUtilizationPotential.
CommitmentUtilizationAmount Derived. Amount of utilized commitment for the record, if the charge was associated with a commitment. Uses cost for savings plans and quantity for reservations.
CommitmentUtilizationPotential Derived. Amount that could have been applied to a commitment, but may not have been. This is generally the same as CommitmentUtilizationAmount, except for the unused charges. Uses cost for savings plans and quantity for reservations.
ConsumedService Azure Resource Manager resource provider namespace.
CostAllocationRuleName Name of the Microsoft Cost Management cost allocation rule that generated this charge. Cost allocation is used to move or split shared charges.
CostCenter Custom value defined by a billing admin for internal chargeback.
CustomerId Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) customer tenant ID.
CustomerName Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) customer tenant name.
DataSet Derived. Indicates which Cost Management data source the row was pulled from. Allowed values: Actual, Amortized.
DiscountCostSavings⚠️ Derived. Total amount saved after negotiated and commitment discounts are applied. Will be negative for unused commitments. Formula: ListCost - EffectiveCost.
DiscountCostSavingsRunningTotal⚠️ Derived. Calculates the accumulated or running total of DiscountCostSavings for the day, including all previous day’s values.
DiscountUnitPriceSavings⚠️ Derived. Amount the unit price was discounted compared to public, list prices. If 0 when there are discounts, this means the list price and cost were not provided by Cost Management. Formula: ListUnitPrice - x_EffectiveUnitPrice.
EffectiveCost BilledCost with commitment purchases spread across the commitment term. See Amortization. Maps to CostInBillingCurrency for amortized cost in Cost Management.
EffectiveCostInUsd EffectiveCost in USD.
EffectivePricingCost EffectiveCost in the pricing currency.
EffectiveUnitPrice Amortized price per unit after commitment-based discounts.
InvoiceId Unique identifier for the invoice the charge is included in. Only available for closed months after the invoice is published.
InvoiceIssuerId Unique identifier of the organization that generated the invoice.
InvoiceIssuerName⚠️ Name of the organization that generated the invoice. Only supported for CSP accounts. Not supported for EA or MCA accounts that are managed by a partner due to data not being provided by Cost Management.
InvoiceSectionId Unique identifier (GUID) of a section within an invoice used for grouping related charges. Represents an EA department. Not applicable for MOSA.
InvoiceSectionName Name of a section within an invoice used for grouping related charges. Represents an EA department. Not applicable for MOSA.
IsCreditEligible Indicates if this charge can be deducted from credits. May be a string (True or False in legacy datasets). Maps to IsAzureCreditEligible in Cost Management.
IsFree Derived. Indicates if this charge is free and has 0 BilledCost and 0 EffectiveCost. If the charge should not be free, please contact support as this is likely a inaccurate or incomplete data in Cost Management.
ListCost⚠️ Derived if not available. List (or retail) cost without any discounts applied.
ListCostInUsd⚠️ ListCost in USD.
ListUnitPrice⚠️ List (or retail) price per unit. If the same as OnDemandUnitPrice when there are discounts, this means list price and cost were not provided by Cost Management.
Month Derived. Month of the charge.
NegotiatedCostSavings⚠️ Derived. Amount saved after negotiated discounts are applied but excluding commitment discounts. Formula: ListCost - x_OnDemandCost.
NegotiatedCostSavingsRunningTotal⚠️ Derived. Calculates the accumulated or running total of NegotiatedCostSavings for the day, including all previous day’s values.
NegotiatedUnitPriceSavings⚠️ Derived. Amount the unit price was reduced after negotiated discounts were applied to public, list prices. Does not include commitment discounts. Formula: ListUnitPrice - x_OnDemandUnitPrice.
OnDemandCost⚠️ Derived. Cost based on UnitPrice (with negotiated discounts applied, but without commitment-based discounts). Calculated as Quantity multiplied by UnitPrice.
OnDemandUnitPrice⚠️ Derived. On-demand price per unit without any commitment-based discounts applied. If the same as EffectivePrice, this means EffectivePrice was not provided by Cost Management.
PartnerCreditApplied Indicates when the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Partner Earned Credit (PEC) was applied for a charge.
PartnerCreditRate Rate earned based on the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Partner Earned Credit (PEC) applied.
PartnerId Unique identifier of the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner.
PartnerName Name of the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner.
PricingBlockSize Derived. Indicates what measurement type is used by the PricingQuantity. Extracted from UnitOfMeasure in Cost Management.
PricingCategory⚠️ Describes the pricing model used for a charge at the time of use or purchase.
PricingCurrency Currency used for all price columns.
PricingQuantity Derived. Amount of a particular service that was used or purchased based on the PricingUnit. PricingQuantity is the same as UsageQuantity divided by x_PricingBlockSize.
PricingSubcategory⚠️ Describes the kind of pricing model used for a charge within a specific PricingCategory.
PricingUnit Derived. Indicates what measurement type is used by the PricingQuantity. Extracted from UnitOfMeasure in Cost Management.
PricingUnitDescription Describes the measurement type is used by the PricingQuantity. Maps to UnitOfMeasure in Cost Management.
PublisherId Unique identifier for the organization that created the product that was used or purchased.
PublisherName Name of the organization that created the product that was used or purchased.
PublisherType Indicates whether a charge is from a cloud provider or third-party Marketplace vendor. Allowed values: Azure, AWS, Marketplace.
Region⚠️ Isolated geographic area where a resource is provisioned in and/or a service is provided from.
ResellerId Unique identifier for the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) reseller. Maps to ResellerMpnId in Cost Management.
ResellerName Name of the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) reseller.
ResourceGroupId Derived. Unique identifier for the ResourceGroupName.
ResourceGroupName Grouping of resources that make up an application or set of resources that share the same lifecycle (e.g., created and deleted together).
ResourceGroupNameUnique Derived. Unique name of the resource, including the subscription name for uniqueness.
ResourceId Unique identifier for the resource. May be empty for purchases.
ResourceMachineName Derived. Extracted from x_SkuDetails. Used for Azure Hybrid Benefit reports.
ResourceName Name of the cloud resource. May be empty for purchases.
ResourceNameUnique Derived. Unique name of the resource, including the resource ID for uniqueness.
ResourceParentId Derived. Unique identifier for the logical resource parent as defined by the cm-resource-parent, ms-resource-parent, and hidden-managedby tags.
ResourceParentName Derived. Name of logical resource parent (ResourceParentId).
ResourceParentType Derived. The kind of resource the logical resource parent (ResourceParentId) is. Uses the Azure Resource Manager resource type and not the display name.
ResourceType The kind of resource for which you are being charged. “ResourceType” is a friendly display name. “x_ResourceType” is the Azure Resource Management resource ID.
SchemaVersion Derived. Version of the Cost Management cost details schema that was detected during ingestion.
ServiceCategory Top-level category for the ServiceName. This column aligns with the FOCUS requirements.
ServiceName Name of the service the resource type is a part of. This column aligns with the FOCUS requirements.
SkuCPUs Derived. Indicates the number of virtual CPUs used by this resource. Extracted from x_SkuDetails. Used for Azure Hybrid Benefit reports.
SkuDetails Additional information about the SKU. This column is formatted as a JSON object. Maps to AdditionalInfo in Cost Management.
SkuId Unique identifier for the product that was used or purchased. Maps to ProductId in Cost Management for MCA.
SkuImageType Derived. Extracted from x_SkuDetails. Used for Azure Hybrid Benefit reports.
SkuLicenseCPUs Derived. Indicates the number of virtual CPUs required from on-prem licenses required to use Azure Hybrid Benefit for this resource. Extracted from x_SkuDetails.
SkuLicenseStatus Derived. Indicates whether the charge used or was eligible for Azure Hybrid Benefit. Extracted from x_SkuDetails.
SkuMeterCategory Represents a cloud service, like “Virtual machines” or “Storage”.
SkuMeterId Unique identifier (sometimes a GUID, but not always) for the usage meter. This usually maps to a specific SKU or range of SKUs that have a specific price.
SkuMeterName Name of the usage meter. This usually maps to a specific SKU or range of SKUs that have a specific price. Not applicable for purchases.
SkuMeterRegion Geographical area associated with the price. If empty, the price for this charge is not based on region. Note this can be different from Region.
SkuMeterSubCategory Groups service charges of a particular type. Sometimes used to represent a set of SKUs (e.g., VM series) or a different type of charge (e.g., table vs. file storage). Can be empty.
SkuName Product that was used or purchased.
SkuOfferId Microsoft Cloud subscription type.
SkuOrderId Maps to ProductOrderId in Cost Management.
SkuOrderName Maps to ProductOrderName in Cost Management.
SkuPartNumber Identifier to help break down specific usage meters.
SkuPlanName Represents the pricing plan or SKU.
SkuPriceId Unique identifier for the product that was used or purchased inclusive of additional pricing variations, like tiering and discounts. Maps to {ProductId}_{SkuId}_{MeterType} in the price sheet for MCA.
SkuServiceFamily Groups service charges based on the core function of the service. Can be used to track the migration of workloads across fundamentally different architectures, like IaaS and PaaS data storage. As of Feb 2023, there is a bug for EA where this is always “Compute”.
SkuTerm Number of months a purchase covers. Only applicable to commitments today.
SkuTermLabel Derived. User-friendly display text for x_SkuTerm.
SkuType Derived. Extracted from x_SkuDetails and renamed from ServiceType. Used for Azure Hybrid Benefit reports.
SkuUsageType Derived. Extracted from x_SkuDetails. Used for Azure Hybrid Benefit reports.
SkuVMProperties Derived. Extracted from x_SkuDetails. Used for Azure Hybrid Benefit reports.
SubAccountId See SubscriptionId.
SubAccountName See SubscriptionName.
SubscriptionId Unique identifier (GUID) of the Microsoft Cloud subscription.
SubscriptionName Name of the Microsoft Cloud subscription.
SubscriptionNameUnique Derived. Unique name of the subscription, including the ID for uniqueness.
Tags Derived. Custom metadata (key/value pairs) applied to the resource or product the charge applies to. Formatted as a JavaScript object (JSON). Microsoft Cost Management has a bug where this is missing the outer braces, so that is fixed in Power Query.
TagsDictionary Derived. Object version of Tags.
ToolkitTool Derived. Name of the tool in the FinOps toolkit the resource supports.
ToolkitVersion Derived. Version of the tool in the FinOps toolkit the resource supports.
UsageCPUHours Derived. Total vCPU hours used by this resource. Calculated as vCPUs multiplied by UsageQuantity. Used for Azure Hybrid Benefit reports.
UsageQuantity Number of units of a resource or service that was used or purchased based on the UsageUnit.
UsageUnit Indicates what measurement type is used by the UsageQuantity.


#️⃣ Generating a unique ID

Microsoft Cost Management introduced a change in how data is processed that updates cost and usage data in a lower-latency, more streaming fashion. This means cost and usage data is available in Cost Management ~2 hours after the resource provider submits it into the billing pipeline and budget alerts are able to be triggered significantly faster. Unfortunately, this change may have also introduced cases where data can be split across multiple rows where the only difference is the quantity and cost. Based on this, a unique ID cannot be determined as of February 2, 2024. As of the time of this writing, the issue was just identified. Investigation is underway. If you experience this in your data, please raise a support request.

Use the following columns in the Cost Management FOCUS dataset to generate a unique ID:

  1. BillingAccountId
  2. ChargePeriodStart
  3. CommitmentDiscountId
  4. Region
  5. ResourceId
  6. SkuPriceId
  7. SubAccountId
  8. Tags
  9. x_AccountOwnerId
  10. x_CostCenter
  11. x_InvoiceSectionId
  12. x_SkuDetails
  13. x_SkuMeterId
  14. x_SkuOfferId
  15. x_SkuPartNumber


⚠️ Known issues

  1. Price and cost columns can be 0 when the data is not available in Cost Management. This includes but may not be limited to:
    • ListCost
    • ListUnitPrice
    • x_ListCostInUsd
    • x_OnDemandCost
    • x_OnDemandUnitPrice
    • x_EffectiveUnitPrice
  2. Due to missing and inaccurate price and cost columns, price and cost savings columns do not include all realized savings.
  3. InvoiceIssuerName does not account for indirect EA and MCA partners. The value will show as “Microsoft”.
  4. x_OnDemandUnitPrice and x_OnDemandCost do not include the correct value in Cost Management exports.
    • This is a known issue and a fix is in progress.
  5. PricingCategory shows “On-Demand” and x_PricingSubcategory shows “Standard” for unused commitment rows.
    • This is due to a transformation bug that was identified on March 3, 2024. A fix is in progress.
  6. x_PricingSubcategory may show a value like “Committed /providers/Microsoft…” for historical data before February 28, 2024.
    • This is due to a formatting bug that was resolved on February 28, 2024. If you see these values, please re-export the cost data for that month. If you need to export data for an older month that is not available, please contact support to request the data be exported for you to resolve the data quality issue from the previous export runs.
  7. Region can include values that are not regions, such as Unassigned and Global.
    • This is an underlying service issue and must be resolved by the service that is referencing invalid Azure locations in their usage data.
  8. For the Cost Management connector, PricingUnit and UsageUnit both include the pricing block size. Exports (and FinOps hubs) separate the block size into x_PricingBlockSize.
  9. For the Cost Management connector, SkuPriceId is not set due to the connector not having the data to populate the value.


🙋‍♀️ Feedback about FOCUS columns

If you have feedback about our mappings or about our full FOCUS support plans, please start a thread in discussions. If you believe you’ve found a bug, please create an issue.

If you have feedback about FOCUS, please create an issue in the FOCUS repository. We also encourage you to consider contributing to the FOCUS project. The project is looking for more practitioners to help bring their experience to help guide efforts and make this the most useful spec it can be. To learn more about FOCUS or to contribute to the project, visit focus.finops.org.


🧰 Related tools

  • 🏦 FinOps hubs – Open, extensible, and scalable cost reporting.
  • 📊 Power BI reports – Accelerate your reporting with Power BI starter kits.
  • 🖥️ PowerShell module – Automate and manage FinOps solutions and capabilities.
  • 🌐 Open data – Data available for anyone to access, use, and share without restriction.


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