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Cost trends

Published On May 23, 2024 - 11:26 AM

Cost trends

Compare your budget to your costs, projected costs, and simulated costs.

On the cost graph you can monitor trends, such as increasing costs for storage or database resources, cost variances when the cost exceeds the budget, create projections, and compare your costs across months.

This page includes the following sections:

Filtering in the Cost graph

Projected Cost

Simulated Cost

Forecasting algorithm

Filtering in the Cost graph

The Cost graph provides detailed information of your costs, you can view this data per month, week, or day. Select the period in which you want to analyze data, either monthly, weekly, or daily. To view data day to day, week to week, or month to month, select the period you want to view and the frequency on the menu located under the 'cost' header.

To view data day-to-day, week to week or month-to-month
select the period you want to view and the frequency on the menu located under the 'cost' header.

To view data for a specific month
, click the specific month on the graph and details are displayed on the segment chart and in the line item details.

When clicking or filtering the data daily, weekly, or monthly, the information displayed on the segment chart and invoice line items changes based on the action. To learn more about these features, go to: Cost Segment Chart and View cost details. Monthly data gets updated after every ingestion every day. The data corresponds to the latest billing data for both daily and weekly periods.

Creating Projected Cost

The cost graph allows you to make cost projections for daily, weekly, and monthly cost analysis. The projection's amount and confidence score are reflected in the graph.

Create a monthly projected cost
:

Click the Monthly
period located under the Cost Header
.

Click the check box 'Show Projection'
located above the graph and then select the period of time you want to analyze the projection, you can select between three, six, twelve, or twenty-four months projection.

The page refreshes, and a blue line appears on the graph, indicating the projection selected.

If generating the projection takes some time to display
, an informative message pops up. You can cancel the projection by clicking the Cancel Projection
option on the banner and select new periods of time.

To create a weekly projected cost
:

Click the Weekly
period located under the Cost header
.

Click the check box 'Show Projection'
located above the graph and then Select the period to reflect the projection, you can select between three or six weeks.

The page refreshes, and a blue line appears on the graph, indicating the projection selected.

If generating the projection takes some time to display
, an informative message pops up. You can cancel the projection by clicking the Cancel Projection option and selecting new periods of time.

To create a daily projected cost
:

Click the Daily
period located under the Cost header
.

Click the check box 'Show Projection'
located above the graph and then Select the period of time to reflect the projection, you can select three or six days projection.

The page refreshes, and a blue line appears on the graph, indicating the projection selected.

If generating the projection takes some time to display
, an informative message pops up. You can cancel the projection by clicking the Cancel Projection button and selecting new periods of time.

Creating Simulated Cost

The cost graph allows you to make cost simulations for daily, weekly, and monthly cost analysis. A simulated cost is a possible future cost that has a user-supplied factor applied to the projected cost. To create a simulation, you must click on Show Projection first, and then you will see the simulation option available on the header. Follow the instructions depending on the period of time that you want to analyze.

To generate a monthly, daily, or daily simulation:

On the cost graph, click the specific period you want to view between monthly, weekly, or daily Period
tab, then click the Show Projection
option located under the 'Cost' graph header. A 'Generate Simulation’ window displays, Click on the plus icon and complete the following information:

Name
: Add a name to the simulation by typing it on the name bar.

Depending on whether you are viewing Monthly, Weekly, or Daily period, select the period between
:

Monthly
: Select the period of time to reflect the simulation, you can select between three, six, twelve, or twenty-four months.

Weekly
: Select the period of time to reflect the simulation, you can select three or six weeks.

Daily
: Select the period of time to reflect the simulation, you can select three or six days.

Apply values for all months
: Choose between USD amounts or percentages for all months, days, or weeks on the dropdown list. Click Apply
to apply the value to the periods. Click Clear
to clear the value from all periods.

Period
: If you want to change the value for a particular period, enter a new value. Once you have the desired value for each period, click Generate
. The window automatically closes, and a purple line appears on the graph indicating the simulation.

If generating the simulation takes some time to display
, an informative message pops up. You can cancel the projection by clicking the Cancel simulation button and selecting new periods of time.

To edit a simulated cost
, click the pencil located on the left side of the bar under the Costs Chart Header
. The pencil icon only appears after the simulation is created.

To generate a weekly simulation

On the Cost Graph, click the Weekly
period tab, then click the plus (+) button located under the cost graph header. A 'Generate Simulation’ window displays, complete the following information:

Name
: Type the desired name to the simulation by typing it on the name bar.

Select period
: Select the period of time to reflect the simulation, you can select three (3) or six (6) weeks.

Apply values for all months
: Choose between USD amounts
or percentages
for all months, days, or weeks on the drop-down list.

Cost
: Add the amount or percentage to be simulated for each month, and then click Generate. The window automatically closes, and a purple line appears on the graph indicating the simulation.

To edit a simulated cost
, click on the pencil located on the left side of the bar under the Costs chart header. The pencil icon appears after the simulation is created.

Compare costs

To compare cost counts, the cost dashboard contains the Compare Costs feature which gives you the possibility to have a deeper look on your costs’ details.

Select Compare Costs option located at the top right side of the graph, you can select a maximum of 50 options for one segment at a time.

Click the drop-down menu and select the cost data you want to view or search for it on the search bar. The available options are the default segments. Additional segments can be configured for provider tags or Dynamic Tags. See Configuring Segment Charts for more information. Once the desired segments are selected, click Apply.

The Cost Trend and Total Costs Table shows the cost data based on the segments previously selected to view and analyze on the graph.

The compare cost will not impact the total cost on summary and segment chart, the compare cost table shows the single trendline that the dashboard provides.

Forecasting algorithm

Forecasts are generated using a combination of proprietary and state-of-the-art algorithms, such as SARIMAX and Deep Learning.

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