Onboarding/Modifing Financial Budget

Creation of Approved AWS Spending by Budget

FinOps Center manages Financial Budgets that have been approved by customer's Core Financial Budgeting process. The Financial Budgets can be onboarded to FinOps Center via the Application UI or by uploading a CSV files.

Overview

Financial Budget Onboarding is the foundational process in FinOps Center's Cloud Financial Management framework. It establishes the four-level budget hierarchy (E1 through E4) that organizes all cloud spending, creates budget entries at each level, configures cost allocation percentages, and maps budgets to specific AWS accounts. Every other CFM process depends on this initial budget structure being in place.

Process Steps

1. Define the Budget Hierarchy - Establish the four-level financial element structure: Business Unit (E1), Department (E2), Portfolio (E3), and Product (E4). This hierarchy determines how costs roll up and how financial data is scoped for each role.

2. Create Budget Entries - Add budget line items at the appropriate hierarchy level. Budgets can be set on monthly or annual periods and support multiple fiscal years (2024, 2025, 2026). Each entry tracks both estimated and approved amounts.

3. Set Allocation Percentages - Configure what portion of each budget maps to AWS accounts. These percentages drive the cost allocation model: resources are either claimed (100% allocated to one workload) or open/shared (cost distributed by allocation percentage).

4. Assign to AWS Accounts - Link budget entries to specific AWS account IDs. Account names are resolved from the account_mapping table. Once assigned, cost tracking activates and QuickSight dashboards begin populating with spend data.

Key Concepts

Budget Hierarchy (E1-E4): Business Unit, Department, Portfolio, Product. Each level scopes financial visibility and governance accountability.

Allocation Percentages: Determine how budget and cost are distributed across AWS accounts. A 60% allocation means 60% of shared costs from that account are attributed to the corresponding workload.

Monthly vs Annual Periods: Budgets can operate on either cadence. Monthly budgets enable fine-grained spend tracking; annual budgets set broader spending envelopes.

Multi-Year Support: FinOps Center supports budget entries spanning 2024, 2025, and 2026 fiscal years with cross-year data visibility.

Integration Points

Budget onboarding feeds directly into Budget to Cloud Allocation (which maps budgets to workloads and resources) and Financial Budget Mapping to User (which connects budgets to specific users for role-based visibility). Without completed budget onboarding, no other CFM process can function.

FinOps Center Roles - Financial Admin & Vendor Manager (Default Roles)

Navigate to the Vendor Manager

Via Site

Define Organizational Naming for the Year

Add Line Item

Via CSV

The Financial Budget/Chart of Account Files is a comma delimited file (csv). The hierarchy of file goes from left to right with the top or your organization being the left column to the lowest product/project in the 4th column. The First Row of the file will drive the labels of the application.

Sample File:

1KB

FinOpsTest1_2025_true_2025-01-01_false_Budget_v2.csv

Open

File Name

The Chart of Account File should be generated from your Core Accounting System that reflects your Hierarchy and Approved Budget Spending for AWS.Budgets (via file format) can be updated based on Customer requirements.

Customer_2025_true_2025-11-01_false_Budget_v1.csv

2025

effectiveYear - sets endDate to 2023-12-31. If isNew = true, startDate will be overridden to 2023-01-01

true

isNew - sets startDate to effectiveYear-01-01 and reloads the budgets

2025-11-01

startDate - sets when the budget becomes active. Must be 1st of month

false

isOverride - if you want to replace the existing entries, clears the database for given effective year and creates new entries

Customer Option

None

I am a CCoE User and I want to create a New Budget for All Project for the New Budget Year.

I am a CcoE User and I want to up to update a Product’s Annual Budget on 7-01-XX

I am a CCoE User and I want to add a New Product and it’s budget

Chart of Account Integration

Admin users upload the Chart of Account File in the Configuration Page. The Chart of Account File is uploaded in the *.sorfile s3 Bucket and processed by Lambda into DynamoDB.

Invoice Integration

CCoE and Business Unit Users will be able to download csv to their desktops for integration into Core Financial and/or FP&A Solutions.

PreviousCFM Processes NextBusiness User Onboarding

Last updated 11 days ago

hashtagOverview

hashtagProcess Steps

hashtag1. Define the Budget Hierarchy - Establish the four-level financial element structure: Business Unit (E1), Department (E2), Portfolio (E3), and Product (E4). This hierarchy determines how costs roll up and how financial data is scoped for each role.

hashtag2. Create Budget Entries - Add budget line items at the appropriate hierarchy level. Budgets can be set on monthly or annual periods and support multiple fiscal years (2024, 2025, 2026). Each entry tracks both estimated and approved amounts.

hashtag3. Set Allocation Percentages - Configure what portion of each budget maps to AWS accounts. These percentages drive the cost allocation model: resources are either claimed (100% allocated to one workload) or open/shared (cost distributed by allocation percentage).

hashtag4. Assign to AWS Accounts - Link budget entries to specific AWS account IDs. Account names are resolved from the account_mapping table. Once assigned, cost tracking activates and QuickSight dashboards begin populating with spend data.

hashtagKey Concepts

hashtagBudget Hierarchy (E1-E4): Business Unit, Department, Portfolio, Product. Each level scopes financial visibility and governance accountability.

hashtagAllocation Percentages: Determine how budget and cost are distributed across AWS accounts. A 60% allocation means 60% of shared costs from that account are attributed to the corresponding workload.

hashtagMonthly vs Annual Periods: Budgets can operate on either cadence. Monthly budgets enable fine-grained spend tracking; annual budgets set broader spending envelopes.

hashtagMulti-Year Support: FinOps Center supports budget entries spanning 2024, 2025, and 2026 fiscal years with cross-year data visibility.

hashtagIntegration Points

hashtagBudget onboarding feeds directly into Budget to Cloud Allocation (which maps budgets to workloads and resources) and Financial Budget Mapping to User (which connects budgets to specific users for role-based visibility). Without completed budget onboarding, no other CFM process can function.