Cloud resources are an important cost for users. Analyzing and managing the cost of cloud resources is an important demand for users. The Tencent Cloud Billing Statement is a carrier for users to perform expense and cost analysis. In addition to querying and summarizing cloud resource bills on standard dimensions such as product and resource for reconciliation management demands in daily use, users also hope that the bill fees and costs can be aligned with their own corporate (or individual) cost management analysis dimensions (such as by department, project, etc.), improving the convenience and usability of expense and cost statistical analysis in practical applications. Tencent Cloud enables custom management of cloud resource bills in statistical analysis dimensions through tag tools and billing allocation capabilities, meeting users' multidimensional management and analysis demands for bills and cost analysis.
Concept Explanation
Tag
Tag is a cloud resource management tool provided by Tencent Cloud. Users can classify, search for, and aggregate cloud resources with the same features from different dimensions, thereby easily managing cloud resources.
Bills
The collection of cloud resource settlement records generated by users and Tencent Cloud according to orders or transaction agreements (Resource Service Activation Orders). A carrier used for reconciliation and settlement of transactions between users and Tencent Cloud.
Cost Allocation
Cost allocation refers to users reallocating and analyzing the costs or fees of various cloud resources in their statements according to their own management or analysis needs. Common cost allocation dimensions include use department based on resource ownership and application project based on resources. Tencent Cloud users can create tag keys for cost allocation dimensions in the tag tool and use tag values to identify resources. When bills are issued, the corresponding tag information (i.e., cost allocation dimension information) is displayed through resource association in the bill settlement records to achieve cost allocation of cloud resource bills based on tags.
Allocation Tag
Tag is a collection for users to classify and manage resources based on their own requirements (currently supporting up to 1 million tag key-value pairs). It has diverse purposes. Tags used by users for cost allocation and cost analysis are called allocation tags, which can be identified and managed by users on the allocation tag side (currently supporting 15).
Users set tag keys as allocation tags. Tag keys configured as allocation tags will be displayed as additional columns in the bills. Each key will become an additional column in the bills, and the corresponding tag value set by the user for the resource under this tag key will be displayed in the column of this tag key for each settlement record in the bills. Other tag keys not set as allocation tags will not be displayed in the bills.
Operation Process
Before using allocation tags, users need to complete the creation of tags and allocate corresponding tags to resources that require cost allocation. The actual operation process:
- Tag key (required): Manually input a new tag key to create one, or select an existing tag key to add a new tag value for it.
- Tag value (required): Input a new tag value.
Step 2: Binding and Viewing Resources
1. Please see Bind Resource document to bind the newly created tag to the resource.
2. After binding resources, please see View Bound Resources document to view the resources bound under the tag.
Notes:
You can use this operation to view the corresponding resource list and tag the resource. A tag can correspond to multiple resources, and a resource can correspond to multiple tags.
2. On the left sidebar, click Cost Allocation Management > Cost Allocation Tags.
3. Select the target tag keys and click Set as Cost Allocation Tag.
4. In the pop-up window, click Confirm. A notification as shown below pops up in the upper-right corner of the console, indicating that the setting is complete.
Note:
You can set up to 15 cost allocation tags, but we recommend you set only one as this makes cost management easier. Each cost allocation tag occupies a column in bills, based on which you can filter and categorize your costs.
Tag Display
If you have created a tag and bound it to a resource, and set the tag as a cost allocation tag, you can see information related to the tag in the bill. That is, from the month when the cost allocation tag is set, you can view the tag information in the bill. The bill data of historic billed months remains unchanged.
2. Select the By Tag tab and choose a tag key. You will see a list of the tagged resources and a bar graph.
If you have activated the tag feature and set an allocation tag, you can see information related to the tag in downloaded bill files of different levels (For downloading bills, please see Bill Download Center). You may filter the file by tag key or perform other operations in the table.
1. Tag display in L1 bills (by product and project).
In L1 bills, you will find a sheet named “summaryByTagAndProduct”, in which you can view bill details by tag key. If you haven’t assigned a tag value for a resource, the content of the corresponding cell will be -.
2. Tag display in L2 bills (by resource ID).
In L2 bills, you will see tag key columns on the right and tag values in the cells of the columns. If you haven’t assigned a tag value for a resource, the content of the corresponding cell will be -.
3. Tag display in L3 bills (bill details).
In L3 bills, you will see tag key columns on the right and tag values in the cells of the columns. If you haven’t assigned a tag value for a resource, the content of the corresponding cell will be -.
Products Supporting Split Billing
Product
Direct Connect
TencentDB for CTSDB
Tencent Container Registry (TCR)
Tencent Real-Time Communication
Cloud Block Storage Snapshot
TencentDB for Tendis
Cloud Block Storage (CBS)
Tencent Kubernetes Engine (TKE)
Global Application Acceleration Platform (GAAP)
Cloud Log Service
TencentDB for MongoDB
TencentDB for Redis
TencentDB for SQL Server
TencentCloud Lighthouse
IM
Stream Computing Oceanus
TencentDB for PostgreSQL
TencentDB for KeeWiDB
TencentDB for MySQL
Tencent Interactive Whiteboard
Public IP
Bandwidth Package
TencentDB for MariaDB
Cloud Data Warehouse Doris
CDWPG
Cloud Load Balancer
Tencent Distributed SQL for MySQL
Service Mesh
Tencent Cloud House-C
Cloud Development
Cloud Connect Network CCN
Distributed Framework TSF- Public Cloud
Cloud Storage Gateway (CSG)
Video On Demand (VOD)
Tencent Cloud Observability Platform
Cloud Virtual Machine (CVM)
SCF
VPN Gateway
T-Sec-Cloud Hardware Security Module (CloudHSM)
T-Sec-Bastion Host(BH)
Cloud Automated Testing: New Version
Game Database TcaplusDB
Voice Message
T-Sec-Cloud Workload Protection(CWP)
T-Sec-Anti-DDoS (Anti-DDoS)
T-Sec Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Game Multimedia Engine
TPNS
Application Observation
TSE Service Registry Center
TDSQL-C for MySQL
TDSQL-C for PostgreSQL
HttpDNS
TDMQ
Message Service CKafka
TencentDB for TBase
Tencent Kubernetes Engine for Serverless
SSL Certificate
Cloud File Storage (CFS)
Tencent Cloud Blockchain TBaaS
TencentCloud TI Platform TI-ONE
NAT Gateway
Elasticsearch Service
HTAP Database TDSQL-H
Tencent Cloud Elastic Microservice
Cloud Infinite (CI)
Elastic MapReduce
Cloud Object Storage (COS)
SMS
API Gateway
Database Backup Service
Data Lake Compute
WeData Data Development and Governance Platform
Cloud Streaming Services (CSS)
Enterprise Content Delivery Network (ECDN)
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Data Subscription (DSS)
Tencent Cloud VectorDB
Data Transmission Service (DTS)
TencentCloud EdgeOne
TSE Cloud Native Gateway
TAE API_SDK
T-Sec-CFW (CFW)
T-Sec-CSC (CSIP)
Products to be allowlisted: Short Message Service (SMS), Cloud Streaming Service (CSS), Enterprise Content Delivery Network (ECDN), TencentCloud EdgeOne, Cloud Block Storage Snapshot, and TencentDB for MySQL Backup - Pay-as-you-go.
Note:
The above products will only generate allocation tag related data after being whitelisted. Forward tracing is not supported. To whitelist, contact the corresponding Cloud Product to submit a ticket.
For some products, the resource ID bound with tags cannot be used for corresponding cost allocation if it is not a push volume settlement resource ID or a prepaid resource ID.
Query by API
You can also use APIs to query tag information starting from the month of setting cost allocation tags.
Call the DescribeBillDetail, DescribeBillResourceSummary, DescribeBillSummaryByProject, or DescribeBillSummaryByTag API and you will get bill data and the corresponding tag information.
FAQs
1. When can I see tags in bills after tagging resources and setting cost allocation tags?
Tagging takes effect immediately, but there is a delay in bill data, so tags will not be displayed until the cache data of bills is refreshed.
Note:
The resource tag information at the end of the month is taken for the months when bills were generated in the past. Subsequent changes to the resource tags will not be refreshed after billing.
2. In the Bar Chart on the Tag Summary Page, What Does the Category "Others" Refer to?
The visualized chart on the Tag Summary page only displays the top 5 data, and other data will be aggregated and displayed as Others. For details, please go to Bill Details page to view detailed data.
3. If Multiple Cost Allocation Tags Are Set for the Same Resource, How Will the Cost Be Calculated?
If multiple cost allocation tags are set for the same resource, the total cost of the resource will be displayed under each tag. The cost of the resource will not be allocated based on the tag in the bill.
4. Up to 15 Cost Allocation Tags Are Supported. Can This Limit Be Increased?
Currently, up to 1,000 tag keys can be created, but 15 cost allocation tags can be set at most, which meets the needs of most scenarios. Insufficient tags are usually due to incorrect usage, so proper use is recommended.
5. If a Member Account Tags a Resource, Does the Bill Consolidated by the Organization Account Support Cost Allocation by Tag?
If a resource is tagged under a member account, and the organization account does not have this cost allocation tag, the organization account’s bill cannot be allocated by this tag when consolidated. This is because the consolidated billing is based on the cost allocation tag under the organization account. Only when the member account creates a tag key with the same name and has resource binding information, can the member account’s tag information be reflected.
For example:
Cost allocation tags set under the organization account: game project, business line.
Cost allocation tags set under the member account: game project, team.
After consolidation, the bill reflects: game project (including the member account’s tag information), business line.
6. What Are the Steps for a Member Account to Tag Resources and for the Organization Account to Support Cost Allocation by Tag During Consolidated Billing?
Step 1: The member account activates resources and tags them, for example, business line:game;
Step 2: The organization account establishes a tag key with the same name: business line, and sets the business line as the cost allocation tag;
Step 3: After T+1, the business line tag key containing the member account's tag information can be viewed in the organization account’s bill.
7. Can the tags applied to the account be used for cost allocation in the bill?
Tags applied to the account support display and cost allocation in the bill. For example:
An organization account can tag a member account with the key value: Salesperson: Zhang San. If the Salesperson tag is set as a cost allocation tag, all details in the bill for the owner UIN of that member account will be filled under the Salesperson tag with Zhang San value.
8. When there are tag values applied to both the account and the resource under the same tag key, which one takes precedence?
If there are tags applied to both the account and the resource under the same tag key, the tag value of the resource takes precedence.
