Cloud cost glossary
Use these definitions when interpreting FinomateAI views. Exact billing treatment can vary by provider and customer agreement.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Actual cost | The amount charged for usage after applicable pricing adjustments, before any product-specific normalization. |
| Amortised cost | An upfront or recurring commitment cost distributed across the period in which the benefit is used. |
| Anomaly | A cost movement that differs materially from an expected baseline and requires review. |
| Billing scope | The accounts, subscriptions, projects and billing entities included in a view. |
| Budget | A target or limit used to compare expected and observed spend over a period. |
| Commitment | A reservation or savings agreement exchanged for discounted eligible usage. |
| Effective cost | A normalized cost intended to reflect the economic cost of usage after relevant discounts or commitments. |
| Estimated savings | A modeled opportunity based on current usage and stated assumptions; it is not a guaranteed outcome. |
| Linked account | A cloud account, subscription or project included within the customer billing scope. |
| Realised savings | Savings confirmed after an approved change and measured over a representative period. |
| Recommendation | A reviewable action that may reduce cost or improve cloud financial governance. |
| Waste | Spend associated with idle, unused or unnecessarily provisioned capacity. |
| Preview | A documented experience that is not generally available. Screenshots are sample UI. |
| Healthy connector | FinomateAI can read the approved billing export location. |
Naming differences between providers
FinomateAI uses common language where possible. AWS accounts, Azure subscriptions and Google Cloud projects may all appear as linked account dimensions in cross-cloud views.