Allocate — Assign Cost Ownership#

Allocate is where cost ownership becomes explicit. You build three organisational dimensions and write tag-based rules that automatically assign resources to the right owner. No manual assignment of CMDB entries is required. Once set up, every cost row carries the correct attribution across Assess, Analyze, and Monitor.

Navigate: left navigation → FinOps → Allocate.

The Allocate page layout#

The page is split into two panels:

  • Left panel: tabs for Organisation (Groups tree), Environments, and Projects

  • Right panel: detail for the selected node — rules, budget, and owner

Task 1: Build your Group hierarchy#

  1. Click the Organisation tab in the left panel

  2. The root node (your company) already exists — click it to select it

  3. Click “+ Add child” to create your first business unit or team node

  4. Repeat for each level (Company → Business Unit → Product → Team)

  5. To set an owner on a node: select the node → click “Set owner” → search for a user

Tip

Start with 2–3 levels maximum. You can always add more depth later. Trees that are too deep make budgets and reports harder to read.

Example hierarchy for a mid-size company:

Company (root)
├── Platform Engineering
│   ├── Infrastructure
│   └── Security
└── Digital Products
    ├── E-Commerce
    └── Mobile

Task 2: Add Environments and Projects#

Environments (flat list of runtime stages):

  • Switch to the Environments tab → click “+ Add” → enter name (e.g. Production, Staging, Development, Sandbox)

Projects (flat list of initiatives):

  • Switch to the Projects tab → click “+ Add” → enter name (e.g. Web Shop, Data Migration 2026)

Task 3: Write allocation rules#

Rules are tag-based expressions that automatically assign matching resources to a dimension.

To add a rule to a Group node:

  1. Select the Group node in the left panel

  2. In the right panel, click “+ Add rule”

  3. The rule expression builder opens:

    • Add one or more tag conditions (key = value pairs)

    • Conditions within one rule are joined with AND logic (all must be true)

  4. Save the rule

Use the same steps from the Environments and Projects tabs to add rules to those dimensions.

Note

A resource can match rules for multiple Groups, Environments, and Projects simultaneously — it will appear in cost reports for all of them.

Example rules#

Rule expression

Assigned to

team = web AND environment = production

Group: “Team Web” + Environment: “Production”

project = data-platform

Project: “Data Platform”

costcenter = 1042

Group: “Finance BU”

Finding unallocated resources#

Resources that match no rule appear as “Unallocated” in Assess and Analyze.

Tip

After writing your first rules, go to Analyze, group by Group, and look for the Unallocated row. Use the resource types and tags you see there to write the next batch of rules.

Task 4: Set a budget on a Group node#

See Budgets for the full guide.

Groups and Automation#

Important

Group nodes created in Allocate are the same groups available as scope targets in Automation policies. Changes to your group hierarchy (renaming, deleting, restructuring) immediately affect any running policies that reference those groups. Review your policies after restructuring.