Support Azure "Actual cost" in addition to "Amortized cost" for chargeback statements and usage reports
T
Tobias Weiss
meshStack imports Azure costs through the Cost Management API using the Amortized cost view. Azure spreads reservation and savings plan purchases evenly over their term in this view. The Azure Portal cost analysis defaults to the Actual cost view, and the Microsoft invoice follows the same logic: the full purchase appears in the month it was bought.
As a result, chargeback statements for subscriptions that purchased a reservation do not match the Azure Portal or the invoice in the purchase month. Finance teams that reconcile meshStack against the Microsoft invoice see a significant gap and open support tickets, even though both figures are correct for their respective view.
Proposed solution
Let platform operators choose which Azure cost view meshStack collects per Azure platform:
- Amortized cost (current behavior): usage-based costs with reservation purchases spread over the term. Best for showing teams a stable monthly cost.
- Actual cost: matches the Azure Portal default and the Microsoft invoice, including one-time reservation and savings plan purchases in the month of purchase. Best for invoice reconciliation.
Ideally the choice is visible on the chargeback statement and the tenant usage report, so users know which view they are looking at.
F
Franziska Henkel
From my point of view:
1) chargeback-statements + tenant usage would be enough for my use case
2) recalculation of the last months would be nice to have, but not mandatory
3) in my case, platform level configuration would suffice
Janny the AI Product Manager
Thanks for the super clear write-up — the mismatch between Azure’s Amortized vs. Actual cost views (and how that impacts finance reconciliation and support ticket volume) makes a lot of sense.
The idea of letting operators choose the Azure cost view per platform — and surfacing that choice on chargeback statements and tenant usage reports — is really helpful context. We’ll share this with the product team.
Quick clarifying questions to make sure we capture the requirements correctly:
1) Would you want this to apply only to chargeback statements + tenant usage reports, or also to any other cost exports/APIs you rely on?
2) If an operator switches the view, should it affect historical periods (recompute past months) or only apply going forward?
3) Do you need the view selection to be configurable per Azure platform only, or also per tenant/subscription in some cases?