MCM-managed budget configuration, evaluation, alerting, and stored budget fields.

Budget

Budgets are MCM-managed spend controls. MCM does not create or depend on provider-native AWS Budgets or Azure Budgets. Instead, budget definitions are stored in MCM, evaluated against normalized FinOps cost and forecast data, and exposed through the FinOps API for dashboards, account views, and alert workflows.

For canonical provider, account, resource type, and category terminology, see the Provider and Resource Reference.

Design Goals

Goal	Design Detail
Centralized spend governance	Store budget definitions in MCM so the same model works across AWS and Azure.
Provider-independent evaluation	Evaluate budgets from normalized cost and forecast records instead of provider-native budget resources.
Flexible filtering	Support budget scopes from global spend down to provider, account, and tag-level spend.
Repeatable alerting	Calculate threshold state from actual and forecast spend after cost and forecast data refresh.
Auditable posture	Persist evaluation results so budget state can be inspected without recalculating every request.

Data Sources

Budget evaluation uses data already collected by the Cost and Forecast pipelines.

Source	Used For	Reference
Normalized cost records	Actual spend for the current budget period.	Cost
Forecast records	Projected spend for the budget period or next available forecast window.	Forecast
Provider account metadata	Account names, provider names, and account identifiers.	Provider and Resource Reference
Resource metadata and tags	Custom tag filters used for tagged budget scopes.	Provider and Resource Reference

Budget Configuration

A budget definition describes what spend should be tracked, where the budget applies, the period being evaluated, the allowed amount, and the alert thresholds.

Configuration Area	Detail
Identity	Name, description, and stable budget ID.
Period	Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, or custom date range.
Recurrence	Recurring budgets reset every period; one-time budgets apply only to the configured start and end dates.
Scope	Defines the subset of cost and forecast data included in evaluation.
Amount	Budget cap in the configured currency.
Thresholds	One or more percentage thresholds evaluated against actual and forecast spend.
Status	Current budget posture derived from the latest evaluation result.

Supported Budget Scopes

Scope	Required Selector	Evaluation Filter
Global	None	All supported FinOps cost records.
Provider	Provider	Cost records for one provider, such as AWS or Azure.
Account	Provider and account ID	Cost records for one cloud account or Azure subscription.
Custom Tag	Tag key and optional tag value	Cost records whose provider tag set matches the configured selector.

Scopes are resolved into cost-query filters before evaluation. Provider and account names must use the canonical values from the Provider and Resource Reference.

Period Resolution

Period Type	Window Calculation
Daily	Start and end of the current day.
Weekly	Start and end of the current week.
Monthly	First day through last day of the current month.
Quarterly	First day through last day of the current quarter.
Annual	First day through last day of the current year.
Custom Range	Configured start date through configured end date.

For recurring budgets, MCM derives the active window from the current date and the configured period type. For one-time budgets, MCM uses the stored start and end dates and stops evaluation after the end date.

Evaluation Schedule

Trigger	Purpose
After daily cost collection	Refresh actual spend and threshold posture after new cost records are ingested.
After monthly reconciliation	Recalculate budgets when finalized billing data replaces provisional cost data.
After forecast refresh	Update forecast posture and Might Exceed status from the latest forecast rows.
Manual evaluation	Recalculate a budget or budget group after configuration changes or operational troubleshooting.

Budget evaluation should be idempotent for the same budget, period window, and source data version. A rerun overwrites the latest evaluation result for that active period instead of creating duplicate current-state rows.

Evaluation Flow

Load active budget definitions.
Resolve each budget period into a concrete start and end date.
Resolve each budget scope into provider, account, or tag filters.
Query normalized cost records that match the period and scope.
Sum actual spend in the reporting currency.
Query matching forecast rows when forecast data is available for the same scope.
Calculate utilization percentage from actual spend and budget amount.
Calculate forecast utilization percentage from forecast spend and budget amount.
Evaluate thresholds and derive budget status.
Store the latest evaluation result, threshold state, and calculated timestamps.

Threshold And Alert Logic

Thresholds are stored as percentages of the budget amount. They are early-warning levels, not separate budgets. MCM evaluates both actual spend and forecast spend so the budget can show a simple status before the spend actually crosses the configured amount.

Status	Condition
Under Budget	Actual spend and forecast spend are below the configured warning threshold.
Might Exceed	Actual spend or forecast spend has crossed the configured warning threshold, but actual spend is still within the budget amount.
Over Budget	Actual spend is greater than the configured budget amount.

For example, if a monthly budget is 1000 USD and the threshold is 80%, MCM calculates the threshold amount as 800 USD.

Actual Spend	Forecast Spend	Status	Reason
`650 USD`	`740 USD`	Under Budget	Both actual and forecast spend are below `800 USD`.
`720 USD`	`900 USD`	Might Exceed	Forecast spend is above the `800 USD` threshold.
`850 USD`	`920 USD`	Might Exceed	Actual spend is above the `800 USD` threshold but still below the `1000 USD` budget.
`1025 USD`	`1100 USD`	Over Budget	Actual spend is already greater than the budget amount.

If multiple thresholds are configured, MCM uses the highest threshold crossed by actual or forecast spend. Over Budget always takes precedence because it is based on actual spend exceeding the budget amount.

Stored Budget Definition Fields

Field	Type	Description	Required Behavior
Budget ID	string	Stable budget identifier.	Stored for every budget.
Name	string	Budget display name.	Stored for every budget.
Description	string	Optional business context.	Stored when provided.
Period	enum	Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, or custom.	Stored for every budget.
Start Date	date	Configured start date or first active period date.	Stored for every budget.
End Date	date	Configured end date for one-time or custom budgets.	Stored when applicable.
Recurrence	enum	Recurring or one-time.	Stored for every budget.
Scope Type	enum	Global, provider, account, or custom tag.	Stored for every budget.
Provider	string	Provider selector for scoped budgets.	Required for provider-specific scopes.
Account ID	string	Account selector for account-scoped budgets.	Required for account scope.
Account Name	string	Display name for the selected account.	Stored when available.
Tag Key	string	Custom tag key selector.	Required for custom tag scope.
Tag Value	string	Custom tag value selector.	Optional for custom tag scope.
Amount	number	Budget cap.	Stored for every budget.
Currency	string	Budget currency such as USD.	Stored for every budget.
Thresholds	list	Configured warning percentages such as `80%` or `90%`.	Stored for every budget.
Is Active	boolean	Whether the budget should be evaluated.	Stored for every budget.
Created At	datetime	Timestamp when the budget was created.	Stored for every budget.
Updated At	datetime	Timestamp when the budget definition last changed.	Updated on modification.

Stored Budget Evaluation Fields

Field	Type	Description	Required Behavior
Evaluation ID	string	Stable identifier for the stored evaluation result.	Stored for every evaluation.
Budget ID	string	Reference to the budget definition.	Stored for every evaluation.
Period Start	date	Start date used for this evaluation.	Stored for every evaluation.
Period End	date	End date used for this evaluation.	Stored for every evaluation.
Actual Cost	number	Actual spend from normalized cost records.	Stored for every evaluation.
Forecast Cost	number	Forecasted spend for the budget scope.	Stored when forecast data is available.
Currency	string	Reporting currency for actual and forecast values.	Stored for every evaluation.
Budget Amount	number	Budget cap copied from the definition at evaluation time.	Stored for every evaluation.
Remaining Amount	number	Budget amount minus actual cost.	Stored for every evaluation.
Utilization Percent	number	Actual cost divided by budget amount.	Stored for every evaluation.
Forecast Utilization Percent	number	Forecast cost divided by budget amount.	Stored when forecast data is available.
Current Threshold	string	Highest threshold crossed by actual or forecast spend.	Stored when a threshold is crossed.
Alert Status	enum	Under Budget, Might Exceed, or Over Budget.	Stored for every evaluation.
Alert Triggered	boolean	Whether this evaluation should create or update an alert.	Stored for every evaluation.
Evaluated At	datetime	Timestamp when the evaluation completed.	Stored for every evaluation.
Source Cost Window	string	Cost data window used for the calculation.	Stored for auditability.
Source Forecast Window	string	Forecast data window used for the calculation.	Stored when forecast data is available.

Failure Scenarios

Scenario	Action
Budget definition is incomplete	Mark evaluation failed and store validation error details.
Scope selector does not match any records	Store actual cost as zero and keep the budget evaluable.
Cost data is not available	Store evaluation as failed or pending, depending on whether collection is still in progress.
Forecast data is not available	Evaluate actual spend and leave forecast fields empty.
Currency conversion is unavailable	Evaluate records already in the budget currency; otherwise store an error for unsupported conversion.
Threshold configuration is invalid	Skip alert evaluation for that budget and store validation error details.

API Output

Budget API responses should be assembled from the stored budget definition and latest evaluation result.

Output Area	Source
Budget identity	Budget definition fields.
Scope and period	Budget definition plus resolved active period.
Actual spend	Latest budget evaluation result.
Forecast spend	Latest budget evaluation result.
Utilization and remaining amount	Latest budget evaluation result.
Alert status and threshold state	Latest budget evaluation result.
Spending history	Aggregated normalized cost records for the active period.

Budget

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