A chargeback policy template is filled in by finance and the cloud owner together before the first internal charge of cloud cost is posted; it records which cost goes to which cost centre, on which cost basis, with which keys for shared cost, at which cut-off and how a dispute is handled. The decision it records is signed by finance: the cost basis and the keys. Whether an organisation should charge at all or stay with showback is settled on cost centres and team ownership; this page is the policy itself.
The template
Chargeback policy <organisation>, version <1.0>, effective <date>, owner <role in finance>
1. Purpose and scope. The cost of the providers <AWS, Azure, Google Cloud> from the accounts <list or organisational unit> is charged monthly to the cost centres in annex A. Excluded are <central platform cost, sandbox accounts, cost below amount per month>; they stay on <platform cost centre>.
2. Cost basis.
| Component | Rule | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Usage cost | Effective cost: reservations, savings plans and committed use discounts spread over the usage they covered | The team sees the price its usage triggered, not the prepayment |
| Commitment prepayments | <carried centrally and spread through effective cost> | The purchase is the organisation's decision |
| Credits | <attributed to the originator or taken centrally> | <reason> |
| Support plan | Spread by <key from section 3> | The fee follows total cost |
| Marketplace purchases | Directly to the buyer's cost centre | The purchase has an orderer |
| Taxes | <finance's rule> | |
| Currency | <invoice currency> converted at <rate and source> on <cut-off date> | One rate per month, documented |
3. Keys for shared cost.
| Shared item | Key | Data source | Reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network, shared VPC, transit | Proportional to the users' owned cost | export, filter <tag or account> | <quarterly> |
| Shared Kubernetes cluster | By requested CPU and memory per namespace | <cluster cost data> | monthly |
| Observability, logging | By ingested GB per <tag> | <the tool's invoice> | <quarterly> |
| Platform team, tooling | <equal split or proportional> | this policy | yearly |
| Resources without a valid tag | The account owner's cost centre | tagging policy, section 7 | monthly |
4. Timing and cut-off. The charging period is the calendar month. The data date is the <day> of the following month, after the provider's invoice has arrived. Provider restatements and corrections are posted in the month they arrive, never retroactively. The showback statement goes to the cost centre owners <n> working days before posting.
5. Disputes.
| Step | Who | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
Dispute with resource ids and reasoning to <role> | cost centre owner | <5> working days after the statement |
| Check against the export and the tagging policy | <cloud owner> | <3> working days |
Decision, on disagreement <role in finance> | <role> | before posting |
Correction: from the following month, reversal of at most <1> month | finance | next posting |
6. Exceptions and reassignments. A new team gets <n> months of showback without posting. Projects with an end date carry the key project; their cost goes to <project cost centre> until <end date>. A cost centre that closes goes to <successor> from <date>.
7. Responsibilities. <cloud owner> delivers the statement and the allocation; <finance> posts and maintains annex A; <cost centre owner> checks and raises disputes; <role> decides on disagreement.
8. Review. The policy is reviewed <yearly> and at every change of the cost centre structure; the keys in section 3 are recomputed against usage on the cadence named there.
| Version | Date | Change | Approved by |
|---|---|---|---|
<1.0> | <date> | first version | <finance and cloud owner> |
Annex A, cost centres. <cost centre>, <owner>, <tag value cost-center>, <accounts or subscriptions>, <valid from>.
How to fill it in
Scope: name the accounts, not only the providers, and set the floor below which finance does not post; it saves more effort than it costs in accuracy.
Cost basis: the difference between billed, effective and amortised decides whether a team sees a prepayment it never triggered (list, billed, effective and amortised cost). Credits: taking them centrally keeps the teams' incentive clean, attributing them shows the true invoice (credits, refunds and corrections). Currency: one rate per month and its source, as in the exchange rate policy for budgets.
Keys: every item names its data source, because a key without a source cannot be recomputed; the choice between proportional, by usage and equal split is on shared cost. Untagged resources follow the tagging policy, not a second rule.
Cut-off: the providers close the month only days after its end; a cut-off before that charges provisional figures (billing periods and cut-off). Disputes: the deadline starts with the showback statement; the roles are those of the cost ownership RACI.
How to adapt it
One team: no charging; the policy shrinks to section 2 and becomes a footnote of the showback statement. Several teams: section 3 is the contested part; one key per item, recomputable, and a year without change so the teams can plan.
One provider: the currency row goes when the provider invoices in euro; the commitment row names that provider's programme. Three providers: one rate per provider and month, and the effective cost basis from each export's own column, because the providers compute it differently.
Startup: showback instead of chargeback until finance runs cost centres and a controller reads the posting; the template then starts without section 5. Finance-led: section 2 and annex A are reconciled with the chart of accounts, the posting runs through <ERP interface>, and the review cadence follows the year-end close.
Sources
Read on 2026-10-21. FinOps Foundation, Invoicing & Chargeback and Allocation (CC BY 4.0), FOCUS, Billed Cost and Effective Cost, splitting charges within AWS cost categories, understanding your AWS bill, Azure cost allocation rules, introduction to cost allocation in Azure, attribution of committed use discount fees and credits, ECB reference rates.