Finout offers the flexibility to build tailor-made dashboards specifically designed for cloud cost management purposes. Whether you need to track cost trends, analyze cost breakdowns, or monitor cost allocation across different projects or departments, our dashboard customization options have got you covered.
You can create personalized dashboards that cater to the unique requirements of various stakeholders, such as finance teams, IT managers, or executives. Our platform allows you to select from a variety of cost visualization widgets, charts, and forecasts to present cost data in a way that is most meaningful and actionable for you and your stakeholders.
Finout supports the following dashboard widgets:
Cost & Usage: Provides a consolidated view of your cloud services' spending and resource usage. It tracks cost data to analyze spending trends and visualizes usage patterns over time for efficient monitoring and analysis.
Text: Provides a space for adding custom text, notes, or descriptions to your dashboard. This widget is useful for adding context, instructions, or annotations to your dashboard for better clarity and communication.
Budget: Helps you set and track budget targets for your cloud spending. It allows you to compare actual expenses against planned budgets and forecasts.
CostGuard: Integrates with the CostGuard feature to display insights and alerts on cost-saving opportunities. It highlights areas of potential waste, underutilized resources, and optimization recommendations to reduce cloud costs. This widget is coming soon.
Anomalies: Detects and displays unusual patterns or spikes in your cloud spending or resource usage. This widget is coming soon.
By building tailor-made dashboards for cloud cost management, you can gain better visibility into cost drivers, identify cost-saving opportunities, and make informed decisions to optimize your cloud expenditure. Whether you want to track cost by service, region, or specific resource groups, our customizable dashboards empower you to focus on the metrics and insights that matter most to your organization.
How to Create Custom Dashboards
Navigate to the Dashboard feature and click on the Create Dashboard button.
Click on the Add Widget option.
Choose a widget for your dashboard from a list of available templates or recently saved widgets.
Select the component for your widget based on cost, unit economics, or usage.
Choose the type of data visualization you prefer for your widget or load a dashboard type from your saved views.
Set your desired filters for the widget to narrow down the data displayed:
Group By: Organize data using various aspects of the Finout MegaBill; cost centers, services, custom costs, Virtual Tags, and more.
X-Axis: Select the data for the widget's horizontal axis.
Time interval: Daily, weekly, or monthly.
Timeframe customization: Set a specific timeframe fitting your widget's display needs.
(Optional) You can add a Show Forecast feature to your widget. This enables you to predict future trends based on historical data. The forecast cost is calculated for the selected filter throughout the current month and displayed in an accumulative graph.
Give your widget a name.
Once all the settings have been configured, Finout will provide you with a preview of the widget. This preview gives you a visual representation of how the widget will appear within your custom dashboard. You can review the data visualization, applied filters, and any additional features you have selected.
The preview allows you to ensure that the widget is displaying the desired information and is visually appealing. If any adjustments are needed, you can make changes to the widget's settings before finalizing it.
(Optional) Give your widget a description: If you want to provide additional context or details for your widget, you have the option to include a description. This can help users understand the purpose or specific insights provided by the widget.
(Optional) Change the cost type if needed: If the default cost type assigned to the widget does not align with your requirements, you can select a different cost type from options such as Net Amortized Cost, Amortized Cost, Unblended Cost, Net Unblended Cost, or Blended Cost.
If you have chosen the Unit Economics component for your widget, additional options will be available to further customize it:
Metric: Select the specific metric you want to focus on for your Unit Economic widget. You can choose from metrics such as NumberOfScans, TransactionCount, or ConcurrentAPICalls.
(Optional) Unit aggregation: If needed, you can enable unit aggregation for your widget. This feature allows you to aggregate or group units based on certain criteria, providing a consolidated view of unit economics for easier analysis and understanding.
Once you have completed the configuration of your custom widget and made any desired adjustments, you can save your changes by selecting the Save and Return option. This will ensure that your widget settings are preserved and applied within your custom dashboard.
After saving, you will be automatically redirected to your new dashboard, where you will see your newly created widget.
Please note that the widget will reflect the selected timeframe or interval chosen, as shown in the image below.
Customizing Your Dashboard
Give your dashboard a name
Simply enter a name that accurately reflects the purpose or content of your dashboard.
Add more widgets to your dashboard
Once you have created your dashboard, you can enhance it further by adding as many widgets as you like. To do this, click on the Add Widget option located either at the top or bottom of the screen within your dashboard interface.
Time parameters for your dashboard
Define the timeframe and interval settings globally for the entire dashboard.
Important: Implementing a dashboard-wide timeframe or interval will override the settings of individual widgets. When these changes are made, you'll receive an alert. A detailed filter overview will also be available to show which widget settings have been affected.
Removing time parameters from a dashboard
Select the "X" next to the specified timeframe or interval. Once removed, the dashboard widgets will revert to their default settings.
After removing a setting, at any time, you can return to your prior configurations by selecting Back to dashboard settings.
Editing a widget
Click on the three dots icon to reveal a dropdown menu of options and select the Edit Widget option.
Duplicating a widget
Click on the three dots icon to reveal a dropdown menu of options and select the Duplicate Widget.
Removing a widget from a dashboard
Click on the three dots icon to reveal a dropdown menu of options and select Remove from the dashboard.
Opening the widget in the MegaBill
Dashboard settings
Accessible via the three-dot menu, the Dashboard settings allow for the definition of the overall time parameters.
Time Frame: Activate this to specify a unique time frame for your entire dashboard.
Time Interval: Switch this on to set a custom time interval for all widgets on your dashboard.
Once saved, the chosen parameters will appear at the top of your dashboard.
Important: Implementing a dashboard-wide timeframe or interval will override the settings of individual widgets. When these changes are made, you'll receive an alert. A detailed filter overview will also be available to show which widget settings have been affected.
Creating automatic report notifications for your dashboards
With Finout, you can set up daily, weekly, or monthly reports based on your dashboards. These reports can be conveniently delivered to your email or shared as Slack messages.
To create a report for a specific dashboard, simply navigate to the dashboard view and click on the Subscribe button. This will initiate the process of setting up a report specifically tailored to that dashboard.
Enter a Report Name.
Enter a Report Description.
Select a dashboard.
In the Choose an endpoint, either select a Slack endpoint or enter an email address.
Select a Report time frame (Daily, Weekly, or Monthly) and the required number of days, weeks, or months.
Select the Interval (daily, weekly, or monthly). This defines how often the report will be sent.
For weekly, select the Day of the Week.
For monthly, select the Day of the Month.
Select the time to Send at and the Time Zone.
Click Save Report.
Additional Dashboard Options
Under the Dashboard feature, you can access a list of your custom dashboards. For any custom dashboard, you have the flexibility to clone or delete it. Simply click on the three dots icon to reveal the respective options.
Still need help? Please feel free to reach out to our team at [email protected].