Virtual Tag Sync

Overview

Organizations often manage their own internal structure of services, teams, or environments using spreadsheets, internal platforms, or databases. Keeping this structure aligned with cloud cost data can be time-consuming and error-prone. Finout’s Virtual Tag Sync solves this by enabling you to streamline cost allocation by automatically aligning your Finout Virtual Tags with your internal business structure. By syncing daily from your designated Service Catalog file, this feature ensures that changes in your organization are reflected in cost allocations—eliminating manual tagging, maintaining data integrity, and enabling accurate, timely reporting, chargebacks, and anomaly routing.

Service Catalog File Structure

To successfully integrate the Virtual Tag Sync, you must ensure that your Service Catalog follows the required file structure:

File Example:

File Structure:

• First Column - Source Column Configuration: This column defines the source values that match your existing Finout data.

  1) Source Key -The column header in your file (e.g., Application). This represents the name of the MegaBill key you're using for allocation.

  Note: This does not need to match a MegaBiil key name in Finout, only the key values are necessary to match for configuration.

  2) Source Key Values - The values listed under the header (e.g., App1, App2) must exactly match the values in MegaBill.

  Note : If a value does not match, it will not be allocated to the destination custom tag and will instead appear as "Untagged."

• Second Column - Destination Column Configuration: This column defines the custom tags assigned to each corresponding source value. 3) Destination Custom Value - The values listed in this column (e.g., TeamA) represent the custom tags that should be associated with each key value from the source column. Each row links a source key value (from the first column) to a destination custom tag, which will be applied in Finout as part of the Virtual Tag configuration.

  Note: Destination tags do not need to pre-exist in Finout, they will be created or updated based on the created file.

• Third Column - Metadata Endpoints (Optional): (Coming Soon) This column defines the metadata endpoint that is assigned each key value from the source column.

  4) Metadata Endpoint ID (Optional)- This column specifies the unique IDs (e.g., 123abc) of metadata endpoints to be associated with each value in the destination column. This ensures that features using these endpoints route messages to the correct communication channels—such as Slack, Email, Jira, Microsoft Teams, or ServiceNow—based on the defined destination. Each destination value can be linked up to 10 metadata endpoint IDs. These endpoints IDs are generated by Finout which can be retrieved via the Finout API.

  Note: If the endpoint doesn't exist or doesn't match, there will be no endpoint assigned to that destination value. Ensure that the metadata endpoint values are a Finout ID and not the URL channel.

How is this applied in Finout?

The file provides the configuration to build the virtual tag in the following way:

Example Scenarios

Scenario 1

You want to create a virtual tag using the following information:

After sharing your service catalog file with Finout, the virtual tag is automatically created in the following way:

• The Source Key > Application with the values "App1", and "App2" are allocated to TeamA.

• The Source Key > Application with the values "App3" and "App4" are allocated to TeamB. This is how it appears in the virtual tag configuration :

  

  This is how it appears in MegaBill :

  

Scenario 2

The following day the the service catalog file is updated (e.g., App3 has been moved to TeamA) and the changes are automatically applied to the virtual tag.

• The Source Key > Application with the values "App1", "App2", and "App3" are allocated to TeamA.

• The Source Key > Application with the value "App4" is allocated to TeamB. This is how it appears in the virtual tag configuration :

  

  This is how it appears in MegaBill :

  

Setting up a Virtual Tag Sync

1. Create a service catalog file with all the virtual tags that you want to create.

   Note: To learn how to format the Service Catalog file, see Service Catalog File Structure.

2. Upload the file to a designated storage source.

3. Contact your customer success representative and send the following information in a secure way:

   • S3 Access Details:

     • IAM Role ARN

     • Bucket name and prefix

   • The Service Catalog File

What happens next? Once the Virtual Tag Sync is configured, Finout automatically processes the service catalog file daily and updates the virtual tags for use across the platform.

FAQs

Can I allocate a source column to multiple cost centers?

The source column in the service catalog file must be associated with a single cost center type. If you need to allocate costs across multiple types, such as AWS, GCP, or Virtual Tags, you’ll need to first merge them into a single Virtual Tag.

Do the values of the source column in the service catalog file need to exactly match my MegaBill key data?

Yes, partial or fuzzy matches won’t be allocated to the specified value; it will appear as an “Untagged ” value in Finout.

What happens if a value in my cost data doesn’t appear in the uploaded file?

Any unmatched value will automatically be marked as "Untagged ".

Will updates to my service catalog file affect historical data?

Yes, previous versions of your service catalog file are not stored or preserved, as there is no historical data versioning. Finout always uses the most recent version of the file, and updates are applied dynamically, meaning the latest version of your catalog file is always used.

What file formats can be uploaded?

Currently, only parquet files are supported for service catalog uploads. What storage platform is supported for hosting service catalog files?

Currently, only AWS S3 is supported for hosting service catalog files.

Can I access the updated cost data via API after new virtual tags are applied?

Yes, it functions like any regular virtual tag in Finout—once created, the updated cost data becomes available through the API. Simply generate an API token in Finout to securely integrate the latest cost allocation information into your workflows.

What happens if I have more than 1,000 rules in my Virtual Tag sync file?

Finout currently supports a maximum of 1,000 rules per Virtual Tag sync configuration. If your sync file contains more than 1,000 rules, the Virtual Tag sync will not be processed. To ensure successful synchronization, please reduce the number of rules to 1,000 or less.