Cloud cost accruals from month-to-date data
Estimate the month's cloud cost for accruals using month-to-date data and forecasts per cost center.
Runs in
Claude · Slack
First optimization recommendation
The next day
ROI
Pays for itself with the first recommendation you act on
Row
cost_center
cost_eur
1
CC-110 Payments
Acme SAS
71,350.20
2
CC-120 Search
Acme SAS
52,980.75
3
CC-140 Data Platform
Acme GmbH
64,210.40
4
CC-150 Platform
Acme SAS
38,665.10
October accrual estimate: €338k (forecast), €212k month-to-date as of the 20th, split across 9 cost centers.
You decide
Controllers book the accrual.
Playbook
What the agent does
From what Costory notices to what you decide. Costory suggests the next step in conversation, and you decide whether to go ahead.
Costory notices
Month-end.
Costory investigates
01
Month-to-date
Allocated cost per cost center.
02
Forecast
End-of-month estimate.
03
Accrual file
Export for the close.
Where you see it
Claude
You decide
Controllers book the accrual.
Why it matters
Invoices arrive after the close, so finance accrues cloud costs from rough estimates.
Who it’s for
Controllers, finance
Where it runs
Claude · Slack
What you get
What lands in front of your team
Data-based accruals
Instead of last month's invoice.
Per cost center
Allocated.
Exportable
Into the close file.
Sources and assistants
What it connects
Data sources
Example prompts
Or drive it yourself
Accrue
Estimate October's cloud accrual per cost center from month-to-date data and the forecast.
FAQ
Questions about this playbook
When are month-end numbers final?
Costory refreshes month n-1 until the 10th of month n, then freezes it so close numbers stay stable.
How long does this playbook take to set up?
Connecting your billing data and the Costory MCP takes under 30 minutes with Terraform or CloudFormation. The playbook itself takes minutes: pick the scope, the trigger and the Slack channel. The first billing data lands the next day, and the agent starts from there.
Can we adjust what the agent does?
Yes. You choose the trigger, the scope (team, service, environment), the channel and the format, and you can pause or change it at any time.
Does Costory change anything in our cloud accounts?
No. Costory reads billing exports and the metrics you connect, and has no write access to your cloud. Actions it takes create Costory objects only: alerts, reports, dashboards and events. Your team stays in control of every change.
Step-by-step guide in the Costory docs
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Costory notices
Month n-1 freezes on the 10th.
Month-end close: allocated cloud costs ready for finance
Use Costory's frozen month-end numbers, allocated to cost centers, as the cloud input to your close.
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Costory notices
A commitment purchase shifts billed cost between teams.
Stable team costs with contracted cost
Give teams a usage-driven cost view that doesn't swing when Savings Plan discounts are shared across accounts.
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Put this playbook on call
Included in every plan, from €250/month. 30-day free trial: connect in under 30 minutes, get your first optimization recommendation the next day.
First optimization recommendation
The next day
ROI
Pays for itself with the first recommendation you act on
Setup
About 30 minutes
Data residency
EU
Access
Read-only on your cloud
