Show the right cost metric to each persona
Finance, engineering and leadership each get the cost metric that fits their decisions: billed, contracted or unit cost.
Runs in
Claude · Slack
First optimization recommendation
The next day
ROI
Pays for itself with the first recommendation you act on
Which cost metric should the finance team use versus engineering managers, and why?
Engineering: contracted cost (usage-driven, stable). Finance: billed cost (matches invoices). Leadership: unit cost per customer. The gap between billed and contracted was €9.4k last month.
FinOps sets the default metric per persona.
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
A new team or report is set up.
Costory investigates
01
Define metrics
Billed, contracted and other cost metrics computed on the same data.
02
Assign defaults
Teams get default metrics in their scopes.
03
Report accordingly
Each report uses the persona's metric.
04
Explain
Claude explains the differences on request.
Where you see it
Claude
You decide
FinOps sets the default metric per persona.
Why it matters
One cost number for everyone means everyone argues about it. Engineers need usage-driven cost; finance needs invoice-true cost.
Who it’s for
FinOps leads, finance, engineering managers
Where it runs
Claude · Slack
What you get
What lands in front of your team
Less confusion
Each persona sees one relevant number.
One source
All metrics come from the same data.
Self-explaining
Claude answers 'why is this different?'.
Sources and assistants
What it connects
Data sources
Example prompts
Or drive it yourself
Explain
Which cost metric should the finance team use versus engineering managers, and why?
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
Related playbooks
Run these alongside it
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.
See the playbook
Costory notices
Quarter end, or before a board meeting.
A board and exec cost pack in minutes
Total spend trend, top drivers, budget progress, unit costs and month-over-month comparison in one executive view.
See the playbook
Costory notices
Every Monday at 9:00, for each team.
Weekly showback per team, posted in each team's Slack channel
Every engineering team gets its own weekly cost report in its own Slack channel, scoped to the services it owns.
See the playbook
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