Merge pull request #261389 from bandersmsft/billing-tags

MCM - Adding billing tags article and update cost allocation

Author: v-dirichards

articles/cost-management-billing/costs/allocate-costs.md

@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@ title: Allocate Azure costs
 description: This article explains how create cost allocation rules to distribute costs of subscriptions, resource groups, or tags to others.
 author: bandersmsft
 ms.author: banders
-ms.date: 08/07/2023
+ms.date: 12/15/2023
 ms.topic: how-to
 ms.service: cost-management-billing
 ms.subservice: cost-management
-ms.reviewer: benshy
+ms.reviewer: sadoulta
 ---
 
 # Create and manage Azure cost allocation rules
@@ -68,13 +68,18 @@ Once set, the prefilled percentages defined don't change. All ongoing allocation
 
 The allocation rule starts processing. When the rule is active, all the selected source's costs allocate to the specified targets.
 
-> [!NOTE] 
-> New rule processing can take up to two hours before it completes and is active.
-
 Here's a video that demonstrates how to create a cost allocation rule.
 
 >[!VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/embed/nYzIIs2mx9Q]
 
+## Rules processing
+
+Rules are processed in the order in which they're created and can take up to 24 hours to take effect.
+
+Let's look at an example. Assume that an active rule, *Rule CA-1*, allocates costs from subscription A (the source) to subscription B (the target).
+
+Later, a new rule, *Rule CA-2* gets created. Its source is subscription A and its target is subscription C. So, the rule has no effect because costs for subscription A are zero. The costs are zero because *Rule CA-1* is active. It already allocated all the costs from subscription A to subscription B.
+
 ## Verify the cost allocation rule
 
 When the cost allocation rule is active, costs from the selected sources distribute to the specified allocation targets. Use the following information to verify proper cost allocation to targets.
@@ -127,7 +132,7 @@ However, cost allocation data results might be empty if you're using an unsuppor
 
 If you have cost allocation rules enabled, the `UnitPrice` field in your usage details file is 0. We recommend that you use price sheet data to get unit price information until it's available in the usage details file.
 
-Cost allocation to a target won't happen if that target doesn't have any costs associated with it.
+Cost allocation to a target doesn't happen if that target doesn't have any costs associated with it.
 
 ## Next steps
 

articles/cost-management-billing/costs/billing-tags.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+---
+title: Apply billing tags
+titleSuffix: Microsoft Cost Management
+description: This article explains what billing tags are how and how to apply them in Cost Management.
+author: bandersmsft
+ms.author: banders
+ms.date: 12/15/2023
+ms.topic: conceptual
+ms.service: cost-management-billing
+ms.subservice: cost-management
+ms.reviewer: sadoulta
+---
+
+
+# Apply billing tags
+
+Billing tags are metadata elements that you can apply to Microsoft Customer Agreement MCA billing entities including billing profiles and invoice sections. Just like Azure tags, billing tags are key-value pairs that are used to identify the entities.
+
+For example, to identify an invoice section with subscriptions belonging to the marketing department, you could use the tag with `key` : *Department* and `value` : *Marketing*.  The fully formed `key` : *value* pair would be `Department` : *Marketing*.
+
+> [!NOTE]
+> The limitations and recommendations that apply to Azure tags also apply to billing tags.
+
+> [!WARNING]
+> Tags are stored as plain text. Never add sensitive values to tags. Sensitive values could be exposed through many methods, including cost reports, commands that return existing tag definitions, deployment histories, exported templates, and monitoring logs.
+
+## Tag application
+
+**Required permissions**
+Billing tags are applied in the Azure portal. The required permissions are:
+
+- Billing profile contributor/owner for billing profile tags
+- Invoice section contributor/owner for invoice section tags
+
+**Billing profile tags**
+
+1. Go to [https://portal.azure.com.](https://portal.azure.com.)
+1. Search for and select **Cost Management + Billing**.
+1. Select the billing profile where you want to set the tags.
+1. On the left menu, select **Properties** under **Settings** and then select **Add or Update tags**.  
+    :::image type="content" source="./media/billing-tags/billing-profile-tag.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing tag application to a billing profile." lightbox="./media/billing-tags/billing-profile-tag.png" :::
+
+### Invoice section tags
+
+1. Go to [https://portal.azure.com](https://portal.azure.com). 
+1. Search for and select **Cost Management + Billing**.
+1. Select your billing profile.
+1. On the left menu, select **Invoice sections** under **Billing**.
+1. Select the invoice section where you want to set the tags.
+1. On the left menu, select **Properties** under **Settings** and then select **Add or update Tags**.  
+    :::image type="content" source="./media/billing-tags/invoice-section-tag.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing tag application to an invoice section." lightbox="./media/billing-tags/invoice-section-tag.png" :::
+
+## Tag inheritance and billing tags
+
+When you enable the **Tag inheritance** setting at the billing profile level, tags from billing profile and invoices sections are applied to usage records for all child resources. For more information about tag inheritance, see [Group and allocate costs using tag inheritance](enable-tag-inheritance.md).
+
+## Next steps
+
+- Learn how to [Group and allocate costs using tag inheritance](enable-tag-inheritance.md).

articles/cost-management-billing/costs/enable-tag-inheritance.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ titleSuffix: Microsoft Cost Management
 description: This article explains how to group costs using tag inheritance.
 author: bandersmsft
 ms.author: banders
-ms.date: 08/04/2023
+ms.date: 12/15/2023
 ms.topic: how-to
 ms.service: cost-management-billing
 ms.subservice: cost-management
@@ -13,17 +13,20 @@ ms.reviewer: sadoulta
 
 # Group and allocate costs using tag inheritance
 
-Azure tags are widely used to group costs to align with different business units, engineering environments, and cost departments. Tags provide the visibility needed for businesses to manage and allocate costs across the different groups.
+Tags are widely used to group costs to align with different business units, engineering environments, cost departments, and so on. Tags provide the visibility needed for businesses to manage and allocate costs across the different groups.
 
-This article explains how to use the tag inheritance setting in Cost Management. When enabled, tag inheritance applies resource group and subscription tags to child resource usage records. You don't have to tag every resource or rely on resources that emit usage to have their own tags.
+This article explains how to use the tag inheritance setting in Cost Management. When enabled, tag inheritance applies billing, resource group, and subscription tags to child resource usage records. You don't have to tag every resource or rely on resources that emit usage to have their own tags.
 
 Tag inheritance is available for the following billing account types:
 
 - Enterprise Agreement (EA)
 - Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA)
 - Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA) with Azure plan subscriptions
 
-Here's an example diagram showing how a tag is inherited. *Note that inherited tags are applied to child resource usage records and not the resources themselves.*
+Here's an example diagram showing how a tag is inherited.
+
+>[!NOTE]
+> Inherited tags are applied to child resource usage records and not the resources themselves.
 
 :::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/tag-example-01.svg" alt-text="Example diagram showing how a tag is inherited." border="false" lightbox="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/tag-example-01.svg":::
 
@@ -41,7 +44,7 @@ Here's an example diagram showing how a tag is inherited. *Note that inherited t
 
 ## Enable tag inheritance
 
-You can enable the tag inheritance setting in the Azure portal. You apply the setting at the EA billing account, MCA billing profile, and subscription scopes. After the setting is enabled, all resource group and subscription tags are automatically applied to child resource usage records.
+You can enable the tag inheritance setting in the Azure portal. You apply the setting at the EA billing account, MCA billing profile, and subscription scopes.
 
 ### To enable tag inheritance in the Azure portal for an EA billing account
 
@@ -53,16 +56,20 @@ You can enable the tag inheritance setting in the Azure portal. You apply the se
 1. In the Tag inheritance window, select **Automatically apply subscription and resource group tags to new data**.  
     :::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/automatically-apply-tags-new-usage-data.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the Automatically apply subscription and resource group tags to new data option for a billing account."  lightbox="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/automatically-apply-tags-new-usage-data.png":::
 
+After tag inheritance is enabled, subscription and resource group tags are applied to child resource usage records for the current month within 24 hours.
+
 ### To enable tag inheritance in the Azure portal for an MCA billing profile
 
 1. In the Azure portal, search for **Cost Management** and select it (the green hexagon-shaped symbol, *not* Cost Management + Billing).
 1. Select a scope.
 1. In the left menu under **Settings**, select **Manage billing profile**.
 1. Under **Tag inheritance**, select **Edit**.  
     :::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/edit-tag-inheritance-billing-profile.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the Edit option for Tag inheritance for an MCA billing profile." lightbox="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/edit-tag-inheritance-billing-profile.png":::
-1. In the Tag inheritance window, select **Automatically apply subscription and resource group tags to new data**.  
+1. In the Tag inheritance window, select **Automatically apply billing, subscription and resource group tags to new usage data**.  
     :::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/automatically-apply-tags-new-usage-data-billing-profile.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the Automatically apply subscription and resource group tags to new data option for a billing profile." lightbox="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/automatically-apply-tags-new-usage-data-billing-profile.png":::
 
+After tag inheritance is enabled, billing profile, invoice section, subscription, and resource group tags are applied to child resource usage records for the current month within 24 hours.
+
 ### To enable tag inheritance in the Azure portal for a subscription
 
 1. In the Azure portal, search for **Cost Management** and select it (the green hexagon-shaped symbol, *not* Cost Management + Billing).
@@ -75,19 +82,27 @@ You can enable the tag inheritance setting in the Azure portal. You apply the se
 
 ## Choose between resource and inherited tags
 
-When a resource tag matches the resource group or subscription tag being applied, the resource tag is applied to its usage record by default. You can change the default behavior to have the subscription or resource group tag override the resource tag.
+When a resource tag matches the inherited tag being applied, the resource tag is applied to its usage record by default. You can change the default behavior to have the inherited tag override the resource tag.
+
+**For EA customers**:
 
 In the Tag inheritance window, select the **Use the subscription or resource group tag** option.
 
-:::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/use-subscription-resource-group-tag.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the override options." :::
+:::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/use-subscription-resource-group-tag.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the inherited tag option selected for EA customers." :::
+
+**For MCA customers**:
+
+In the tag inheritance window, select the **Use the inherited tag** option.
+
+:::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/tag-inheritance-use-inherited-tag.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the inherited tag option selected for MCA customers." lightbox="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/tag-inheritance-use-inherited-tag.png" :::
 
 Let's look at an example of how a resource tag gets applied. In the following diagram, resource 4 and resource group 2 have the same tag: *App*. Because the user chose to keep the resource tag, usage record 4 is updated with the resource tag value *E2E*.
 
 :::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/tag-example-02.svg" alt-text="Example diagram showing how a resource tag gets applied." border="false" lightbox="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/tag-example-02.svg":::
 
 Let's look at another example where a resource tag gets overridden. In the following diagram, resource 4 and resource group 2 have the same tag: **App**. Because the user chose to use the resource group or subscription tag, usage record 4 is updated with the resource group tag value, which is *backend*¹.
 
-¹ When the subscription and resource group tags are the same as the resource tag and you’ve selected the **Use the subscription or resource group tag** option, the subscription tag is used.
+¹ When the subscription and resource group tags are the same as the resource tag and you select the **Use the subscription or resource group tag** option, the subscription tag is used.
 
 :::image type="content" source="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/tag-example-03.svg" alt-text="Example diagram showing how a resource tag gets overridden." border="false" lightbox="./media/enable-tag-inheritance/tag-example-03.svg":::
 
@@ -97,14 +112,14 @@ After the tag inheritance setting is enabled, it takes about 8-24 hours for the
 
 For example, if the tag inheritance setting is enabled on October 20, child resource usage records are updated from October 1 using the tags that existed on October 20.
 
-Similarly, if the tag inheritance setting is disabled, the inherited tags will be removed from the usage records for the current month.
+Similarly, if the tag inheritance setting is disabled, the inherited tags are removed from the usage records for the current month.
 
 > [!NOTE]
 > If there are purchases or resources that don’t emit usage at a subscription scope, they will not have the subscription tags applied even if the setting is enabled.
 
 ## View costs grouped by tags
 
-You can use cost analysis to view the costs grouped by tags.
+You can use Cost analysis to view the costs grouped by tags.
 
 1. In the Azure portal, navigate to **Cost Management**.
 1. In the left menu, select **Cost Analysis**.

articles/cost-management-billing/costs/media/billing-tags/billing-profile-tag.png

@@ -171,6 +171,8 @@
     items:
     - name: Group and allocate costs using tag inheritance
       href: enable-tag-inheritance.md
+    - name: Apply billing tags
+      href: billing-tags.md
     - name: Split shared costs
       href: allocate-costs.md
   - name: Reference