Budget Planner

Introduction

The Budget Planner in Cost Analyzer enables detailed analysis of Azure cost patterns over time and supports forecasting based on historical trends. Users can model future spend using projected cost estimates or specified growth percentages to enhance budgeting accuracy.

For instance, if a team’s Azure spend has been consistently increasing by 10% each month due to growing workloads, the budget planner can use that trend to forecast costs for the upcoming quarters. Alternatively, if the team anticipates onboarding new services and estimates a 25% increase in usage, they can manually input that growth rate to model the expected budget impact and plan accordingly.

Budget Planner

Budget Planner is a powerful tool designed to help users forecast and manage Azure spending more effectively. It provides a cost trend visualization that enables users to analyze spending patterns over time.

The time range for analysis is fully customizable, allowing users to focus on specific periods that align with their financial planning cycles—such as monthly, quarterly, or yearly views.

At a glance, the budget planner offers a concise summary of key financial metrics, including:

• Total cost for the selected period
• Planned (forecasted) cost based on user-defined targets
• Average daily cost, providing insight into the pace of expenditure
• Percentage change, showing how current spending compares to previous periods or projections

To support proactive budgeting, the tool overlays red dotted lines on the cost trend chart. These lines visually represent projected costs, which can be calculated using either a specific anticipated value or a growth rate defined by the user. This allows teams to compare actual spending against forecasted trends and adjust their budgets or usage accordingly.

Whether you're scaling your operations, staying within a defined budget, or assessing financial performance, the budget planner provides a solid, data-driven basis for informed and strategic decision-making.

Export the cost trend visualization using the Export Image button to seamlessly integrate it into business presentations.

Configuration

Use the following steps to set up anticipated costs or growth rates in the Budget Planner:

1. Click the three-dotted icon next to a cost group in the tree view.
2. Navigate to Tools -> Budget Planner
3. Click Configure to begin defining anticipated costs or growth percentages.
4. Select the desired month for which the values should be applied.
5. Enter either a planned cost amount or a planned growth percentage for the chosen period.
6. (Optional) Add a note to include a user-defined description or justification for the projections.
7. Click Save to apply the changes made to the Budget Planner configuration.

Turning on the toggle in the Actions menu will apply the same cost or growth percentage for upcoming months.