Overview
Document types determine which report Azure Documenter generates. Azure Documenter offers 17 document types covering costs, resource inventory, compliance, access, optimization, architecture, sustainability, and Microsoft 365 licensing — each producing a purpose-built document for a different reporting need.
Business value
- Choose the exact report for your audience — executive briefings, finance analysis, security audits, or operations reviews
- Get structured optimization guidance for compute costs, Azure Reserved Instances, carbon emissions, and Microsoft 365 licensing without building custom analysis
- Track access, compliance, cost drift, and resource changes across subscriptions using reports that reflect the current state of your Azure environment on every generation
How it works
Document types are organized into seven filter categories in the Basics step of the configuration wizard: Executive, Finance, Security, Operations, Architecture, Sustainability, and Microsoft 365. Select a category to filter the list, or browse All to see every available type.
| Document type | What it reports |
|---|---|
| Executive summary | High-level billing and resource posture across selected subscriptions for a chosen date range. Use this for executive briefings and stakeholder reports that need a snapshot of Azure spend and resource inventory. |
| Resource details | Full resource inventory by type, with optional resource-level properties and architecture diagrams for selected resource types. Use this for audits, infrastructure handovers, and change management reviews. |
| Billing details | Itemized cost breakdown per resource and resource type for a chosen billing period, with optional cost charts. Use this when finance or operations teams need detailed Azure charges rather than a summary view. |
| Security compliance | Policy evaluation status — Compliant, Non compliant, Conflict, or Exempt — for all Azure policies assigned to the subscription. Use this to produce documented evidence of policy adherence for auditors or governance teams. |
| Cost comparison | Side-by-side comparison of spend across two billing periods by resource, type, resource group, and location. Use this to explain cost changes between months, quarters, or project phases. |
| Resource auditing | Audit log of resources added, modified, or deleted within a billing period, with cost impact per resource state. Use this to understand what changed in the Azure environment and its financial impact. |
| Access details - By subscription | Role assignments across subscriptions, organized by subscription scope and filterable by scope level (subscription, resource group, or resource) and role type (built-in or custom). Use this when security or compliance teams need to review who has access to what across all subscriptions. |
| Access details - By type | Role assignments grouped by identity type — groups, service principals, and users — across the selected subscription scope. Use this to audit access by who holds it rather than what they have access to. |
| Rightsizing recommendations | SKU-level recommendations — upgrade, downgrade, idle, or no change — for compute resources based on a configurable evaluation period (default 30 days). Use this to identify cost savings opportunities before a budget review or optimization exercise. |
| Reservation recommendations | Recommendations for purchasing Azure Reserved Instances (RI), with potential savings of up to 60% compared to pay-as-you-go. Use this to evaluate commitment-based purchasing for predictable workloads. |
| Network topology diagram | Visual map of network layout across the selected Azure resources and subscriptions. Use this for architecture reviews, incident response, or infrastructure documentation. |
| Workload diagram | Workload architecture showing compute, storage, and dependency relationships. Use this to document infrastructure dependencies or support design and review sessions. |
| Carbon summary | Summary of carbon emissions across resources and subscriptions, with an optional breakdown of the top 100 resources by carbon impact. Use this to establish an emissions baseline for sustainability reporting or environmental governance. |
| Carbon optimizations | Recommendations to reduce the Azure carbon footprint, covering Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (indirect energy), and Scope 3 (value chain) emissions. Use this to identify actionable steps toward emissions reduction targets or ESG commitments. |
| License consumption | Microsoft 365 licensing SKU inventory including license allocation, usage, and availability across the tenant. Use this before a licensing review or renewal to understand actual M365 utilization. |
| License optimizations | Opportunities to right-size Microsoft 365 licensing by surfacing unused or underutilized licenses. Use this when preparing for a licensing audit or looking to reduce unnecessary M365 spend. |
| Service plan matrix | Cross-reference of Microsoft 365 license SKUs and the service plans included in each. Use this to understand what capabilities are included in each license type or to plan end-user entitlements. |
To create a document configuration and generate a document, see Creating your first document or Azure Documenter quick start.