Overview
This article answers common questions about the document types available in Azure Documenter, covering what each type reports, which audience it serves, and how different types relate to one another.
Business value
Choosing the right document type for each audience and use case ensures reports contain relevant data and are immediately actionable. Understanding the differences between document types reduces time spent generating and discarding reports with the wrong scope.
How it works
Azure Documenter supports 15 document types, selectable in the Basics step of the Configure your document wizard. Document types are grouped into categories: Executive, Finance, Security, Operations, Sustainability, and Microsoft 365, accessible via filter tabs or the search field. Each type produces a focused output scoped to the subscriptions configured in the Service principal step.
FAQs
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How many document types does Azure Documenter support?
Azure Documenter supports 15 document types: Executive summary, Resource details, Billing details, Security compliance, Cost comparison, Resource auditing, Access details - By subscription, Access details - By type, Rightsizing recommendations, Reservation recommendations, Carbon summary, Carbon optimizations, License consumption, License optimizations, and Service plan matrix. -
Can I generate multiple document types from a single configuration?
No. Each configuration produces a single document type, selected at creation in the Basics step. To generate multiple document types for the same subscription scope, create a separate configuration for each type. See Document configuration FAQs. -
What is the difference between Access details - By subscription and Access details - By type?
Access details - By subscription organizes access and permission data by subscription, making it suited to reviewing who has access to individual subscriptions. Access details - By type organizes the same data by identity type, making it easier to audit how access is distributed across groups, service principals, and users across all subscriptions in scope. -
Which document types include cost and billing data?
Document types that include cost or billing data are Billing details, Cost comparison, Rightsizing recommendations, and Reservation recommendations. These types require a billing date range to be set in the Basics step of the Configure your document wizard. -
What Microsoft 365 document types are available?
Three document types cover Microsoft 365 data: License consumption (current license usage and active assignments), License optimizations (underutilized licenses and potential savings), and Service plan matrix (service plan entitlements and distribution across users). -
What is the difference between Carbon summary and Carbon optimizations?
Carbon summary provides an overview of the carbon footprint associated with your Azure subscriptions, suitable for reporting and governance. Carbon optimizations provides actionable recommendations for reducing that footprint, suited to teams looking to take action. They are separate document types; generate both when you need both the report and the recommendations. -
What happened to Network topology diagram and Workload diagram?
Network topology diagram and Workload diagram are no longer document types. They have been moved to the Diagrams area of Azure Documenter, where they are available as diagram types alongside the Resource visualizer. Diagrams are managed from the Diagrams tab on each document group page. See Managing diagram configurations. -
What output formats are supported for generated documents?
Documents published to an Azure Storage account can be generated as PDF, Word, or Excel. Documents published to Document360 are PDF only. The format options are configured in the Publish settings step of the Configure your document wizard.