Cost Analyzer onboarding walkthrough

Updated on 05 Aug 2026
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This walkthrough guides you through a structured trial and onboarding experience for Cost Analyzer. Work through each area in sequence to build confidence with the key features before moving on to advanced scenarios.

Overview

Cost Analyzer helps you understand, monitor, and optimize your Azure spend. This walkthrough covers the most common features you need to evaluate during a trial, followed by advanced scenarios for teams that want to go deeper.

Business value

Completing this walkthrough gives you a working understanding of how Cost Analyzer fits into your team's cost governance process — from initial analysis and budget configuration through to optimization recommendations and automated scheduling.

Prerequisites

Before starting this walkthrough, make sure you have completed the following:

Connected at least one Azure subscription to Turbo360.
Completed initial cost data import.
Reviewed the Cost Analyzer quick start.

Required permissions

You need at minimum the Viewer role to read cost data. The Contributor or Admin role is required to configure budgets, monitoring rules, schedules, and notifications.

How it works

The walkthrough is divided into two sections. Most common features covers the core areas every new user should explore during a trial. Advanced product scenarios covers platform administration and automation topics for teams that need deeper configuration.

Each area lists the actions to complete and links to the relevant documentation or tutorial video. After completing both sections, review the reflection questions to consolidate what you have learned.

Most common features

Work through the areas below in order. Complete all actions before moving to the next area.

Area	Actions to complete	More info
Getting started	Watch the Cost Analyzer quick start video to understand the initial setup flow.	Cost Analyzer quick start
In-app help	Access in-app help via the blue sidebar in the bottom right corner of the screen. Access the cost management playbook via the user icon in the top right corner of the screen.
Cost management groups	Create a new node in the tree view and assign cost scopes to it.	Managing cost management groups
Analysis	Create a custom graph, save it, and pin it to the overview screen. Explore the out-of-the-box graphs available in your cost management group.	Analysis view
Cost review	Review how Turbo360 can be used to perform a cost review collaboratively as a team.	Tutorial: How do I review Azure costs?
Chart library	Add a chart to the chart library and copy it to a different tree view node.	Chart library
Budget planner	Configure the budget planner for a tree view node. Configure monitoring for the budget planner.	Budget planner
Overview screen	Edit the dashboards displayed on the Cost Analyzer overview screen.	Cost dashboard
Budget monitor	Set up a daily budget for a tree view node. Set up a monthly budget with sub-thresholds.	Group budget monitoring Tutorial: Set up a cost alert notification Tutorial: Set up Azure budget alerts Tutorial: Azure budget optimization
Anomaly detection	Enable anomaly detection on a cost management group.	Automatic anomaly detection Tutorial: Ways to detect anomalies in Azure
Group notifications	Schedule a monthly cost summary notification via email. Schedule a monthly savings report to receive notifications about potential savings. Schedule a monthly executive summary PowerPoint report.	Cost summary report Tutorial: Weekly cost summary notification Potential cost savings report Tutorial: Tailored cost savings notifications Executive cost summary report
Rightsizing — advanced	Review the list of rightsizing recommendations. Click a recommendation to view detailed information. Apply a rightsizing recommendation immediately. Schedule a rightsizing recommendation to run out of hours. Trigger a notification for a recommendation to route implementation outside Turbo360. Ignore a recommendation.	Rightsizing introduction Tutorial: Azure rightsizing recommendations
Rightsizing — basic	Review the Azure Advisor recommendations that Turbo360 has surfaced.	Basic rightsizing recommendations Tutorial: Azure Advisor cost recommendations
Reservations	Review reservation recommendations. View the list of reservations applying to your tree view node. Set up a monitor to alert you when a reservation is close to expiry.	Reservations Tutorial: Azure reservation recommendations
Other recommendations	Review the additional recommendations identified by Turbo360 beyond rightsizing and reservations.	Other recommendations Tutorial: Azure cost optimization tips
Scheduler	Create a schedule and test automated resize, shutdown, or startup of resources. Review the suggestions for resources that could potentially be scheduled.	Schedules Managing optimization schedules Tutorial: Set up a schedule to downsize a UAT environment Tutorial: Scheduled resource recommendations in Azure

Things to consider after onboarding

After completing the most common features section, review the questions below with your team. Use them to identify the most impactful areas to focus on as you move from trial to active use.

Question	Your answer
What are the most obvious cost savings that have been identified so far?
Are there any insights in your cost data that you were not already aware of?
How much potential housekeeping has been surfaced by the other recommendations?
How do you feel your team has been managing costs and housekeeping so far?
How will your team keep on top of costs and housekeeping going forward?
Which Cost Analyzer features will be most important for maintaining an efficient Azure environment?

Advanced product scenarios

Once you are comfortable with the most common features, work through the advanced scenarios below. These cover platform configuration and automation topics that are typically handled by an administrator.

Area	Actions to complete	More info
Service principal management	Add and update a service principal. Add or remove Azure subscriptions connected to Turbo360.	What is a service principal? Service principal management
Cost group automation	Review how cost group automation can be used to configure the tree view structure automatically if your organisation requires it.	Cost group automation
User management	Add another user to Turbo360. Assign a user to a role. Review how advanced permissions can restrict access to specific nodes in the tree view.	Roles and permissions Microsoft Entra ID

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What's Next

Creating your first budget

Table of contents

Overview
Prerequisites
How it works
Most common features
Things to consider after onboarding
Advanced product scenarios
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