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Previously in the Yotascale interface there was a toggle in Cost Analytics which allowed users to show or hide one-time costs .Yotascale costs now include amortization of all one-time fees, including Reserve Instance (RI) purchases, taxes, support, and long-lived subscriptions. To help users who relied on the one-time cost toggle to understand what is in the interface now, we’ve created a quick explanation of the changes, below.

If you want to see cost that...

Matches your AWS bill

Select ‘cash.’ (To switch between cash and accrual, click on Image Added in the upper right-hand corner of the screen) This version of your cost shows all one-time fees (including RI upfront fees) in the aggregate amount and on the date that you paid Amazon.

Matches value received

Select ‘accrual.’ This includes RI fees amortized and applied to instances that benefitted each hour, and shows other one-time fees amortized down to the day for the full-time period where the resource is used (e.g. ‘New Relic 1 year subscription’ would be broken down and show a small amount daily for the full year).

Frequently Asked Questions

• Do both ‘cash’ and ‘accrual’ show one-time costs?

Yes, the major difference is that the costs are fully amortized in the ‘accrual’ option, which aligns to with how the business receives value from large purchases and reduces the spikiness of the cost graphs.

• Why is there a big spike on the first of the month when Yotascale's 'accrual' is selected?

This spike represents the total RI cost that will be incurred in the month but is not yet attributed to a specific instance - this includes both the portion of the upfront fee and the discounted hourly fee for all hours in the month.

As the month progresses, the spike on the first of the month will decrease when instance usage matches an available RI and the cost is transitioned to the instance that benefitted.

At the end of the month, the remaining spike is the amount of RI cost that was not matched to an instance, also known as RI wastage.

• I used to look at my team’s cost with the ‘one time costs’ flag turned off, and now I’m using the ‘accrual’ option.  Why did my cost go up?

The most likely reason your team's cost increased is that your team has been benefiting from all-upfront or partial-upfront RIs.  Prior to this release, none of the upfront cost of the RI purchase was distributed to teams using instances with RI coverage (meaning instances appeared free or heavily discounted to your team, even though there was additional cost to the business).

Now, with 'accrual'-based reporting, Yotascale amortizes all RI fees and applies them to the team who benefited from the RI for that instance hour - so your total cost is the amortized upfront fee + hourly fee for the given RI.

• Yotascale's 'accrual' cost does not match Amazon Cost Explorer's 'amortized' cost.  What is the difference?cost does not match Amazon Cost Explorer's 'amortized' cost.  What is the difference?

There are three major differences - fees that Yotascale amortizes that Amazon does not, and how Yotascale amortizes RI fees to enable a clearer picture of usage-driven cost, and how each group costs, for example, EC2 costs in Yotascale equal EC2 + EC2-Other costs in Cost Explorer.

Amazon's Cost Explorer only amortizes RI upfront fees.  Yotascale  Yotascale's 'accrual' cost amortizes all costs in the Amazon CUR file that have a defined start and end datelong-term costs.  Examples of additional fees that we amortize include support fees, taxes, and marketplace subscriptions like a 1 year New Relic subscription.  This way, your .  All of these fees are amortized to the day - so a 1 year subscription would be amortized across all 365 days.

Amazon Cost Explorer amortizes RI fees to the month - so your total committed RI cost shows up on the first of the month as a spike and depletes throughout the month as resources benefit from the RI.  Yotascale amortizes RI fees for the current month to the day, which means you only see the cost for the current month if the day has happened and there is no spike on the first of the month.

Both of these Yotascale-specific amortization enhancements enable your organization to use the 'accrual' view of the cost includes all of to see the value your company is receiving from AWS, on the day you're receiving itthe value is received.