FOCUS Glossary
Key terms and definitions from the FOCUS specification, drawn from the official glossary in the FOCUS_Spec repository.
Billing and Accounts
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Billing Account | A container consolidating resources and services billed together, potentially including sub-accounts |
| Billing Currency | An identifier representing the currency for resource and service charges (ISO 4217) |
| Billing Period | Time window for which an organization receives an invoice, inclusive of start date and exclusive of end date |
| Closed Billing Period | A period financially closed after all anticipated invoices have been issued |
| Open Billing Period | An ongoing period remaining subject to updates until formal closure |
| Invoice | A document summarizing charges for resources or services consumed |
| Invoice Reconciliation | Verifying costs, quantities, and adjustments match usage records and rates |
| Sub Account | Organizational unit within a billing account; doesn’t receive invoices independently |
Charges and Costs
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Charge | A single row in a FOCUS-compatible cost and usage dataset |
| Charge Period | Time window for which a charge is effective, inclusive of start date and exclusive of end date |
| Adjustment | A modification to billing data addressing errors, disruptions, or pricing changes |
| Allocated Charge | A charge created through allocation operations from an origin charge |
| Allocated Method | The process or formula by which cost is allocated to produce allocated charges |
| Correction | Modifications to previously delivered records within defined delivery scopes |
| Credit | A financial incentive unrelated to other charges |
| Refund | A return of previously charged funds |
| Covered Charge | A charge whose cost is absorbed by a corresponding covering charge |
| Covering Charge | A purchase charge offsetting covered charges’ costs |
Pricing and Commitments
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Amortization | Distribution of upfront costs over time to reflect consumption or benefit derived |
| Block Pricing | Cost determined based on predefined quantities or tiers of usage |
| Commitment | Agreement to spend a defined monetary amount or consume a specific quantity of resources |
| Commitment Discount | Publicly available discounted pricing requiring specific spend/usage commitments |
| Commitment Discount Flexibility | Features allowing transformation of usage based on provider-specific requirements |
| Contracted Unit Price | Agreed-upon unit price inclusive of negotiated discounts, excluding commitment discounts |
| List Unit Price | Service-provider-published unit price exclusive of any discounts |
| Negotiated Discount | Privately agreed discounts with customized terms and pricing modifications |
| SKU | A construct composed of the common properties of a product offering |
| SKU Price | Pricing construct encompassing functionality, specifications, and stable pricing details |
| Virtual Currency | Proprietary provider-issued credits or tokens |
| National Currency | Government-issued currency |
| Price List | Comprehensive pricing offered by service providers |
Infrastructure and Services
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Availability Zone | Geographically separated locations containing a data center or cluster of data centers |
| Capacity Reservation | Agreement securing a dedicated amount of resources for a specified period |
| Cloud Service Provider (CSP) | Organization providing remote computing resources for a fee |
| Interruptible | Compute resources pausable or terminable by the CSP at reduced pricing |
| On-Demand | Services available immediately without pre-scheduling |
| Resource | Unique component that incurs a charge |
| Service | Offering that can be purchased from a service provider |
Data Model
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Dimension | A categorical attribute providing context to billing data |
| Metric | A numeric FOCUS column supporting aggregation and statistical operations |
| Custom Column | Non-FOCUS columns prefixed with “x_” providing additional native dataset context |
| FOCUS Column | Specification-defined columns in FOCUS datasets |
| FOCUS Dataset | Structured collection of columns conforming to BCP14 criteria established by FOCUS |
| Native Dataset | Data provided by generators in non-FOCUS formats |
| Dataset Artifact | Physical representation of a dataset instance |
| Dataset Instance | Specific FOCUS dataset implementation with varying properties |
| Delivery Scope | Boundary determining which records are included in a dataset |
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Tag | Metadata label assigned to a resource for categorization and management |
| Tag Scheme | A distinct framework for assigning metadata to various assets |
| Tag Source | Constructs for grouping resources and assigning tags |
| Finalized Tag | A tag value selected from possibilities through defined rules |
Organizations and Roles
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Managed Service Provider (MSP) | Organization providing outsourced IT service management |
| Practitioner | Individual who performs FinOps within an organization |
| Contract | Collection of agreed terms between a service provider and a customer |
| Contract Commitment | A measurable obligation defining minimum spend or usage requirements |
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Pascal Case | Identifier format with concatenated capitalized words (e.g., BilledCost) |
| Exclusive End Bound | A date/time value outside ending period boundaries |
| Inclusive Start Bound | A date/time value within beginning period boundaries |
| Period | Time window with a specifically defined start and end date/time |
| Accrual-Based Accounting | Record costs in the period when resources are utilized |
| Cash-Based Accounting | Record expenses when invoiced, regardless of consumption timing |
Sources