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Cost centers

/cost-centers is the administrative workspace for managed cost centers and their direct assignments.

Concepts: Cost centers.

Open the page and understand scope​

Select Cost Centers in the main sidebar or open /cost-centers. ADMIN users can create, activate, deactivate, and assign cost centers. ADMIN_VIEWER users can inspect the platform-wide directory and assignment state without mutation. Other roles cannot open this platform-admin workspace.

The page separates the cost-center directory from direct subject assignment so finance can distinguish the target itself from the organization, team, application, or user currently mapped to it.

Create a cost center​

Platform admins can create a cost center with:

  • a unique code (stored in uppercase) and name
  • an optional accountable owner
  • an optional active parent cost center

The parent is for finance hierarchy and reporting context. It does not control which cost center a gateway request inherits.

Cost centers can be activated or deactivated. Only active cost centers can be selected for a new direct assignment. Deactivation does not delete historical spend or statements.

Assign a cost center​

Choose an organization, team, application, or user, then choose an active cost center. Assigning No direct cost center clears that subject's assignment.

The gateway resolves the effective assignment as:

Application → Team → Organization → User

The first assigned value wins. The page shows direct assignments; inherited values are determined when the gateway loads the virtual key's context.

Only platform admins can create, activate, deactivate, or assign managed cost centers. These mutations are recorded in the audit log.

Verify attribution​

After traffic is recorded:

  1. Open FinOps Analytics, select Attribution, and group or filter by cost center.
  2. Drill through a group to the recorded requests.
  3. Use Cost events for agent, tool, infrastructure, or adjustment events.
  4. Create a COST_CENTER-scoped budget if the allocation needs enforcement.

Assignment changes apply to future gateway context. Existing SpendLog and cost-event attribution is not rewritten.

This gives finance a stable allocation key even when teams, applications, or owners change. See FinOps relationship and data flow.