# COST03-BP01 - Configure detailed information sources

Best practice: COST03-BP01
Pillar: Cost Optimization
Source: https://wellarchitected.cloudvisor.eu/docs/cost-optimization/cost03-bp01.html

## Implementation guidance

Configure the AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR), and optionally detailed billing
features, to capture the most granular cost and usage data available. Detailed
information sources are the foundation of accurate cost monitoring: without
resource-level, hourly data you cannot reliably attribute spend, detect
anomalies, or measure the impact of optimization work.

### Establish granular data sources

**AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR)**: Enable the CUR with resource IDs and
hourly (or finer) granularity. The CUR is the most comprehensive cost and usage
dataset AWS provides and is the authoritative source for detailed analysis,
chargeback, and custom reporting. Deliver it to Amazon S3 and, where needed,
query it with Amazon Athena (the AWS analytics service, not an internal agent)
or load it into Amazon QuickSight.

**Resource-level detail**: Turn on resource IDs in the CUR so each line item can
be traced back to a specific resource. Include cost allocation tags and split
cost allocation data (for example, Amazon ECS/EKS) so shared costs can be
attributed accurately.

**Hourly and daily granularity**: Capture usage at hourly granularity where it
matters (for example, to evaluate Savings Plans/Reserved Instance coverage or
to investigate spikes), and daily granularity for trend reporting.

### Centralize and standardize collection

**Consolidated billing**: Use AWS Organizations consolidated billing so cost and
usage data for all member accounts flows into a single management-account CUR,
giving you one authoritative source across the organization.

**Consistent delivery**: Deliver detailed data to a central, access-controlled
S3 location on a regular schedule so downstream analysis, dashboards, and
allocation processes always read from the same source of truth.

## AWS Services to Consider

<div class="aws-service">
  <div class="aws-service-content">
    <h4>AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR)</h4>
    <p>The most detailed cost and usage dataset AWS provides. Enable resource IDs and hourly granularity for accurate attribution and analysis.</p>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="aws-service">
  <div class="aws-service-content">
    <h4>AWS Organizations</h4>
    <p>Consolidated billing aggregates detailed cost and usage data across all member accounts into a single source of truth.</p>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="aws-service">
  <div class="aws-service-content">
    <h4>Amazon Athena</h4>
    <p>Query the CUR directly in Amazon S3 (the AWS analytics service, not an internal agent) to build custom, detailed cost analyses.</p>
  </div>
</div>

## Related Resources

<div class="related-resources">
  <ul>
    <li><a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/cost_monitor_usage_detailed_source.html">AWS Well-Architected — COST03-BP01 Configure detailed information sources</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cur/latest/userguide/what-is-cur.html">AWS Cost and Usage Report User Guide</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/cost-03.html">COST03: How do you monitor your cost and usage?</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>