Cost visibility and reporting

Severity: Recommended

You need a unified view of all tech costs with historical trends and regular reporting.

Check automatically:

# Look for cost dashboards
grep -riE "cost.*dashboard|spend.*report|billing.*report|finops" docs/ README.md --include="*.md" 2>/dev/null

# Check for data warehouse cost data
grep -riE "bigquery.*cost|cost.*bigquery|billing.*export|cost.*warehouse" docs/ src/ --include="*.md" --include="*.sql" --include="*.ts" 2>/dev/null

# Look for Metabase/Looker/reporting tool references
grep -riE "metabase|looker|tableau|grafana.*cost|cost.*grafana" docs/ --include="*.md" 2>/dev/null

# Check for scheduled reports or automation
grep -riE "cost.*report|billing.*email|scheduled.*cost" docs/ src/ --include="*.md" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" 2>/dev/null

Ask user:

• "Is there a single place to see all tech costs?" (cloud + SaaS combined)
• "Can you see trends over time?" (month-over-month, year-over-year)
• "Do you get regular cost reports? How often? Who receives them?"
• "Where does cost data live?" (cloud console only, exported to warehouse, spreadsheet)

Cost visibility maturity:

Level	Description
1 - None	Check each cloud console and invoice separately
2 - Basic	Spreadsheet aggregating costs manually
3 - Consolidated	Dashboard combining cloud + SaaS costs
4 - Automated	Scheduled reports, data warehouse, trend analysis
5 - Optimized	Automated recommendations, forecasting, alerts

Pass criteria:

• Unified view of tech costs exists (dashboard, report, or maintained spreadsheet)
• Historical data retained, trends visible
• Regular reports generated (monthly minimum)
• Reports reach relevant stakeholders

Fail criteria:

• Costs scattered across cloud consoles, invoices, credit card statements
• Only current month visible, no historical comparison
• No regular reporting cadence
• "We look at costs when something seems wrong"

Cross-reference with:

• COST-001 (budget alerts trigger, but dashboard shows context)
• COST-005 (visibility feeds into governance reviews)

Evidence to capture:

• Where costs are viewed (dashboard URL, spreadsheet, consoles)
• Historical data availability (months/years)
• Reporting cadence and recipients
• Visibility maturity level

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