Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Dashboards service, service, you can derive insights, observe trends, and diagnose issues  all from a single location in the Oracle Cloud Console. Can Dashboards be used by your FinOps team for cloud financial management? Yes! In this article, we show how the new cost management widget enables you to create dashboards for a quick yet comprehensive financial insights.

Welcome to Dashboards

Log into your OCI account. On the homepage, you see a new tab called Dashboard.

A screenshot of the Oracle Cloud Console with the Dashboard tab circled in red with a red arrow pointing to it.

Clicking the link takes you to the default dashboard. On this page, you can create a new dashboard by clicking the New Dashboard button.

A screenshot of the button options with the New Dashboard button highlighted in blue.

Give your dashboard a name, place it in a compartment, add it to a new dashboard group, and click the Create button. We now have a blank canvas to start adding widgets.

Your financial view

To create a cost management widget, click the +Add widget button. Select the cost management widget from the list of widgets.

A screenshot of a new empty dashboard.

Here, we have a few options, but we want the Cost Management chart.

A screenshot of the Add New Widget page with the Cost management for infrastructure option outlined in red with a red arrow pointing to it.

After selecting this chart, you can see it on your dashboard. The default tile shows the cost by service over the past seven days. You can customize your widget by clicking the three-dot menu in the widget and selecting View and edit settings.

A screenshot of a new cost management chart.

Let’s customize the following attributes of the widget:

  • Name: Cost by Service

  • Dynamic time range for the query to run: 3 months to date

  • Granularity: Monthly

  • Chart type: Bars

  • Grouping dimensions: Service

You can preview your changes by selecting the Preview changes button.

A screenshot of the Configure Metric Query page showing the cost widget editor preview.

When you’re satisfied, click Submit to add the tile to your dashboard. You can create more widgets by selecting +Add widget again or selecting the duplicate widget option under the contextual menu (three dots) and then editing settings. Within minutes, you can create a comprehensive dashboard that communicates your cloud financial management picture.

A screeshot of a cost dashboard preview.

Do more with the widget

You can export the cost analysis data shown in the graph (as a table) in PDF format by selecting Export as PDF from the contextual menu of the widget. Navigate to Cost Analysis from the contextual menu from any widget. The same graph and supporting query are displayed in Cost Analysis. In this page, you can take advantage of other capabilities, such as forecasting and custom tabs.

A screenshot of the Cost By Service bar chart with a menu with more options expanded and the option for Export as PDF highlighted.

Additional capabilities

Cost Management in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure also provides periodic reports for usage and cost as a csv file. You can also use tools to set a budget for your infrastructure spend. You can read more in Billing and Cost Management.