What is pro forma billing data?

This section clarifies the differences between the pro forma bill, generated by AWS Billing Conductor, and the standard AWS bill. When you create a billing group, the AWS Billing Conductor computation generates a pro forma bill for that billing group using your custom pricing configuration. There are several fundamental differences between pro forma bill compared to the standard AWS bill.

The pro forma billing data is like an alternate version of the billing data. It is isolated from the AWS bill, and doesn't reflect the actual charges that are due each month. You can also consume pro forma bills as a part of your own chargeback workflows outside of AWS, however, this use case is not currently supported by AWS Billing Conductor.

Note

The pro forma billing data has no impact on the standard AWS bill. It doesn't change the way you or your organization are billed by AWS.

Glossary

This section defines key terms used throughout AWS Billing Conductor so you can use the service effectively.

Pro forma bill

The billing data that is generated for each billing group. AWS Billing Conductor computation takes the usage accrued by the billing group accounts and applies the custom rates that are defined by the billing group's pricing plan. The billing data is then vended downstream to the integrated services. If an account in a billing group views their costs through one of these services, they see the pro forma billing data instead of the standard AWS billing data.

Standard AWS bill/ Chargeable AWS bill

The standard AWS bill that represents the true costs payable to AWS.

Domains

The pro forma billing data set and standard AWS billing data sets are isolated from one another in separate billing domains. Pro forma data exists in the pro forma domain, while the standard billing data exists in the billable domain.

Billable

The billing output that's generated by AWS and used as the basis of calculating your AWS invoice.

Resource values

The inputs that are used to calculate percentage-based custom line items. Resource values can include the accrued costs for the billing group and any flat custom line items that are associated with a given billing group for a billing period.

Understanding your pro forma billing data

This section explains in depth the differences between pro forma and standard billing. It also provides use cases and best practices when using pro forma billing data.

What's the difference between pro forma billing data and standard AWS billing data?

Each billing group's pro forma bill is computed as if the accounts within the group are their own consolidated billing family or organization. As a result, there are several key differences between account charges in the pro forma domain, compared to the standard billable domain.

• Reserved instances and Savings Plans are only applied and shared within the billing group if it was purchased by a billing group account.

• Volume tiering discounts are calculated based on the usage accrued only by the accounts within the billing group.

• Free Tier consumption is calculated based on the usage accrued only by the accounts within the billing group.

The following line item types are excluded from the pro forma domain:

• Credits (redeemed at the payer or linked account level)

• Support charges

• Non-public discounts (for example, Solution Provider Program)

• Usage-based discounts (for example, bundled discounts)

• Tax

Because of these factors, your billing group's margins varies month to month.

Note

Along with these factors, it is possible for the billing group margin to be a negative number, based on the pricing plan and the applied custom line items.

Configuring pricing in the pro forma domain for my billing group

You can adjust the pricing rates by creating pricing rules and associating them to a pricing plan. Then, that pricing plan can be applied to your billing group. Any markup or discount pricing rule is calculated against the public AWS On-Demand rates. If you apply an empty pricing plan to your billing group, then the pricing rates default to the public AWS On-Demand rates.

You can then create custom line items to add credits or fees to a specific billing group account's pro forma bill.

Who can see the pro forma billing data and standard AWS bills?

The payer account is always be able to view the standard AWS bill because they are responsible for paying these charges to AWS. They can also view the pro forma bill for each of their billing groups on the Bills page and AWS Cost and Usage Report.

For more information, see Viewing your billing group details and Configuring Cost and Usage Reports by billing group.

Accounts that are associated to a billing group can see the pro forma data when they view their bill details through an integrated service. The primary account has cross-account visibility, and can see the pro forma billing data for all of the accounts in the billing group. Other accounts in the billing group can see the pro forma billing data for their own account. For the full list of services that support pro forma data views, see AWS services that support pro forma costs.

How Free Tier applies in the pro forma domain

12-month Free Tier

Billing Conductor removes this Free Tier from the pro forma bill. It is exchanged with the first paid offer for the given SKU.

Always Free Tier

Billing Conductor doesn't remove this Free Tier from the pro forma bill. You can deactivate this Free Tier by applying a tiering pricing rule to your billing group's pricing plan. For more information, see Pricing rules

Free trials

Billing Conductor removes most free trials from the pro forma data. However, we can't remove the free trial if there is no subsequent pricing tier data that can cover existing usage.

Can you derive the pro forma bill costs from the standard AWS bill costs?

You can't reconcile the costs generated for a billing group's pro forma bill, based on the costs in the standard AWS bill. For example, you can't derive the pro forma cost for an account by subtracting private discounts and taxes charged in the standard AWS bill. For more information on why, see What's the difference between pro forma billing data and standard AWS billing data? and How Free Tier applies in the pro forma domain.

How are reserved instances and Savings Plans allocated in the pro forma domain?

If a reserved instance (RI) or Savings Plans is bought by an account outside of your billing group, it is excluded from your billing group's pro forma bill entirely. If the RI or Savings Plans is bought by an account within your billing group, the benefits first apply to any eligible usage that accrues within the purchasing billing group account. Remaining benefits are distributed to the other accounts within the group.

RI and Savings Plans discount sharing preferences made at the payer level have no effect on the pro forma domain. RI and Savings Plans purchased by an account in a billing group are always shared with accounts in the same group. As a result, the RI and Savings Plans discount allocation might differ between the pro forma and billable domains.

Do billing groups impact the way reserved instances and Savings Plans are allocated?

Billing Conductor resources and the resulting pro forma data have no impact on the actual AWS bill. Your billing group might impact how the RIs and Savings Plans are applied in the pro forma domain, but it has no effect on how the same RIs and Savings Plans apply in the billable domain.