AWS: Monthly Rollover

The AWS Monthly Rollover is the time period from the last day of the month to the moment when CloudCheckr processes your final billing file.

During the AWS Monthly Rollover, your billing data is in a state of flux because CloudCheckr is waiting for the AWS Invoice ID, which it requires to finalize your billing report.

These Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) dig deeper into the connection between the AWS and CloudCheckr billing cycles and how the AWS Monthly Rollover impacts your final CloudCheckr billing data.


Question: Which billing files are impacted by the AWS Monthly Rollover?
Answer:

The AWS Monthly Rollover impacts customers who use the Detailed Billing Report (DBR) and the Cost and Usage Report (CUR) since CloudCheckr currently supports both billing methods. To keep things simple, this FAQ does not identify a specific billing file, but rather refers to the DBR and the CUR generically and collectively as the billing file.


Question: How often do AWS and CloudCheckr run their billing cycles?
Answer:

AWS and CloudCheckr complete a billing cycle every month.


Question: When does AWS finalize the billing file for a selected month?
Answer:

AWS does not finalize the billing hours for the last day of a month until the beginning of the next month. For example, for your March 2020 bill, AWS will not write the final billing hours for March 31st until the first few days in April 2020. As a result of this delay, AWS typically will charge your AWS account between the 3rd and the 5th of the next month; in our example, you would receive a bill for March 2020 between April 3-5, 2020.


Question: When does AWS start to process the billing data for the next month?
Answer:

Because of the delay in writing the final billing data for the previous month, AWS does not begin to process the data for the next month for a few days into the new billing cycle.


Question: What does CloudCheckr do during the AWS Monthly Rollover period?
Answer:

During this state of flux, CloudCheckr continually downloads and monitors your monthly billing file to see if AWS has populated the Invoice ID field, which it requires to finalize your CloudCheckr billing file.


Question: What does CloudCheckr do once AWS finalizes the billing file?
Answer:

After AWS provides the Invoice ID, CloudCheckr will:

  • download the final billing file for the selected month from AWS
  • reload the final billing file into CloudCheckr
  • process the final billing file in CloudCheckr

Question: What items does CloudCheckr leave out of the billing file until it finalizes the month?
Answer:

Until CloudCheckr processes your final bill, it will not calculate or display the following billing items until the end of the month:

  • Payee Support Charges
  • Add a Monthly Percent Charge or Credit or Add a Fixed Charge or Credit custom billing charges
  • Proportional Payee Amortization
  • Customer invoices
    You can override the default behavior to wait to process the final billing file when you configure your invoice.

Question: How do I configure an alert that will notify me when the billing data is final?
Answer:

Click Instructions to learn how to configure an alert.

  1. Launch CloudCheckr and select an account from the Accounts List page.
  2. From the left navigation pane, choose Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Report > Generate Invoices.

    The AWS Bill Invoice Generator report opens.

  3. Click the Email button.
  4. Type the email address(es) for the recipients who you want to receive the alert and click Save.

Question: Where can I view status updates during the AWS Monthly Rollover period?
Answer:

In addition to an email alert, you can also view status updates to a selected account's billing file in two locations:

  • From the header bar, click the green notification icon to see the most recent billing file updates:
  • From the left navigation pane, In Core platform choose Cost > AWS Partner Tools > Files > Reprocess Billing Report, in CMx plaform choose Billing > Files > Reprocess Billing Report to see the status of any billing files you processed:

    CloudCheckr shows one of the following statuses in the State column:

    • Running: CloudCheckr is reprocessing the file
    • Monthly Rollover: CloudCheckr is waiting for the AWS Invoice ID, which is required to reprocess the billing file (Note: Between the end of the month and finalization, CloudCheckr may not update cost data until the Invoice ID is populated by AWS)
    • Processed: CloudCheckr has processed the billing file successfully

Question: Does AWS Monthly Rollover impact when CloudCheckr sends my daily and monthly email notifications?
Answer:

Yes. CloudCheckr may delay some of your daily or monthly CloudCheckr notification emails. Typically, daily emails for the last day of the month of the current month to the first few days of the new month are impacted.


Question: When do I need to reprocess my billing file?
Answer:

If you make any changes to List cost after CloudCheckr finalizes the billing file—such as the configuration of your custom cost or custom billing charges or recalculation of payee support charges—you must manually reprocess the billing file.


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