Shared Cost Allocation

You can allocate service costs to multiple organizations that share VMs or VM templates.

To allocate service costs, you must set the allocation percentage for each organization. The percentages allocated to each organization are not reflected in the VM costs shown in Commander; the total cost of the shared VM is always displayed.

• If an organization is deleted, the shared cost allocation is automatically rebalanced among the remaining organizations.
• Cost allocation assigned to a template is not inherited by services deployed from that template.

If you select multiple VMs with different billing names and access the Set Shared Cost Allocation dialog, the Billing Name field displays <multiple>. If you change the billing name in this situation, the change applies to all selected VMs.

If you select multiple VMs with different shared cost allocations and access the Set Shared Cost Allocation dialog, the Organizations Sharing Cost list displays <multiple>. If you change the shared cost allocation in this situation, the change applies to all selected VMs.

Assign ownership of all shared-cost VMs to your IT department. Organizations that use the services hosted on VMs (for example, through an HTTP or thick client) do not typically need to own shared-cost VMs or manage them in the Service Portal.

Allocate shared VM costs

You can allocate service costs to one or more organizations.

1. From the inventory tree, select a VM or a VM template.
2. On the Summary page, select Actions > Lifecycle Management > Set Shared Cost Allocation.

   To allocate costs for multiple VMs, select the VMs from the table on the Virtual Machines tab.

3. In the Set Shared Cost Allocation dialog, specify whether the VM Billing Report will display the VM's actual name or a Billing Name you specify.

For example, you can enter the name of the service or applications you are providing, such as Records Database.

Entering a Billing Name creates a group of shared-use VMs and allows you to search on this name.

4. From the list of organizations on the left, double-click the organizations that you want to add to the Organizations Sharing Cost list.
5. From the Organizations Sharing Cost list, select each organization and click Balance All % to allocate costs among all organizations sharing the service.

The costs for shared VMs will reflect the total cost of the VM, rather than only the portion allocated to a user's organization.

Display VMs with shared costs

You can search for VMs with shared costs from Tools > Search, and with search from the Virtual Machines tab. Use the following filters in the Cost category:

• Billing Name — Enter a billing name (enter * to find any VM with a billing name).
• Shared Cost Allocation — Select an organization.

On the Results tab, the VMs with shared costs are displayed. Billing Name and Shared Cost Allocation columns can be displayed in VM tables.

To display cost details, double-click a VM in the list. In the Details section, click the blue Details hyperlink. The Costs Details dialog also displays the Billing Name and a Shared Cost Allocation table for shared-use VMs.

The cost displayed for the shared VM will reflect the total cost of the VM, instead than only the portion allocated to a user's organization.

How shared cost allocation affects Service Portal users

Service Portal users who are signed in as organization members can only see VMs that are assigned to their organization. It is generally best practice for the IT organization to own all shared-cost VMs.

Shared cost allocation does not impact VM costs in the Service Portal. will use the full cost the VM in the Service Portal use the full cost of VMs, instead of only the cost allocated to a user's organization.