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Enable AWS Cost Explorer so Fjall can track infrastructure spend, break costs down per application, and forecast your AWS bill from the dashboard or the CLI.

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Prerequisites

  • Access to the AWS account that receives the bill. In an AWS organisation, that is the management account.
  • Permission to view AWS Cost Management. The AWSBillingReadOnlyAccess managed policy covers it, and it is the policy Fjall’s own Billing permission set attaches when you enable IAM Identity Center.

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Steps

  1. Open the Cost Explorer console.
  2. Complete billing preferences and account validation if AWS asks for them on your first visit.
  3. Select Complete your AWS registration and continue.
AWS registration prompt shown when first opening Cost Explorer Figure: Complete your AWS registration to activate Cost Explorer.

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What happens next

AWS takes up to 24 hours to populate cost data after activation. The console shows a pending state until the first report lands. Cost Explorer pending state while AWS prepares cost data Figure: Cost Explorer is enabled and preparing your first cost report.
A pending message is expected on first activation. Fjall continues your setup while AWS prepares the data, so carry on to the next step.

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What Fjall reads

The tag activator runs in the management account, in the organisation’s home region only, because Cost Explorer is a global service. Per-application spend attribution depends on those tags, so breakdowns sharpen after AWS processes a full day of tagged usage.

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Check spend from the CLI

Once data lands, read it without opening the console:

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Next Steps

Enable IAM Identity Center

Turn on centralised access management for your team.

Deploy Organisation

Create the management account, guardrails and cost tag activator.