Cost management with billing reports in GCP - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Cost management with billing reports

📖 Scenario: You work in a company that uses Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Your manager wants you to create a simple billing report to track monthly costs for different projects. This will help the team understand where money is spent and plan budgets better.

🎯 Goal: Build a basic Python script that stores monthly billing data for GCP projects, sets a budget threshold, calculates total costs, and flags projects that exceed the budget.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary with project names as keys and their monthly costs as values

Add a budget threshold variable to compare costs against

Calculate the total cost of all projects

Identify and list projects that exceed the budget threshold

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Companies use billing reports to track cloud spending and avoid unexpected charges.

💼 Career

Cloud engineers and financial analysts often create scripts to monitor and manage cloud costs efficiently.

1

Create the billing data dictionary

Create a dictionary called billing_data with these exact entries: 'project-alpha': 1200, 'project-beta': 850, 'project-gamma': 430, 'project-delta': 670 representing monthly costs in dollars.

GCP

# Create the billing_data dictionary with project costs
# Your code here

Hint

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary with keys and values separated by colons.

2

Set the budget threshold

Add a variable called budget_threshold and set it to 1000 to represent the maximum allowed monthly cost per project.

GCP

billing_data = {'project-alpha': 1200, 'project-beta': 850, 'project-gamma': 430, 'project-delta': 670}
# Set the budget_threshold variable
# Your code here

Hint

Use a simple assignment statement to create the variable.

3

Calculate total monthly cost

Create a variable called total_cost and set it to the sum of all values in the billing_data dictionary using the sum() function and billing_data.values().

GCP

billing_data = {'project-alpha': 1200, 'project-beta': 850, 'project-gamma': 430, 'project-delta': 670}
budget_threshold = 1000
# Calculate total_cost by summing all project costs
# Your code here

Hint

Use sum() with billing_data.values() to add all costs.

4

List projects exceeding the budget

Create a list called over_budget_projects using a list comprehension that includes project names from billing_data where the cost is greater than budget_threshold.

GCP

billing_data = {'project-alpha': 1200, 'project-beta': 850, 'project-gamma': 430, 'project-delta': 670}
budget_threshold = 1000
total_cost = sum(billing_data.values())
# Create over_budget_projects list with projects costing more than budget_threshold
# Your code here

Hint

Use a list comprehension with for project, cost in billing_data.items() and an if condition.

Practice

1. What is the main purpose of billing reports in Google Cloud Platform?

easy

A. To monitor network traffic between services

B. To deploy new cloud resources automatically

C. To manage user permissions and roles

D. To track and understand cloud costs over time

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand billing reports function

   Billing reports show how much you spend on cloud resources over time.

2. Step 2: Identify the correct purpose

   Tracking and understanding costs helps manage budgets effectively.

3. Final Answer:

   To track and understand cloud costs over time -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Billing reports = track costs [OK]

Hint: Billing reports show cost details, not deployments or permissions [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing billing reports with deployment tools
• Thinking billing reports manage user roles
• Assuming billing reports monitor network traffic

2. Which gcloud command lists billing accounts available to your user?

easy

A. gcloud iam roles describe

B. gcloud billing accounts list

C. gcloud projects create

D. gcloud compute instances list

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify command for billing accounts

   The command to list billing accounts is 'gcloud billing accounts list'.

2. Step 2: Eliminate unrelated commands

   Other commands manage compute, projects, or IAM roles, not billing accounts.

3. Final Answer:

   gcloud billing accounts list -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   List billing accounts = gcloud billing accounts list [OK]

Hint: Billing commands start with 'gcloud billing' [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using compute or IAM commands to list billing accounts
• Confusing project creation with billing listing
• Typing incorrect command syntax

3. Given this snippet of a billing report summary:

Project: my-project
Cost: $120.50
Month: April

What does this report tell you?

medium

A. The project budget is $120.50 for April

B. The project has $120.50 remaining in April

C. The project spent $120.50 in April

D. The project was created in April

Solution

1. Step 1: Read the billing report details

   The report shows cost as $120.50 for the project in April.

2. Step 2: Understand cost vs budget

   Cost means money spent, not budget or remaining funds.

3. Final Answer:

   The project spent $120.50 in April -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Cost = money spent [OK]

Hint: Cost means money spent, not budget or leftover [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing cost with budget or remaining funds
• Assuming project creation date from cost report
• Misreading the month field

4. You tried to generate a billing report but got an error: Permission denied. What is the most likely cause?

medium

A. You do not have Billing Account Viewer role on the billing account

B. The billing account is closed

C. The project does not exist

D. The billing report feature is disabled by default

Solution

1. Step 1: Analyze the error message

   "Permission denied" means lack of access rights.

2. Step 2: Identify required role for billing reports

   Billing Account Viewer role is needed to view billing reports.

3. Final Answer:

   You do not have Billing Account Viewer role on the billing account -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Permission denied = missing Billing Account Viewer role [OK]

Hint: Permission errors usually mean missing roles [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Assuming billing account closure causes permission errors
• Thinking project existence affects billing report access
• Believing billing reports are disabled by default

5. You want to reduce your monthly cloud costs. Which billing report action helps you find the biggest cost sources?

hard

A. Filter the report by service to see which services cost the most

B. Delete all projects with costs over $100

C. Disable billing reports to save money

D. Increase your budget limit in the billing account

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand how to identify cost sources

   Filtering billing reports by service shows which services use most money.

2. Step 2: Evaluate other options

   Deleting projects blindly or disabling reports won't help find cost sources; increasing budget doesn't reduce costs.

3. Final Answer:

   Filter the report by service to see which services cost the most -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Filter by service = find big costs [OK]

Hint: Filter reports by service to spot big costs fast [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Deleting projects without analysis
• Disabling reports thinking it saves money
• Confusing budget limits with cost reduction