Renew Reminder Business · AWS costs

Know your AWS costs before the bill lands.

Connect the company's AWS account in one click. Renew Reminder reads this month's costs by service, AWS's own forecast and its savings ideas, and tells the admins before spend passes your budget. Read-only: nothing in AWS can be changed.

Limited pilotPart of Renew Reminder Business, in the web app. About $1 a month of AWS charges on your own AWS bill.
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Connect in one click

Open AWS, tick one box, done

There are no keys to copy and no role to write. Renew Reminder fills in a CloudFormation stack that creates a read-only role in your own AWS account, and the stack tells Renew Reminder when it is ready.
  1. 1Open AWSIn Settings, Connections, an admin adds AWS and chooses Open AWS. AWS opens in a new tab with everything filled in.
  2. 2Tick one boxAWS asks you to confirm the stack may create an IAM role. Tick it.
  3. 3Create stackChoose Create stack. That's the last thing you do in AWS.
  4. 4It connects by itselfAbout a minute later Renew Reminder says AWS is connected, and starts reading this month and up to 12 past months.
What the role can doExactly four read-only Cost Explorer calls, and only Renew Reminder's AWS account, with your connection's own external ID, can use them:
  • ce:GetCostAndUsage
  • ce:GetCostForecast
  • ce:GetRightsizingRecommendation
  • ce:GetSavingsPlansPurchaseRecommendation
Prefer to do it yourself? Paste the account ID instead, or create the role by hand from the two policies the app shows.
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Budget alerts

Hear at 80%, not after the invoice

The budget bar shows what AWS has reported so far and, hatched, what AWS expects for the rest of the month. When either nears your budget, the people who can act are told.
  • Set a monthly budget in US dollars, or start from the one the page suggests: your average for the last three months with spend, set in one click.
  • The admins and the AWS vendor's owner hear by email at 50%, 80% and 100% of it, and when AWS's own forecast says the month will pass it.
  • Each alert goes once a month, and one sync sends one alert: the most serious.
  • If the daily sync stops, or the figures are more than 48 hours old, they hear about that too. A failed sync never shows $0.
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What moved, and what AWS suggests

Find the rise in a glance

“Where the money moved” lists the services whose costs rose most against the same days last month, and the day each one cost most. Beside it are AWS's own savings recommendations for the account, refreshed weekly.
  • Every service AWS bills, in plain words with a line on what it is, its share of the month and its change on the same days last month.
  • AWS's rightsizing and Savings Plans suggestions, each labelled as AWS's estimate, with a link to review it in the AWS console.
  • Nothing here changes your AWS account. Check a suggestion in AWS before you act on it.
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Twelve months, and a monthly email

The year so far, month by month

The last 12 months sit beside this one, and the day-by-day chart shows the current month as AWS reported it. After each month closes, the admins get one summary email.
  • The month's total as AWS reported it, labelled plainly: not your final invoice.
  • The top five services, each with its change on the month before.
  • Sent once AWS's late adjustments are in, on the 3rd of the next month or after.
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Beside your renewals

One list of what the company pays, AWS included

AWS isn't a renewal with a notice period; it bills by use. So it gets its own figures and alerts, and still sits on the vendor list once, with an owner like any other vendor.
  • AWS is counted once

    The connection keeps one AWS vendor, marked Live, at AWS's estimate for the month end. Other AWS rows are flagged as possible duplicates and left out of the totals until an admin merges them.
  • On the Business home

    A Usage costs card shows AWS's month to date, its month-end estimate and how much of the budget is used.
  • In AWS's own currency

    AWS bills in US dollars, so the figures stay in USD and are never converted into another currency's totals.
Good to know

What it doesn't do

  • About a day behind

    AWS reports costs a day late, so an alert can arrive a day after the spend. The figures are AWS's estimate, not your final invoice.
  • Warnings, not a brake

    Renew Reminder can't stop or cap AWS charges. To act on a limit inside AWS, use AWS Budgets.
  • One AWS account per workspace

    Connect the management (payer) account to see every linked account; a member account shows only its own costs. It is one of your plan's connections, like a bank or card.
Got Questions

FAQ

Limited pilot

Watch AWS with your renewals

AWS cost monitoring is part of Renew Reminder Business. Apply for the pilot and connect your AWS account once your workspace is set up.