[FR] Extend support for Contract Commitment dataset

[shawnalpay]

Problem Statement

FR #976 advocates for the addition of support for contractual commitments to the FOCUS spec.

That work has proceed in FOCUS 1.3, surfacing as PR #1350 -- but that work only serves as the foundation for that support. There are a host of columns that we could add to the Contract Commitment dataset to extend its utility beyond the basic set of columns we have added per that PR.

The bellow diagram, lifted from this modeling spreadsheet, shows in green what is being added in 1.3; items listed in yellow require further discussion and refinement, to be added in a future release.

Use Case (needs validation/refinement)

As a FinOps Practitioner
I need to continuously track commitment consumption and remaining balances
So that I can eliminate weeks-long manual reconciliation cycles with providers and proactively manage commitment utilization

As a FinOps Practitioner
I need to monitor commitment scope rules and exclusions
So that I can prevent discount rate reductions from threshold violations (e.g., M4 family usage exceeding 5% cap)

As a Finance/Procurement Team member
I need to track which commitments require attestation and their completion status
So that I can ensure time-sensitive attestation letters are submitted to claim milestone-based credits

As a FinOps Practitioner
I need to differentiate between burn-down and build-up commitment structures
So that I can accurately track monthly quota consumption vs. annual cumulative goals

As a Procurement/Finance Team member
I need to calculate realized savings from negotiated contract discounts
So that I can quantify contract value for renewal negotiations and executive reporting

As a FinOps Practitioner
I need to understand how concurrent commitments apply to the same usage
So that I can identify commitment stacking patterns and optimize commitment portfolio

As a Finance Team member
I need to identify unmet commitments requiring true-up payments before period close
So that I can accurately forecast cash flow and financial obligations

As a FinOps Practitioner
I need to distinguish monthly commitments from annual commitments
So that I can appropriately track consumption patterns and forecast utilization

Acceptance Criteria

Commitment Performance & Balance Tracking:

• Practitioners can track applied commitment amounts with point-in-time context
• Practitioners can calculate remaining commitment balances without manual vendor reconciliation
• Monthly and annual commitment intervals are distinguishable
• Burn-down vs. build-up commitment models are identifiable

Complex Commitment Rules:

• Commitment scope (exclusions, caps, restrictions) is consistently captured
• Practitioners can identify commitments with percentage caps or family exclusions
• Original committed amounts are preserved alongside applied amounts for comparison

Financial & Discount Analysis:

• Negotiated discount percentages are captured consistently
• Practitioners can calculate realized savings from contract terms
• True-up requirements are identifiable before period close
• Commitment performance status (met vs. unmet) is consistently tracked

Attestation & Compliance:

• Commitments requiring attestation are identifiable
• Attestation completion status is tracked consistently
• Practitioners can monitor time-sensitive attestation deadlines

Concurrent Commitment Support:

• Multiple commitments can be applied to the same usage row
• Each applied commitment tracks its cost and quantity contribution
• Practitioners can analyze commitment stacking and interactions

Contract Structure & Classification:

• Contract-level and commitment-level time periods are both captured
• Contract types and categories enable portfolio-level analysis
• Commitment intervals support various billing/measurement periods

Supporting Feature

Feature Name

Contract Commitments

Description (Enhanced for 1.4)

FOCUS supports the tracking of commitments made via contractual agreements between a provider and a customer. Each row in the Cost and Usage dataset is associated with one or more unique identifiers representing those contracts and contract commitments, stored in a JSON column called Contract Applied. A richer amount of detail that describes those commitments is carried in a separate Contract Commitment dataset, which can be joined to the Cost and Usage dataset to facilitate various queries involving filtering and aggregation.

Enhanced in 1.4: The Contract Commitment dataset now includes detailed contract structure information, commitment performance tracking with point-in-time balance calculations, financial discount analysis, scope definitions for exclusions and caps, and compliance attestation fields. Practitioners can continuously track commitment utilization, calculate realized savings from negotiated discounts, monitor complex commitment rules, and manage time-sensitive attestation requirements.

The Contract Applied column contains several FOCUS-defined properties and supports concurrent commitments applied to the same usage row. For more information, see the definition of Contract Applied.

Directly Dependent Columns

Cost and Usage Dataset:

• ContractApplied

Contract Commitment Dataset (1.3 baseline):

• ContractCommitmentId
• ContractId
• ContractStart
• ContractEnd
• ContractCommitmentPeriodStart
• ContractCommitmentPeriodEnd
• ContractCommitmentDescription
• ContractCommitmentCost
• ContractCommitmentQuantity
• ContractCommitmentUnit
• ContractCommitmentType
• ContractCommitmentCategory
• ContractCommitmentCurrency

Contract Commitment Dataset (1.4 additions):

• ContractType
• ContractCategory
• ContractInterval
• ContractCommitmentInterval
• ContractCommitmentScope
• ContractCommitmentDiscountPercent
• ContractCommitmentOriginalCost
• ContractCommitmentOriginalQuantity
• ContractCommitmentAppliedCost
• ContractCommitmentAppliedQuantity
• ContractCommitmentAppliedAsOf
• ContractCommitmentTrueupFlag
• ContractCommitmentMetFlag
• ContractCommitmentAttestationRequiredFlag
• ContractCommitmentAttestationCompletedFlag
• ContractCommitmentModel

Supporting Columns

Contract Commitment Dataset:

• Provider custom columns (for provider-specific commitment features and terms)

Desired Outcome / Practitioner Impact

Addition of more columns to the Contract Commitment dataset (pending approval of PR #1350, which would add initial support for the dataset to FOCUS).

Type of Request

Net-new concept (not currently supported by providers or FOCUS)

Organizations Requesting or Supporting This Feature

No response

FinOps Scope Alignment (Optional)

• Public Cloud – e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – e.g., Salesforce, Snowflake
• Data Center – on-prem compute and infrastructure
• Licensing – subscription or usage-based licensing (under development)
• AI – cost and usage for AI models and platforms (under development)
• Custom – internal tooling, specialized infra (under development)

Impacted Parties

• FinOps Practitioner – end users who analyze or act on the data
• FOCUS Data Generator – providers generating aligned output
• Vendor Supporting FOCUS – tools or platforms using the spec
• Other (please explain in comments)

Level of Ambiguity (1–5)

3

Supporting Documentation

• Data model doc for 1.4
• Data model doc for 1.3

Proposed Solution / Approach

No response

[shawnalpay]

In addition to extending the Contract Commitment dataset, we would need to backfill some appendix examples and add one or more supported features.

[shawnalpay]

Discussed in Sep 30 TF1 in the context of FR #1070. These will need to be co-developed in 1.4, and thus I will ensure that they are assigned to the same Task Force.