Focus Billing Export

A FocusBillingExport property references an endpoint or documentation for a billing data export that conforms to the FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification) schema — the cross-vendor open standard maintained by the FinOps Foundation for normalizing cloud, SaaS, and PaaS billing data. A FOCUS-conformant export allows API consumers, enterprise buyers, and FinOps tools to ingest cost and usage data in a consistent format without custom transformation.

Also known as: FOCUS Export, FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification Export, Cost and Usage Export

Example

- type: FocusBillingExport
  url: https://developers.example.com/billing/focus-export
  mediaType: application/json

Standards

FinOps Foundation FOCUS — FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification
FinOps Foundation FOCUS Specification (latest)
FinOps Foundation FOCUS Conformance Program
Apache Software Foundation Apache Parquet
IETF RFC 4180 — Common Format and MIME Type for CSV Files

Media Types

text/csv — RFC 4180 — Common delivery format for FOCUS exports.
application/vnd.apache.parquet — Parquet is widely used for FOCUS billing exports; no IANA-registered media type at time of writing.
application/json — Used by some providers for FOCUS-aligned API responses.

Governance Rules

focus-required-columns (FOCUS Specification) — Export must include the mandatory FOCUS columns (e.g., BilledCost, EffectiveCost, ListCost, ContractedCost, UsageQuantity, BillingPeriodStart, BillingPeriodEnd, ChargePeriodStart, ChargePeriodEnd).
focus-currency-iso4217 (FOCUS Specification) — BillingCurrency must be an ISO 4217 currency code.
focus-version-declared (FOCUS Specification) — Export should declare the FOCUS specification version it targets (e.g., 1.0, 1.1, 1.2).
focus-charge-class-categories (FOCUS Specification) — ChargeClass and ChargeCategory values must use the FOCUS-defined enumerations.

Risk & Compliance

Compliance:

SOC 2 — billing data is in scope for financial reporting controls
SOX — FOCUS exports often feed financial close processes
GDPR — billing exports may contain identifiers that are personal data

Security: Billing exports concentrate commercially sensitive pricing, discount, and consumption data. Encrypt at rest, scope access via short-lived credentials, and avoid exposing per-row tenant identifiers without need.

Tools

FOCUS Specification — Specification
FOCUS Converters (community) — Converters
OpenCost FOCUS export — Exporter (Apache-2.0)
DuckDB — Query engine for CSV/Parquet exports (MIT)
Apache Parquet — Columnar storage format (Apache-2.0)

Suggested Metrics

focus_rows_exported — Number of FOCUS rows produced for a billing period.
focus_columns_present — Count of FOCUS-defined columns populated by the export.
focus_version_supported — Highest FOCUS specification version a provider's export conforms to.
export_freshness_hours — Time between charge incurrence and availability of the FOCUS row.

Example Implementations

AWS — AWS Data Exports supports FOCUS 1.0 exports of the Cost and Usage Report.
Microsoft Azure — Microsoft Cost Management offers a FOCUS-aligned cost export.
Google Cloud — Cloud Billing BigQuery export includes a FOCUS-aligned view.
Oracle Cloud — OCI publishes FOCUS-conformant billing exports.

Related Properties

Focus conformance report
Focus contract commitments
Invoice reconciliation
Finops framework
Opencost specification
Pricing
Billing