What is FOCUS and why does it matter for AI spend?

FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification) is the open billing standard from the FinOps Foundation. It normalises cost and usage data across providers so the same data structure works in any FinOps platform, instead of forcing a second, disconnected reporting pipeline just for AI spend.

Is Cognocient's export officially FOCUS certified?

It's described as FOCUS-aligned rather than certified to a specific conformance level, while conformance validation against the FinOps Foundation's own open-source validator is still underway and not yet independently confirmed.

What format is the FOCUS export available in?

CSV only today — there is no JSON response format for this specific export endpoint.

How do I reconcile AI spend with my cloud infrastructure spend?

Download both the Cognocient FOCUS export and your cloud provider's billing export, load them into the same FinOps platform or data warehouse, and join on BillingAccountId and BillingPeriodStart for a unified view.

How do I export AI spend in FOCUS format?

Q: Which FinOps platforms can ingest the export directly?

Apptio Cloudability and CloudZero can typically ingest the CSV as a custom spend source with little to no schema transformation, since column names follow FOCUS conventions directly. AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, and data warehouses like BigQuery or Snowflake are also supported via the same column mapping.

Export AI spend aligned with the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification — the same data model used by AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, and Google Cloud Billing. Drop it into Apptio, CloudZero, or a data warehouse without custom column mapping.

Cognocient exports your AI spend in a CSV aligned with the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) — the same schema used by AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, and Google Cloud Billing. Drop it into Apptio, CloudZero, or a data warehouse with minimal mapping work.

Cognocient's FOCUS export is undergoing conformance validation against the FinOps Foundation's own open-source validator. We describe this export as "FOCUS-aligned" rather than certifying a specific conformance level (e.g. "FOCUS 1.2") until that validation is complete and independently confirmed.

Logging cost data and reporting it to finance are two different problems. Tools that expose a raw per-call cost value (for example, a response header showing the cost of a single API call) solve the first problem, but someone still has to build and maintain the layer that turns that raw data into cost per feature, cost per customer, and trends over time that a CFO can actually read. Cognocient's FOCUS export is built to close that second gap directly, without requiring a custom reporting pipeline.

Board-ready PDF reports

Finance and board audiences don't want raw API logs. Cognocient generates one-click PDF reports that translate your AI spend data into CFO-friendly language — cost by department, waste recovery opportunity, cost-per-outcome, and 3-month trend.

Section	Content
Executive summary	Total AI spend, MoM change, and waste recovery opportunity highlighted in 3 numbers.
Spend by department	Horizontal bar chart showing each department's share, with trend arrows vs. prior period.
Investment vs. Waste	Donut chart showing classified spend. What percentage is generating measurable ROI.
Top 5 cost reductions	AI-generated recommendation summary — each with estimated monthly saving and effort.
Cost per outcome	Cost per resolved ticket, generated contract, or any outcome you track via the outcomes API.
Model efficiency	Which models are over-provisioned for their actual task complexity.

Generate a board report from the dashboard: Reports → Board Report → Select date range → Download PDF

Schedule monthly board reports to be automatically emailed to stakeholders. Go to Reports → Scheduled Delivery tab and configure the recipient list. Recipients receive the PDF attachment with no Cognocient login required. Available on Growth plan and above.

What is FOCUS?

FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification) is the open billing standard from the FinOps Foundation. It normalises cost and usage data across cloud providers so the same data structure works in any FinOps platform.

Tool	Detail
Apptio	Targetprocess & Cloudability — FOCUS-shaped ingest
CloudZero	AI cost dimensions align with FOCUS column names
Spot by NetApp	Eco and Cloud Analyzer support FOCUS-formatted data
AWS Cost Explorer	FOCUS export maps to CUR 2.0 format
Azure Cost Mgmt	ActualCost + FOCUS columns supported
Custom data warehouse	CSV — load into BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift

Downloading a FOCUS export

Download from the dashboard: the Reports page or the Chargeback page both have a FOCUS Export card — pick a date range and click Download FOCUS CSV.

Or pull via API:

curl "https://api.cognocient.com/api/chargeback/exports/focus?from=2026-05-01&to=2026-05-31" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-cog-YOUR-PROXY-KEY" \
  -o cognocient-focus-2026-05.csv

The export is CSV only — there is no JSON response format for this endpoint today.

FOCUS columns in the export

FOCUS Column	Cognocient source	Example value
`BillingAccountId`	Your Cognocient customer ID	`cbee6a71-...`
`BillingAccountName`	Your company name on file	`Acme Inc.`
`InvoiceIssuerName`	The underlying LLM provider — Cognocient charges a flat subscription and passes through provider cost with no markup, so this matches `ProviderName` exactly rather than "Cognocient"	`openai`
`InvoiceId`	Null — these rows aren't tied to a per-invoice billing system	(empty)
`BillingPeriodStart` / `BillingPeriodEnd`	The date range you requested	`2026-05-01`
`ChargePeriodStart` / `ChargePeriodEnd`	Same as the billing period (rows are aggregated, not per-call)	`2026-05-01`
`ChargeType`	Always `Usage`	`Usage`
`ChargeCategory`	Always `Usage`	`Usage`
`ChargeClass`	Null unless the row is a correction (not currently emitted)	(empty)
`ChargeFrequency`	Always `Usage-Based`	`Usage-Based`
`ChargeDescription`	Generated from the model name	`AI API usage - gpt-4o-mini`
`ProviderName`	AI provider	`openai` / `anthropic`
`PublisherName`	Always `Cognocient` (the platform that produced this export)	`Cognocient`
`ServiceName`	Model name	`gpt-4o-mini`
`ServiceCategory`	Always `AI and Machine Learning`	`AI and Machine Learning`
`ServiceSubcategory`	Always `Generative AI`	`Generative AI`
`ResourceType` / `ResourceId`	Model name / `provider/model`	`gpt-4o-mini`, `openai/gpt-4o-mini`
`SubAccountName` / `SubAccountId`	X-Cost-Department header, or "Unattributed"	`customer-success`
`BilledCost` / `EffectiveCost`	Actual AI provider cost for the period	`12.4032`
`ContractedCost` / `ListCost`	No separate contract or list pricing is tracked today — both default to `BilledCost`	`12.4032`
`BillingCurrency`	Always `USD`	`USD`
`PricingUnit`	Always `Tokens`	`Tokens`
`PricingQuantity` / `UsageQuantity`	Total tokens for the row	`1840`
`UsageUnit`	Always `tokens`	`tokens`
`x-cog-InputTokenCount` / `x-cog-OutputTokenCount` / `x-cog-TotalTokenCount`	Prompt / completion / total tokens	`1600`, `240`, `1840`
`x-cog-ModelId`	Model name	`gpt-4o-mini`
`x-cog-feature`, `x-cog-user`, `x-cog-project`, `x-cog-gl-account`	X-Cost-Feature / X-Cost-User / X-Cost-Project / GL mapping	`ticket-resolver`
`Tags/x-cost-feature`, `Tags/x-cost-user`, `Tags/x-cost-project`, `Tags/x-cost-gl-account`	Same values, duplicated under the FOCUS `Tags/` namespace	`ticket-resolver`

Reconciliation workflow

Join Cognocient FOCUS exports against your cloud billing exports using BillingAccountId for cross-source reconciliation in a single FinOps dashboard.

Download the Cognocient FOCUS export for the billing period.
Download your AWS CUR / Azure Cost export / GCP BigQuery billing export.
Load both into your FinOps platform or data warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift).
Join on BillingAccountId + BillingPeriodStart to get a unified view of all cloud + AI spend.
Filter by Tags/x-cost-feature or SubAccountName to generate per-feature or per-department chargebacks.

If you use Apptio Cloudability or CloudZero, the exported CSV can typically be ingested as a "custom spend source" with little to no schema transformation, since column names follow FOCUS conventions directly.