Allocate Costs Based Telemtry & KPIs

Overview

Unit Economics KPIs let you allocate cost by what actually happened - API calls, active users, slots used, requests served - instead of fixed percentages or arbitrary ratios. Umbrella exposes this in Business Mapping through two related capabilities that solve two different problems:

Filter and allocate in one mapping using Telemetry-Based Group By - target a slice of billing cost and split it across a telemetry dimension in a single rule.
Split shared cost across existing groups using the Metric/KPI Based split method - divide an already-shared cost proportionally by a telemetry metric or Unit Economics KPI.

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Availability
User Management 2.0. Unit Economics KPIs are available with the Unit Economics capability.

Why it matters

Cost allocation by real usage is the foundation of accurate showback, chargeback, and unit economics reporting. Before these capabilities, allocating shared cost by a custom dimension - Customer ID, Tenant ID, or API usage - either wasn't possible when the dimension wasn't in the billing data, or required creating and linking two separate mappings. Now the distribution key can be any metric your telemetry pipeline collects, or any KPI you've built.

Choose the right approach

Both approaches use the same underlying idea - weighted-average allocation against a usage metric - but they enter the workflow at different points.

You want to...	Use	Where to configure
Isolate a portion of cost and split it by a telemetry dimension in one step	Telemetry-Based Group By (Business Mapping type)	Business Mapping → new mapping, Type = Telemetry-Based Group By
Take shared cost across mapped groups and distribute it by real usage	Metric/KPI Based (split method on any mapping rule)	Any mapping rule → Split method tab → Metric / KPI Based
Distribute by a business KPI (for example, cost per active user, cost per 1M requests)	Metric/KPI Based with a Unit Economics KPI as the distribution key	Same as above; pick a KPI instead of a raw metric

If you're not sure, start with the question you're trying to answer. "What does it cost to serve Customer X?" points at Telemetry-Based Group By. "How do I fairly split this shared platform cost across the teams already mapped to it?" points at Metric/KPI Based.

How allocation works

Costs are distributed by weighted average against the selected metric or KPI. If Customer A consumed 400 units and Customer B consumed 600 (1,000 total), A is allocated 40% of the cost being split and B 60%.

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Weighted average is applied automatically and cannot be changed.

Set it up

The full step-by-step for each approach lives in its own article - this page routes you to the right one.

Telemetry-Based Group By - filter billing cost with condition rules, then group it by a telemetry dimension (Department, Tenant ID, Customer ID) using a chosen allocation metric. See Business Mapping: Telemetry-Based Group By.
Metric/KPI Based split method - on the mapping rule, open the split-method tabs (Equal, Ratio, Ratio Monthly, Custom, Metric/KPI Based), pick Metric/KPI Based, then select a Pipeline and a Metric/KPI as the distribution key. See Split shared costs using Business Mapping.

Prerequisites

The telemetry pipeline must be configured and actively collecting the dimension and metric data you plan to use. See Telemetry Pipeline Onboarding.
To distribute cost by a business KPI, build the KPI in the KPI Builder first. See Unit Economics: KPI Builder.
Access to the telemetry pipelines you want to use is granted through data access on your role. See Unit Economics: Permissions.