FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) 1.2 is Generally Available

The Unified Billing Format Expands to include SaaS and PaaS support, Adds Invoice Reconciliation and Deeper Cloud Allocation

SAN DIEGO, June 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The FinOps Foundation, a project of the Linux Foundation dedicated to advancing FinOps practitioners, today announced at the annual FinOps X Conference version 1.2 of the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS), the open specification for cloud cost and usage data. This latest release introduces support for SaaS and PaaS billing data, invoice-level reconciliation, and multi-currency normalization, establishing FOCUS as the unified billing format across today's Cloud+ environments.

FOCUS 1.2 unifies "Cloud+" reporting for Practitioners by folding SaaS and PaaS billing data into the same schema as core cloud spend. It also introduces an invoice ID column that links each row directly to provider invoices, streamlining charge-back and month-end close, and sharpens cost allocation with new billing account and sub account granularity. Three new providers also announced support: Alibaba Cloud, Databricks and Grafana.

"As organizations increasingly manage complex, multi-cloud and SaaS-heavy environments, FOCUS 1.2 delivers the standardization they need to understand, allocate, and optimize spend across more technology platforms," said J.R. Storment, Executive Director of the FinOps Foundation. "This release reflects the rapid expansion of the FinOps practices managing SaaS and PaaS spend alongside cloud over the last year."

What's New in FOCUS 1.2
FOCUS version 1.2 was ratified by the FOCUS Steering Committee on May 29, 2025. It helps to satisfy these use cases:

Cloud+ unified reporting

• Combine SaaS, PaaS, and Cloud billing in one schema, so a single dashboard or SQL query now covers Practitioners' Scope of responsibility and reduces potential for duplicate charges. 

SaaS / PaaS | Virtual currency lifecycle

• Analyze credit and token purchase patterns to confirm commitments match demand.
• Track burn-down daily, forecast exhaustion, and avoid surprise overages.
• Rank charge categories that drive token consumption and target high-consumption drivers.
• Compare discounted vs. list token rates to quantify contract savings and identify future optimization opportunities.

FinOps | Multi-currency normalization

• Convert mixed-currency datasets (e.g., USD, EUR, tokens) to a single currency for budgeting and P&L analysis, with auditable exchange rates.

Cloud | Invoice reconciliation & chargeback

• Associate every charge, credit or refund to its provider invoice ID.
• Allocate shared costs accurately to business entities using BIllingAccountType and SubAccountType dimensions.
• Surface provider credit memos and validate how each one reduces net spend.
• Aggregate billing data and reconcile it against invoices to flag reporting errors.

Analytics | Unit-cost & density metrics

• Calculate cost-per x (e.g., GB stored, request, user) across providers, expose high-density spend, and prioritize savings opportunity areas.

As reported in the State of FinOps 2025, many Practitioners are now working in a Cloud+ era where they are applying FinOps Principles to Cloud+ Scopes of technology cost and usage data from SaaS tools, licenses, private clouds, data centers, AI spend, and other sources. FOCUS provides a common format to unify billing data from these differing Scopes of technology spend.

Industry Momentum and Community Involvement
FOCUS is in its third year of development, and has gained critical adoption by numerous Cloud Service Providers including AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. FinOps Practitioners around the world are actively using FOCUS billing datasets from these providers to uncover insights that inform business decision-making and optimize their organizations' use of technology across many Scopes of practice.

To learn more, please visit https://focus.finops.org/ and https://www.finops.org/insights/focus-1-2-available/.

About The FinOps Foundation
The FinOps Foundation is a non-profit trade association focused on advancing the people who manage the value of cloud. It is made up of tens of thousands of FinOps practitioners, service providers and cloud technology providers including those in 93 of the Fortune 100. Grounded in real-world stories, the FinOps Foundation delivers connections to peers, certification, and open source best practices through programs like FinOps Certified Practitioner, the annual FinOps X conference, a FinOps Certified Enterprise program, and FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost & Usage Specification).

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SOURCE FinOps Foundation