2.5

Create a Fixed Cost
You must create the fixed costs that you want to charge on the entities and hierarchies. These costs can include
periodically charged costs and one time costs.
When defining fixed costs, you can specify whether the cost must be prorated. Prorated fixed costs are
considered only for the time for which they are applied on the entity.
For example, you define a fixed cost that must be charged on a monthly basis and assign this cost on an entity
on the fifteenth day of the month. At the end of the month when you generate a report on this entity or any of
its parent entity, the cost for only the second half of the month would be accounted for.
Also, if an entity is moved within the hierarchy after a prorated fixed cost is applied to it, then the rolled-up
fixed cost on the new and old parent entities is accounted for only the duration for which the child entity was
in the branch of the parent entities.
You must have create privilege for the fixed cost resource type on vCenter Chargeback Manager to perform
this task.
Procedure
1 In the Manage Cost tab, click Fixed Cost.
A table listing all the fixed costs created in the application is displayed. You can view the details of the
fixed cost by clicking the plus sign (+) in the Details column of the table. The details include the value of
the cost, the duration indicating how often the cost is charged, and the time period for which the set value
and duration is valid or applicable.
2 Click Create.
The Fixed Cost screen is displayed.
3 Provide the fixed cost details on the General tab.
Option Description
Name
A name for the fixed cost. The character limit for the fixed cost name is 255
characters.
Description
An optional description of the fixed cost. The character limit for the
description is 512 characters.
Currency
The currency type used for defining the fixed cost.
Prorate
Select this option to specify that the fixed cost is prorated.
Consider VM State
If selected, the fixed cost is accounted only for the duration for which the
virtual machine is in the powered on state.
One Time
If the defined cost has to be charged only once on the chargeback entity or
hierarchy, then select this option. If you select this option, then you cannot
set any duration value for the fixed cost. Also, one-time fixed costs cannot
be prorated and do not consider the virtual machine power state.
4 In the Cost Details tab, set the period for which the cost will be effective.
The default selection is Update from now onwards, indicating the defined cost will be effective from the
time of creation of the fixed cost till it is changed at a future date.
The other option is Update for the effective period. If you select this option, you must specify the start
and end date of the period for which the cost will be effective. You must enter the dates in the
mm/dd/yyyy format. If the end date is not specified, the cost will be effective from the specified start date
till it is changed at a future date.
5 Enter the value of the cost and select the duration indicating how often the cost is incurred.
The duration can be Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half-yearly, or Yearly.
vCenter Chargeback Manager User’s Guide
86 VMware, Inc.