MARK MIRCHANDANI: Not sure where to look for your Google Cloud
Platform payment details?
In this video, we'll cover what you
need to know about payment methods, your GCP invoice,
and where to go to answer detailed cost questions.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When you use a GCP resource, you'll
need a method to pay for it.
And there's two ways to do this--
online or invoiced.
Online, also sometimes referred to as self-service,
is where payments are made online with a credit or debit
card.
This is the default option when setting up a billing
account using Google Cloud Platform.
Invoiced is where a request for payment
is made through an invoice.
And payment is made through a check or a wire transfer.
This method is sometimes referred to as offline billing.
Some customers are eligible to change their billing method
to a monthly invoice billing structure.
Eligibility depends on a variety of factors, including
how long your account has been active,
the typical amount of your monthly spend,
and your country.
An invoice billing account is much more common
for larger organizations.
If you have a dedicated finance or accounting team
or if you anticipate a large GCP spend,
you'll want to work with your GCP sales team or billing
support to set up an invoice billing account.
The key thing to remember is that all customers
receive a monthly PDF summarizing their costs
from the previous month.
Customers who are using the online payment method
receive a monthly statement.
Customers who have switched to invoice billing account
receive a PDF invoice, which is the request for payment.
An invoice for a particular month
should be available by the fifth business
day of the following month.
For example, your September invoice
will be ready no later than October 5.
Invoices aren't generated on weekends or bank holidays.
So you should expect invoices to be
delayed during those periods.
If you want to receive invoices by email,
or you want to change who receives invoices,
refer to the payments contacts and notification settings
managing your payments profile.
Now, before we take a closer look at the sample invoice,
the first thing you need to know is this--
an invoice essentially tells you what you owe.
That's about it.
If you want to get a full picture of your GCP costs
and answer detailed cost questions,
you should refer to the billing reports in the GCP console.
So when in doubt, remember-- your invoice tells you
what you owe.
Billing reports tell you why and where your cost came from.
Now, let's take a look at the details
included in a typical invoice.
Here's a sample invoice.
On the first page, you can expect
to find some key pieces of information.
First off, you can see who the invoice is addressed to.
This information would have been provided to Google
at the time invoice billing account was set up.
To edit or update this information,
refer to the payments profile settings.
Next, you'll find details, such as the invoice date, payment
terms, which is usually full payment within 30 days,
and the account ID.
The account ID might be helpful in cases
where you're inquiring about specific charges
on your invoice.
If you're not able to resolve your questions
with the help of your billing account admin,
you can request that they submit a ticket to the Google Cloud
support team.
Only your billing account admins can create a ticket
with billing support.
On the right, you'll also see the total amount
owed in a single currency and a line item
showing the taxes applied.
All discounts previously negotiated
as part of your Google Cloud agreement
would have already been applied to the total.
And at the bottom of the first page,
you'll find instructions for paying your invoice
either by wire transfer or by check.
In subsequent pages, you'll see a summary table
with details based on your GCP consumption.
The first column is the product.
It's fairly self-explanatory.
It refers to the GCP service that reported the billing data.
Resource type is a brief description
of the specific resource that was used by the service.
For example, a resource type of line item for Compute Engine
is the charge for static IPs.
Next, is the interval, which lists the start and end
dates of resource usage for that billing cycle.
Usage lists the quantity of the service used.
You might notice the unit of consumption
will differ depending on the resource type.
For example, a VPN tunnel under Compute Engine
will be listed in hours.
And finally, for each row, you'll
see the calculated cost under amount.
Note that the calculated cost includes your discounted rate.
If you want to see a more detailed breakout
of your costs, refer to the billing reports
in the GCP console.
Let's look at an example of how resource types
for a specific product are priced,
such as for Compute Engine.
Charges are based on compute instances, storage, and network
use.
Virtual machines are charged on per second basis
with a one minute minimum usage.
Storage is calculated based on the amount of data you store.
Network cost is calculated based on the amount of data
transferred between virtual machine instances that
communicate with each other and with the internet.
To learn more about how various resource types are priced,
refer to cloud.google.com/pricing.
If you need to view previous invoices or invoices past due,
you can access them in the console.
Using the left-hand navigation, click
Billing to choose a billing account,
and then select Invoices.
From this page, you can filter by all invoices and memos
or just by open ones.
It's also easy to create custom filters
and search so that you can find the information that you're
looking for.
Clicking on an item lets you see the full detail,
such as the invoice number, amount, and payment due date.
In addition, you can download a PDF version
if you want to share the invoice between teams
or even download a CSV version, which makes it easier to parse.
Remember, the invoice is intentionally
designed to show you a summary of what you owe.
Depending on your specific need, you
might have additional questions.
Here's a few tips for where you can get more information.
Get to know your organization's GCP billing account admins.
There may be more than one admin in your organization.
And working together to plan, track, and pay for your GCP
costs will prove helpful in the long run.
If you're looking for detailed views of your GCP costs,
refer to the billing reports in the GCP console.
If you want to review the price list for different resource
types, check out the Google Cloud pricing website
or access the information via the API.
For more information about your invoice or to resolve common
billing issues, check out cloud.google.com/billing/docs.
That's it for payment methods and invoices.
Check out the links to learn more information.