> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kostra.cloud/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Organize Spend with Pools

> Step-by-step: model your organization with pools and assign resources for accountable cost management.

# Organize Spend with Pools

Pools are how KOSTRA models your organization. A pool represents a team, project, business unit, or budget, and every resource can belong to one. Once your estate is organized into pools, cost becomes accountable: you can see who spends what, set budgets per pool, and run chargeback. This guide shows how to build that structure.

## Understand the pool model

Pools are hierarchical. A top-level pool can contain sub-pools, mirroring how your organization is actually structured — for example, a business unit containing several teams, each containing projects. KOSTRA supports pool purposes such as budget, business unit, team, project, CI/CD, and others, so the structure reads naturally to finance and engineering alike.

A well-designed pool tree is the foundation for everything downstream: budgets, allocation rules, chargeback, and per-pool recommendations exclusions all reference it.

## Create your pool structure

1. In the left navigation, open **Pools**.
2. Create a top-level pool that represents your organization or a major business unit.
3. Add sub-pools beneath it for teams and projects, choosing a purpose that reflects each.
4. Repeat until the tree matches how you want to account for spend.

Start simple. A shallow tree that everyone understands is more useful than a deep one that no one maintains.

## Assign resources to pools

Resources need to be assigned to the right pool for cost to be attributed correctly. KOSTRA supports two approaches:

* **Automatic assignment rules.** Define rules that place resources into pools based on attributes such as name patterns, tags, cloud, region, or resource type. New resources are then assigned automatically as they are discovered — the scalable approach for a growing estate.
* **Manual assignment.** Assign an individual resource to a pool directly from the **Resources** view when a rule does not cover it.

Automatic rules do the heavy lifting; manual assignment handles the exceptions.

## Create an assignment rule

1. Open **Resources** and locate the assignment-rules area, or start from a resource you want to route.
2. Define the condition — for example, resource name starts with a prefix, or a specific tag exists with a given value.
3. Choose the target pool.
4. Save the rule. Matching resources are assigned to the pool going forward.

Conditions can be combined so a rule is as specific as you need — for example, resources in a particular Huawei Cloud region whose name contains a project code.

## Keep the structure healthy

* **Review unassigned resources regularly.** Resources with no pool cannot be charged back; a periodic sweep keeps attribution complete.
* **Tag at the source.** Consistent tagging in your clouds makes assignment rules far more reliable. Consider a tagging policy so the structure stays clean.
* **Evolve the tree deliberately.** Reorganize pools as teams change, but avoid churning the structure so often that historical reporting becomes hard to read.

## What pools unlock

With resources in the right pools you can:

* View spend by pool in **Cost Explorer**.
* Set budgets and alerts per pool.
* Attribute shared and direct spend with **Allocation Rules** and produce a **Chargeback Report**.

## Related pages

* [Explore Your Costs](/guides/explore-costs)
* [Set Up Chargeback and Allocation](/guides/set-up-chargeback)
* [Set Budgets and Alerts](/guides/set-budgets-and-alerts)
* [Act on Recommendations](/guides/act-on-recommendations)