# Onaro Agent FinOps Glossary Plain-language definitions for Agent FinOps, FOCUS billing data, AI chargeback, suspense, subledgers, reconciliation, and the general ledger. ## Agent spend attribution Agent spend attribution is the practice of connecting every unit of AI-agent resource consumption — tokens, API calls, tool invocations, compute — to the specific agent, task, and business cost object responsible for it, so that autonomous spending can be budgeted, booked, and audited like any other cost. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/agent-spend-attribution ## Agent FinOps vs. TokenOps Agent FinOps applies financial operations discipline to autonomous AI agents — metering, controlling, and proving their spend — while TokenOps focuses on the unit economics of AI token consumption itself; the two overlap wherever an agent's work is metered in tokens. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/agent-finops-vs-tokenops ## Settlement vs. billing vs. attribution Settlement records prove that money moved, billing records state what a vendor charged, and attribution records explain which agent spent it, on what task, and whether the spend produced value — three distinct layers that are frequently and incorrectly treated as one. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/settlement-vs-billing-vs-attribution ## System of record for AI labor A system of record for AI labor is the authoritative ledger an organization closes its books against for work performed by AI agents — capturing what each agent did, what it consumed, what it cost, and how that cost reconciles to invoices, payments, and the general ledger. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/system-of-record-for-ai-labor ## FinOps for agentic AI FinOps for agentic AI is the finance discipline for what AI agents spend: attributing every dollar of agent consumption to an owner and a cost object, controlling that spend before it compounds, and booking it to the general ledger with records an auditor can follow. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/finops-for-agentic-ai ## Agent FinOps Agent FinOps is the operating discipline for measuring, attributing, controlling, and proving the cost of work performed by AI agents. It connects technical consumption to owners, workflows, outcomes, budgets, and finance-grade records. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/agent-finops ## AI labor AI labor is economically useful work performed by an AI agent or automated model workflow. Its cost includes the models, tools, compute, data, and services consumed to produce that work. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/ai-labor ## Spend under management Spend under management is the portion of total AI spend covered by reliable metering, an accountable owner, and active financial controls. Merely seeing a vendor total does not place that spend under management. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/spend-under-management ## Attribution readiness Attribution readiness measures whether source data contains stable identities and dimensions that can connect cost to an agent, workflow, owner, and department. Strong tags help, but a reviewed mapping is still required. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/attribution-readiness ## Cost per outcome Cost per outcome divides the fully attributed cost of an agent workflow by completed business outcomes, not by raw model calls. The outcome must be defined consistently enough to compare periods and alternatives. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/cost-per-outcome ## AI spend assessment An AI spend assessment inventories AI costs, tests attribution evidence, and identifies financial-control gaps without requiring a production migration. It establishes a defensible baseline for prioritizing remediation. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/ai-spend-assessment ## Unattributed spend Unattributed spend is a valid AI cost that cannot yet be assigned to an accountable agent, workflow, owner, or department. It remains visible and unresolved instead of being distributed through an arbitrary allocation. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/unattributed-ai-spend ## Agent inventory An agent inventory is the governed list of AI agents and automated workflows recognized by an organization. Each record needs a stable identity, status, owner, purpose, and financial dimensions. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/agent-inventory ## Chargeback in an AI context AI chargeback assigns measured agent costs to the business units that consumed or own the work and produces accounting-ready entries. It should use approved attribution evidence rather than evenly spreading unknown costs. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/ai-chargeback ## Zero-Access assessment A Zero-Access assessment analyzes exported data without receiving credentials or persistent access to the customer’s systems. It reduces implementation and security friction while preserving an auditable evidence trail. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/zero-access-assessment ## FOCUS The FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification is an open specification that normalizes technology billing data with common columns, definitions, and requirements. It lets practitioners analyze conforming datasets with generic instructions regardless of their source. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/focus ## BilledCost BilledCost is the charge that appears for a record in the billing currency after negotiated pricing and applicable adjustments. It answers what the provider billed, rather than the economic cost after commitment amortization. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/billed-cost ## EffectiveCost EffectiveCost represents the amortized economic cost of a charge after spreading applicable commitment purchases or discounts. It can differ from BilledCost even when both describe the same consumption. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/effective-cost ## ChargeCategory ChargeCategory classifies a billing row by its financial behavior, including usage, purchases, credits, adjustments, and tax. The category determines how signed amounts should be interpreted and summarized. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/charge-category ## ChargePeriod ChargePeriodStart and ChargePeriodEnd bound the period during which a charge was incurred. They are distinct from billing-period and invoice dates. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/charge-period ## ServiceCategory ServiceCategory groups services into a normalized high-level technology category. It supports analysis across providers without relying on each provider’s product naming. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/service-category ## Provider, Publisher, ServiceProvider, and HostProvider Provider and publisher fields identify who supplies or publishes the billing data, while ServiceProvider and HostProvider distinguish the service seller from the underlying host when those roles differ. Preserving each role avoids hiding reseller and marketplace relationships. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/focus-provider-identities ## Contract Commitment dataset The Contract Commitment dataset describes negotiated commitments, their periods, quantities, payment models, and applicable benefits. It provides contract context that cost-and-usage rows alone cannot fully express. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/contract-commitment-dataset ## Invoice Detail dataset The Invoice Detail dataset represents charges as they appear on an issued invoice, including payment terms, due dates, currencies, and linkage identifiers. It supports reconciliation between granular consumption and the formal bill. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/invoice-detail-dataset ## Virtual currency and token columns FOCUS virtual-currency fields describe provider-defined units such as credits, tokens, or DBUs and their relationship to national currency. They support purchase, consumption, burn-down, and rate analysis. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/virtual-currency-columns ## Journal entry A journal entry records balanced debits and credits in the general ledger. It includes posting dates, accounts, amounts, descriptions, and the dimensions required by the receiving accounting system. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/journal-entry ## Suspense account A suspense account temporarily holds a valid amount whose final classification or owner is not yet known. It keeps the books balanced while making unresolved work visible. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/suspense-account ## Accrual An accrual recognizes an expense in the period when it was incurred even if the invoice has not arrived. Usage-based AI services commonly create metered-but-uninvoiced balances at month-end. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/accrual ## Chargeback vs. showback Showback reports costs to responsible teams without posting them, while chargeback records those allocations in financial systems. Both require the same defensible ownership and allocation evidence. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/chargeback-vs-showback ## Subledger A subledger stores detailed transactions for a specific financial domain and summarizes them into the general ledger. Its balances and movements must reconcile to the controlling GL accounts. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/subledger ## Tie-out and reconciliation A tie-out demonstrates that two records expected to agree do agree, or explains every difference. Reconciliation is the repeatable process of finding, classifying, and resolving those differences. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/tie-out-reconciliation ## Trial balance A trial balance lists general-ledger account balances for a period and confirms that total debits equal total credits. It is a core input to close review and financial statement preparation. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/trial-balance ## Dimensions and worktags Dimensions and worktags classify accounting entries beyond the natural account, such as department, cost center, project, location, or product. Different ERP systems use different names for the same analytical role. Full entry: https://www.onaro.io/glossary/dimensions-worktags FOCUS is a trademark of the Joint Development Foundation. Onaro is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FinOps Foundation or the FOCUS project. Definitions adapted from the [FOCUS Specification by FinOps Foundation](https://focus.finops.org/docs/specification/), licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Changes were made for plain-language summary and Meridian crosswalk context. Canonical: https://www.onaro.io/glossary