Educational guide · Not an audit or consulting
Azure Cost Management Checklist
Steps to review Microsoft Azure spend using Cost Management and Advisor. For finance and IT owners running their own review.
Who this is for
Teams using Microsoft Azure who want a structured self-service cost review before renewal or budget meetings.
Before you start
- Open Cost Management + Billing and export cost by resource group for 3 months.
- Official reference: Azure Pricing and Cost Management documentation.
Checklist
- Document top 5 resource groups or subscriptions by spend.
- Review Advisor cost recommendations; assign an owner to each open item.
- Find VMs with low CPU/network utilization over 14+ days.
- Identify unattached disks and old snapshots.
- Review storage redundancy (LRS vs GRS) vs actual DR requirements.
- Check idle public IPs and load balancers.
- Review dev/test environments running 24/7 without schedules.
- Compare reserved capacity / savings plans vs pay-as-you-go usage.
- Review Log Analytics retention and ingestion volume.
- Confirm tags for cost center, environment, and owner.
- Reconcile portal invoice with finance GL codes.
Next step
Add your Azure monthly figure to the free SAARS estimator alongside AWS and SaaS lines. Use the workbook bundle for CSV trackers and executive brief templates.
Run a reference estimate
Use SAARS's free self-reported estimator—no API keys, no account access.
For informational purposes only. Not legal, tax, or financial advice. Verify all figures against your contracts and vendor consoles.