Outcome
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to use the savings overlay to identify reclaimable spend in the Sankey, deep-link to filtered recommendations, and combine the savings overlay with the unattributed-teams overlay for diagnostic depth.
| Prerequisites | M4.8.L1-L3 (Trend vs Flow, layouts, drill) · T1: Recommendations |
| Time | 9 minutes |
1. Concept
Two things can be laid over the diagram.
The first marks the savings recorded against each flow, which the product calls reclaimable spend. The second marks spend from resources assigned to no team.
Between them they change the question the picture answers, from where the money went to where you should go next.
WITHOUT OVERLAYS: Sankey shows flow size only Each flow's color = neutral User sees composition; must navigate elsewhere to act
WITH SAVINGS OVERLAY: Flows with recorded savings get a red stripe Hover any flow: inspector shows "$X reclaimable" if any Click the callout (on a type or account node): deep-link to filtered Recommendations
WITH UNATTRIBUTED OVERLAY: Flows into the Unattributed team bucket (resources with no team assignment) are highlighted yellow Distinguishes "where the money goes" from "where the money has no owning team"
BOTH OVERLAYS ON: Red-and-yellow striped flows = double signal (no team + reclaimable)What “reclaimable” means
RECLAIMABLE (as the overlay computes it) = SUM of the savings recorded on the flow's cost records (each record's savings = its 24/7 cost minus its actual cost) split across teams by share count, exactly like cost
For a flow showing "prod-aws-us-east-1 → EKS → team-platform": Reclaimable = SUM(savings) over the cost records in that flowIt is not a sum over open recommendations, and there is no separate recommendations query behind the overlay. Read it as the savings tied to that slice of spend; to see the open recommendations for the slice, use the deep-link.
Filtering recommendations from overlay
The savings overlay’s most useful feature: deep-linking to filtered recommendations.
USER CLICKS the "$2,400 reclaimable" callout on a flow
OPENS Recommendations (/recommendations/cost) with ONE filterpre-applied, taken from the node you clicked: resource_type = EKS (for a type node) or cloud_account = … (for an account node)
RESULT: Recommendations list shows the EKS recommendations, ready to triage directly.
NO MANUAL FILTER CONSTRUCTION required.This is the bridge between “Cost Flow analysis” (where the money goes) and “Recommendations action” (what to do about it). Without the deep-link, the user would have to read the flow, open Recommendations separately, construct matching filters, and confirm they match. The deep-link compresses 30 seconds of navigation into one click.
Limitations
SUPPORTED DEEP-LINK FILTERS (one at a time): resource_type cloud_account (URL parameter; the node's dimension is the cloud account)
NOT SUPPORTED (the node's callout is hidden): team_id provider region service_name purchase_type
WHEN A CALLOUT IS HIDDEN: The savings still show on hover in the inspector Workaround: open Recommendations and filter manuallyThis is a known limitation; future versions are likely to support more dimensions. The current set covers the most-common drill paths.
Unattributed teams overlay
SEPARATE OVERLAY: Unattributed teams highlight
When toggled on: Spend whose team resolves to the Unattributed bucket (no team assignment) is highlighted in yellow Flows that feed that bucket show the yellow tint Hover: inspector shows the unowned amount and share of spend
USE CASES: - Ownership audits - Identifying which dimensions carry the most unowned spend - Finding orphan resources (often the ones nobody assigned)The unattributed overlay is the visual companion to the Unattributed row in Cost Reports → Teams (M4.5.L2). Where the report gives a total, the overlay shows where that unowned spend sits in the Sankey.
Combining overlays
BOTH OVERLAYS ON SIMULTANEOUSLY:
Red-striped: recorded savings (reclaimable) Yellow-highlighted: spend with no owning team Red-and-yellow: both
INTERPRETATION: Red only: savings in play; check the recommendations Yellow only: ownership gap; assign the resources to a team Red and yellow: double opportunity: no owner AND savings in play. Often orphan resources from departed users; assign + act, or just delete.
The red-and-yellow flows are usually the highest-leverage.When to use the savings overlay
SCENARIO USE OVERLAY?──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Weekly Operate review Yes: find this week's action items
Monthly cost review for leadership No: overlay adds noise to executive view; show the number separately
Quarterly optimization sprint Yes: primary tool for finding savings
Anomaly investigation Maybe: sometimes the anomaly is from open recs not yet applied
Initial onboarding / exploration Yes: surfaces value immediatelyThe overlay adds visual complexity. Use it when the additional information helps; turn it off when a clean view is needed.
Example overlay state
COST FLOW with savings overlay, BY SERVICE layout:
Provider → Account → Service → Team
AWS → prod-us → EKS → team-ml-infra ████░░░░ ███████░ ████░░░ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ (red stripes: $4.2K)
AWS → prod-us → RDS → team-platform ████░░░░ ███░░░░░ ██░░░░░ (red stripes: $1.1K)
GCP → dev → Compute → Unattributed ██░░░░░░ █░░░░░░░ █░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░ (yellow: $480) (red+yellow: $480 from unowned compute, also has recorded savings)
LEGEND: ▒▒▒ = red stripe (reclaimable savings) ░░░ = yellow tint (no team assignment)The visual encoding makes opportunities pop out of the Sankey.
Weekly Operate ritual
The savings overlay is at the center of a productive Weekly Operate ritual:
WEEKLY (20 minutes): T+0 Open Cost Flow, default layout, this-week scope T+1 Toggle savings overlay T+2 Identify the largest red-striped flow T+3 Click the callout → filtered Recommendations T+5 Triage 3-5 recommendations (apply / dismiss / investigate further) T+10 Repeat for next red-striped flow T+18 Document acted recommendations in team wiki T+20 Close loop
OUTCOME over time: Reclaimable savings decline as recs are applied The Unattributed share shrinks as resources are assigned The overlay becomes "the thing I scan weekly"How ZopNight uses the overlays
The overlay states are URL-encoded alongside layout and drill (flowSavings, flowUnattr). The toggle states persist across Sankey reloads. The savings figure comes from the same cost data as the flow itself, split by team share count; the unattributed highlight follows the team assignment behind each flow. There is no separate overlay query or cache.
2. Demo
A weekly Operate cycle using the overlay:
TIME: Monday morning, 9:15 AMGOAL: This week's recommendations to triage
T+0 Open Costs → FlowT+5 s Toggle "Savings overlay" → onT+10 s Scan the Sankey for red-striped flows
Three biggest: 1. AWS → prod-us → EKS → team-platform $2,400 2. AWS → prod-us → RDS → team-product $1,100 3. GCP → prod → BigQuery → team-data $750
T+30 s Click the callout on the EKS node ($2,400)T+35 s Recommendations page opens filtered: resource_type=EKS Sees 8 open EKS recommendations
T+1 min Triage: - 5 right-sizing recs (low risk) → apply now - 2 idle-cluster recs (need owner approval) → assign - 1 spot-instance switch (medium risk) → defer
T+3 min Apply the 5 right-sizing recs (one-click each)
T+5 min Switch back to Cost Flow; click the RDS callout ($1,100)T+5:30 Recommendations opens for RDS in prod-us Triage: 4 recs; 3 apply now, 1 defer
T+8 min Click the BigQuery callout ($750)T+8:30 BigQuery recs (snapshot lifecycle, query optimization) Triage: 2 recs; both deferred (need data team owner)
T+10 min Switch on Unattributed overlay; notice yellow on flow: GCP → dev → Compute → Unattributed 12 compute resources with no team assignment
T+11 min Hover the flow to see the unowned amount Identify the resources Assign them to a team or flag for cleanup
T+15 min Document in team wiki: "This week: applied 8 recs (5 EKS, 3 RDS) of the $3.5K/mo flagged across those two flows; the rest are assigned or deferred. Assigned 12 GCP compute resources to teams."
ELAPSED: 15 minutes to act on most of $3,500/mo of flaggedsavings, plus ownership hygiene.3. Hands-on (5 min)
Use the savings overlay:
OPEN Costs → Flow → toggle Savings overlay
LARGEST RED-STRIPED FLOWS (top 3 you see): 1. __________ Reclaimable: $__________ 2. __________ Reclaimable: $__________ 3. __________ Reclaimable: $__________
TOTAL VISIBLE RECLAIMABLE: $__________
PICK ONE FLOW; click its callout: Recommendations opened? Yes / No Filter scope: __________ Number of recommendations: _____
ACTION you can take this week: □ Apply N recommendations (low-risk) □ Assign owner for high-risk recs □ Defer specific recs (note why) □ Combine with team meeting
UNATTRIBUTED OVERLAY: Toggle on. Largest unowned flow: __________ Unowned amount: $__________ Assignment plan: __________If you have no red-striped flows, your team is in optimal state: recommendations are kept current. Time to switch focus to ownership hygiene or unit-economics improvements.
4. Knowledge check
Q1
A red-striped flow indicates:
A. A cloud provider billing error somewhere in the flow
B. Savings are recorded on the cost records in this flow
C. A particularly high-cost flow within the cascade
D. An anomaly that the detector flagged on that flow
Show answer
Correct: B. The stripe shows the savings recorded on that flow’s cost records, which the inspector labels reclaimable. On a type or account node, the callout deep-links to the matching recommendations.
Q2
The deep-link from a savings callout:
A. Opens Recommendations filtered to the clicked node’s resource type or cloud account
B. Opens the Recommendations page entirely unfiltered, so you have to re-filter it yourself again
C. Just shows the count of open recommendations without linking anywhere at all that is useful
D. Opens the resource list filtered to that flow, but never the recommendations themselves
Show answer
Correct: A. One filter, taken from the node: resource type or cloud account. It saves building the filter by hand and is the bridge between Cost Flow and Recommendations.
Q3
The deep-link works for which dimensions?
A. Every single dimension available in the cascade
B. None of them at all; the linking is manual only
C. Only the team and the cloud account dimensions
D. Only the resource type and cloud account dimensions
Show answer
Correct: D. On nodes of any other dimension (team, provider, region, service, purchase type) the callout is hidden; open Recommendations and filter manually.
5. Apply
Toggle the savings overlay in Costs → Flow. The toggle is in the upper-right of the Sankey view. The unattributed overlay is in the same toggle group.
For weekly Operate cadence, build the savings-overlay scan into your routine. 15-20 minutes per week is sufficient to capture most recoverable savings.
Related lessons
- L1: Trend vs Flow
- L2: The five Cost Flow layouts
- L3: Drill, breadcrumb, back-out
- T1: Recommendations module (Associate tier)
- T4.M4.5.L4: Tag coverage
Glossary terms touched
Module quiz
Complete M4.8 → 10-question module quiz.