Organization
Cirata Symphony lets you attribute usage to business units—named organisational groups that represent departments, teams, projects, or cost centres. Once usage records are attributed, you can generate reports and allocations grouped by business unit.
Business Units
A business unit is a named entity with the following properties:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Display name (e.g. "Data Engineering") |
| Identifier | Unique key used in attribution rules and reports |
| Description | Purpose or scope of the business unit |
| Contact | Email address of the responsible person or team |
| Quota | Advisory soft quota (units)—not enforced |
The soft quota is a planning aid. It does not restrict usage or trigger enforcement; it provides a reference point for reviewing whether a business unit's consumption is within expectations.
Managing Business Units
Navigate to Licensing > Attribution > Business Units to create, edit, and delete business units.
Business units can also be managed through the Business Units administration page.
Attribution
Attribution is the process of assigning usage records to a business unit. There are two methods:
Manual Attribution
On the Licensing > Attribution > Records tab, individual usage records can be manually assigned to a business unit. This is useful for one-off corrections or for records that don't match any automatic rule.
Automatic Attribution via Rules
Attribution rules automatically assign usage to business units as it is recorded. Rules are evaluated in real time—there is no delay between recording and attribution.
Creating Rules
Navigate to Licensing > Attribution > Rules and click Add Rule.
Each rule has the following fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Extension pattern | Extension name to match, or * for all extensions |
| Account pattern | User account to match, or * for all accounts |
| Business unit | The business unit to attribute matching usage to |
| Priority | Numeric priority for tie-breaking (higher wins) |
| Description | Human-readable description of the rule's purpose |
How Rules Are Matched
When a usage record is created, Symphony evaluates all rules and selects the best match using a specificity score:
| Extension | Account | Specificity |
|---|---|---|
| Exact name | Exact account | 3 (most specific) |
| Exact name | * (wildcard) | 2 |
* (wildcard) | Exact account | 1 |
* (wildcard) | * (wildcard) | 0 (least specific) |
If multiple rules have the same specificity score, the one with the highest priority value wins.
Example Rules
| Extension | Account | Business Unit | Priority | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
iceflow | * | Data Platform | 10 | All Ice Flow usage → Data Platform |
iceflow | analytics@corp | Analytics | 20 | Override: analytics user → Analytics |
* | * | Shared Services | 1 | Catch-all for unmatched usage |
In this example, usage from the iceflow extension is normally
attributed to Data Platform. But if the analytics@corp account
triggers the usage, the more specific rule (specificity 3 > 2)
attributes it to Analytics instead. Any usage from other extensions
falls through to the catch-all Shared Services rule.
Re-applying Rules
If you create or modify rules after usage has already been recorded, you can retroactively apply the updated rules to existing records. This re-evaluates all unattributed (or previously auto-attributed) records against the current rule set.
Previewing Rules
Before creating a rule, you can preview how many existing records it would match and see sample records. This helps verify the rule will have the intended effect.
Attribution Methods
Each usage record tracks how it was attributed:
| Method | Meaning |
|---|---|
auto | Attributed by a matching rule at recording time |
manual | Manually attributed by an administrator |
| (empty) | Not yet attributed to any business unit |
Records attributed manually are not overwritten by rule re-application.
See Also
- Cost Attribution—Using attributed usage for chargeback
- Business Units—Administrative management
- Usage—Overview of the usage tracking system