NTU budgets and chargeback

Business Summary: Governance NTU budgets help finance and department leads see which business units consumed agent work — for internal chargeback and accountability — separate from the subscription pool that drives your invoice.

Finance and department leads often need to answer: which team consumed how much NTU this month? Governance NTU budgets map usage visibility to business units — FP&A, Marketing, Operations — even though billing invoices roll up at org level.

Note: NTU budget mapping is recommended on the Governance page empty state. Full chargeback dashboards are partial; org Usage & Billing shows totals; per-BU splits are evolving.

How this fits in Nimbus

Billing meters NTU consumption at the org level. Governance budgets overlay internal allocation so you can attribute runs to workstreams, teams, and business units without changing what Stripe bills.

flowchart LR
  Run[Agent run] --> WS[Workstream]
  WS --> Team[Workstream team]
  Team --> GT[Governance team]
  GT --> BU[NTU budget line]
  Run --> Pool[Org billing pool]
  BU --> Show[Chargeback visibility]
  Pool --> Invoice[Invoice]

Billing pool vs governance budget

See Plans and overage.

How chargeback works conceptually

Assign workstreams to teams with known business unit ownership. Map governance teams to NTU budget lines (for example, 1,500 NTU/month for Marketing). As runs post usage, attribute NTU to workstream → team → business unit. Compare actuals to budget for internal showback or chargeback conversations.

The usage ledger attributes runs to workstreams and agents for reconciliation when live.

See Reading your usage dashboard.

Relation to run ceilings

Run budget limits (quote and ceiling on Confirm & run) protect single-run spend. Governance budgets aggregate monthly BU totals. Both can interact with Strict spend checkpoints.

See Run budget limits.

Setting budgets today

Until Governance policy editor ships, coordinate workstream ownership with finance manually, use usage ledger workstream columns in dashboard exports, and apply Strict spend thresholds on sensitive workstreams as interim control.

Empty state tip: "Map NTU budgets to business units for chargeback visibility."

Example scenario

Marketing runs three campaign analysis workstreams in one month, consuming 620 NTUs total. Finance mapped a governance team "Brand & Marketing" with an 800 NTU/month budget line. Usage attributes each run to its workstream and team; marketing leads see they are under budget while the org billing pool shows the same 620 NTUs against the Team plan's 2,000 NTU included pool. No invoice change — only internal visibility for the monthly ops review.

What you'll see

What you'll see: Org Usage tab with org-wide totals today. Future Governance views will show budget vs actual per team card.

FAQs {#faqs}

Q: Does a governance budget increase our invoice? A: No. It is an internal allocation overlay. Only subscription pool + overage change invoices.

Q: Can one workstream split budget across two BUs? A: Not cleanly today — assign primary ownership or split into two workstreams for accounting clarity.

Q: Do commitment add-ons change BU budgets? A: Add-ons raise org pool only. Admins should rebaseline BU budgets if total capacity grows.

Q: Who owns budget policy? A: Finance partner + workspace super admin, aligned with Governance teams.

Q: How does this relate to decision commits? A: Chargeback tracks run cost (NTUs). Decision commits track outcomes (Outputs/writes). Both matter for accountability.

Q: Will governance budgets block runs when a BU is over cap? A: Hard BU caps are evolving. Today budgets primarily provide visibility; org pool and run ceilings are the main hard blocks.