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Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Improve resource usage with Business hours

Improve resource usage and reduce your cloud spend by running resources during the specified business hours.

Use the Business hours recommendation page to:

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Business hours recommendations in Cloud Cost Management Workspace.
ChartDescription
Total potential savings by service categoryTotal savings to expect if all Business hours recommendations are applied by service category such as Compute and Database.
Total potential savings by change groupTotal savings to expect if all Business hours recommendations are applied by change group such as Change Management and Application Development.
Business hr vs. Non-business hr spendSpend for resources during business hours against non-business hours.
TabDescriptionAvailable action on selected recommendations
NewResources that are candidates for applying Business hours processes.Exclude
ScheduledResources that are tagged to have business hours enforced.None
DeclinedResources for which owners \(or other approver\) didn’t want to enforce business hours \(rejected the change request\).Exclude
FailedResources for which the attempt to enforce business hours failed.Exclude
Report-onlyResources that match Report-only policies.Exclude
ExcludedResources that are configured not to be considered for business hours.Important: After an Unused resources job powers off a machine, the machine is added to the Excluded Resources list for Business Hours. This process ensures that the resource isn't started again in the future because it matches a Business hours policy. The exclusion reason on the Business hours Excluded tab indicates that the resource is an unused resource.Remove from exclusion
ColumnDescription
Configuration itemUnique identifier of the resource.
Predicted monthly savingsPredicted savings if the Business hours recommendations are applied.
ProviderThe provider that hosts the resource.
Service categoryLists all service categories from the instance sorted by name.
Cloud serviceLists all cloud categories sorted by  name.​
PolicyThe Business hours policy that the resource matches to.
Policy typeType of the Business hours policy that the resource matches to.
Change requestChange request that is associated with the recommendation.
Change GroupChange group for the resource.
AccountThe service account that includes the resource. A service account represents a group of related regions in your provider account.
RegionIf appropriate for the provider, region in the service account that hosts the resource.
Owned byOwner of the resource.
Failure typeThis column appears only for the Failed tab.Reason for which the change request wasn’t generated or the specified business hours weren’t applied to the resource.
DetailsThis column appears only for the Failed tab.Details of the failure type and the action that you must take to resolve the failure.
  • Configure Business hours operations
    You can choose to use or to disable Business Hours features and specify the amount of non-business hour spend that triggers notifications to users or groups. Controlling unnecessary resource use can help reduce costs.
  • Create Business hours schedule
    Create and apply a Business hours schedule to the cloud resources for enforcing the on/off schedule.
  • Define or update a Business hours policy
    A Business hours job applies policies to identify resources that are running when they should be powered off, reports them, and can start and stop them on a schedule that you specify. Running only during specified business hours can significantly reduce your cloud spend.

Parent Topic:Using Cloud Cost Management