Allocation Key

An Allocation Key is the measure or rule according to which costs from a cost pool are distributed to recipients such as services, applications or organizational units. It determines which share of common costs is attributed to which consumer.

Typical examples: network costs by data volume transferred, service desk costs by ticket volume, license costs by number of users, data center costs by energy consumption or floor space. Good keys are cause-based, built on reliably measurable quantities, economical to collect and comprehensible for the units charged. The choice of key has a direct impact on the results: the same pool from the Cost Pools leads to significantly different charges depending on the key.

How and in which order keys are applied in the cost model is defined by the Allocation Rule. Transparent keys are a core prerequisite for internal rates and charges to be accepted.