Showback

Showback is a charging model in which IT costs are transparently shown to the business units that cause them, without an actual financial charge taking place. Recipients see which services they use, to what extent and what these cost, but their budget remains unaffected.

Showback is implemented via regular statements per cost center or business unit listing the services consumed, volumes and valued costs. The benefits: cost awareness develops, the quality of volume and allocation data becomes visible and can be improved, and the organization gets used to service-based cost transparency. Showback therefore often serves as a preliminary stage to actual charging and is technically mapped as part of IT Charging and Billing.

Showback must be distinguished from Chargeback, where the costs shown are actually charged on. In practice, hybrid forms are common in which some services are charged and the rest only shown.