A cloud administrator is configuring cost management for a multi-account cloud environment. The company wants to allocate costs by department and project. Which TWO steps should the administrator take to achieve this? (Choose two.)
Activating cost allocation tags in the billing console makes tagged resources' spend visible as separate line items in cost reports, satisfying the requirement to allocate costs by department and project. Without activation, tags exist on resources but are excluded from billing data, so departmental and project breakdowns cannot be produced.
Why this answer
Option C is correct because activating cost allocation tags in the billing console is the required step that makes user-defined tags (such as Department and Project) appear as line items in the cost and usage reports, enabling cost breakdowns by those dimensions. Option E is correct because applying consistent tags like Department and Project to resources is what actually associates each resource's spend with the desired cost center, and without these tags the allocation data cannot be produced. Together, tagging resources and then activating those tags for billing is the standard mechanism for allocating costs by department and project in a multi-account environment.
Option A is not one of the two required steps because enabling cost reporting tools alone provides raw billing data but does not by itself map costs to departments and projects. Option B is unnecessary because separate accounts per department are an isolation/consolidation design choice, not the tagging mechanism needed for cost allocation. Option D is incorrect because budgeting tools set thresholds and alerts on spend; they do not allocate or attribute costs to departments and projects.
Exam trap
The trap is thinking that creating separate accounts or enabling reporting alone achieves allocation, when the exam requires both tag activation and actual tagging of resources.