Expenses and Costs:What is a billing account

Navigate to Expenses and Costs > Billing Account > to view the account details.

On the billing account page, you can view and manage the following information: Basic Information, Asset Information, Account Settings, Bind Third-party Payment Method, Manage Billing Accounts, and Account Administrator.

Basic Information

This section shows basic information such as the Account Name, Account ID, Owner, and Account Status. You can also edit the Account Name.

• Account Name: A custom name for the billing account. Administrators can edit this name to customize how it is displayed.

  Note

  You need an administrator account with the Modify Billing Account Name permission to change the name.

• Account ID: The unique identifier for the billing account.

• Account Type: The type of billing account. This can be a Direct Customer Account for direct settlement with Alibaba Cloud, or an Ecosystem Account for settlement with a distribution or reseller partner.

• Owner: The owner of the billing account. For a corporate account, this is the company's name. For an individual account, this is the verified name of the individual.

• Created At: The date and time the billing account was created.

• Account Status: The current status of the account, such as Valid, Frozen, or Canceled.

Asset Information

This section displays details about your account's assets. This includes the Available Credit, Credit Limit, Credit Refund, and Cash Balance for Direct Customer Accounts, and the Quota and Quota Consumption Ledger for Ecosystem Accounts.

Account Settings

This section lets you configure and manage your Low Balance Alerts, Automatic Write-off, and Settlement Currency.

Manage Billing Accounts

• The Manage Billing Accounts feature lets you view a list of Alibaba Cloud accounts for which this billing account pays. With the proper permissions, an administrator can modify payment relationships for existing accounts or add new accounts to be paid for by this billing account.

• When an Alibaba Cloud account is registered, the system automatically creates a default billing account to pay for its charges. To simplify payments, an administrator can set a single billing account to pay for multiple Alibaba Cloud accounts.

• When a financial association is established between a management account and a member account, the system marks this relationship as Active under Status. This indicates that financial management features, such as unified payment, credit sharing, and discount sharing, are enabled.

• Note

  To configure payment relationships, you must first enable the Enterprise Account Center feature and invite accounts with the same company verification for centralized management. You can then manage the payment relationships for these accounts.

  

Account Administrator

• This feature helps enterprise administrators centralize account management. It lets them specify which Alibaba Cloud accounts can manage the billing account.

  Note

  To use this feature, you must first enable the Enterprise Account Center feature and invite accounts with the same company verification for centralized management. The administrator can then assign specific accounts to manage the billing account.

  

• Account administrators gain management permissions through authorization. There are two types of authorization:

  • Super Administrator: This is a super-user authorization granted to the enterprise's management account. It is automatically assigned based on the management account's identity and cannot be revoked.

  • Regular Administrator: This permission is manually granted by a super administrator. An administrator with the permission to modify the Account Administrator settings can add or remove other standard administrators.

• Add an administrator account

  • Click the Add Administrator Account button. In the pop-up window, select the Alibaba Cloud account(s) to manage this billing account, and then click Confirm. The newly added administrator account will appear in the administrator list on the page.

  • You can add multiple Alibaba Cloud accounts at once, with a maximum of 20 accounts per operation.

• Revoke management permissions

  • To revoke management permissions from an account, find the corresponding Alibaba Cloud account in the administrator list and click Remove Authorization in the Actions column. Click Confirm in the confirmation dialog box to apply the change.

  • After you remove the authorization, the account will no longer appear in the administrator list.