Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Overview of roles in Cloud Billing in IAM
3.
IAM relationships between organizations, Cloud Billing accounts, projects, and payments profiles
4.
Cloud Billing access control examples
5.
Update Cloud Billing permissions
5.1.
Grant permissions and add new principals
5.2.
Modify the billing permissions for a principal
5.3.
Remove a principal's role
6.
Frequently Asked Questions
6.1.
What is IAM?
6.2.
What is Cloud Billing?
6.3.
What is a billing administrator?
7.
Conclusion
Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024

Overview of Cloud Billing Access Control

Author Nagendra
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Introduction

Cloud Billing enables you to manage which users have administrative and cost viewing permissions by implementing IAM (Identity and Access Management) policies on the resources for particular resources. You can define an IAM policy at the organisation level, the Cloud Billing account level, and/or the project level to allow or restrict access to Cloud Billing. You can define a policy at the organisation level to apply it to all the Cloud Billing accounts, projects, and resources in the organisation. Google Cloud resources inherit the Identity and Access Managementpolicies of their parent node.

This blog discusses cloud billing access control in detail, along with IAM Relationships, Cloud Billing Permissions, and Examples of Cloud Billing Access Control.

Without further ado, Let's get started.

Overview of roles in Cloud Billing in IAM

Users aren't given permissions directly; instead, you provide them roles that contain one or more permissions. On the same resource or to the same user, you can assign one or more roles.

The preset Cloud Billing IAM roles listed below are created to enable you to enforce separation of functions using access control:

Overview table

 The preconfigured IAM Billing roles are described in full in the following table, along with the permissions included with each role.

 Let's look at the IAM relationships.

IAM relationships between organizations, Cloud Billing accounts, projects, and payments profiles

The interactions between businesses, Cloud Billing accounts, and projects are governed by two types of relationships: ownership and payment linkage.

  • Ownership: IAM authorization inheritance is referred to as ownership.
     
  • Payment Linkage: Payment links specify which Cloud Billing account is in charge of funding a specific project.
     

The Google payments profile, which keeps records of details like name, address, and payment options, is also connected to the Cloud Billing account.
Projects do not inherit rights from the Cloud Billing account they are attached to because, despite the fact that you can link Cloud Billing accounts to projects, they are not, in an IAM sense, the parents of the projects.
In this case, every user who has been given IAM billing roles in the organisation also has those roles on the projects or the Cloud Billing account.

Let's look at the examples of Cloud Billing access control.

Cloud Billing access control examples

To adapt IAM roles to different settings, combine them as follows:

Scenario: Small- to medium-sized business with a penchant for centralised management.

Scenario: Small to medium-sized business that prefers delegated authority.

Scenario: Separate duties for financial planning and procurement

Scenario: Development agency

Let's look at the detailed procedure to update the cloud billing permissions.

Update Cloud Billing permissions

To add or delete permissions for Cloud Billing follow the following steps:

  • Sign in to your Google Cloud account.
     
  • Select Billing after opening the Google Cloud console's Navigation menu.
     

One of the following actions should be taken if you have multiple Cloud Billing accounts:

  • Select Go to connected billing account to handle Cloud Billing for the current project.
     
  • Choose Manage billing accounts, then choose the account you wish to manage, to discover a separate Cloud Billing account.
     
  • Click Account management from the Billing menu.
     
  • To modify permissions for the chosen Cloud Billing account, use the Permissions panel. To make the panel visible, if it isn't already, click SHOW INFO PANEL.
     

The roles on the permissions panel are arranged according to the number of principals who hold each role. 

  • Click on the role name to expand (or collapse) the list of principals to see the principals who have that role.
     
  • Use the Search principals filter in order to locate a particular principal and discover the roles that are assigned to that principal.
     

Any of the following actions in the Permissions panel will update the Cloud Billing permissions:

Grant permissions and add new principals

Follow the following steps to grant permissions and add new principals:

  • To add principals, click Add principals.
     
  • Enter the email addresses of the principals you wish to add in the "New principals" area. As principles, you can add people, service accounts, or Google Groups.
     
  • Choose permission from the list of roles for the principal(s).
     
  • Specify any constraints for the role (optional).
     
  • You can add an additional role to provide the principal with more responsibilities if necessary (s).
     
  • Once finished, click Save.
     

Modify the billing permissions for a principal

Follow the following steps to modify the billing permissions for a principal:

  • To find a certain principle or role, use the Search principals filter.
     
  • Find the principal you want to update in the list.
     
  • Click Edit in the principal's row.
     
  • With regard to the chosen principal and resource (Cloud Billing Account) that you are seeing, the Edit permissions window opens.
     
  • Add, Modify, and delete roles for the chosen principal and resource in the Edit Permissions window.
     
  • Once finished, click Save.
     

Remove a principal's role

Follow the following steps to remove a principal's role::

  • To find a certain principle or role, use the Search principals filter.
     
  • Find the principal whose role you want to revoke in the list.
     
  • Click Delete in the principal's row.
     
  • Your action will be followed by a confirmation prompt.
     

Frequently Asked Questions

What is IAM?

IAM (Identity and Access Management) gives administrators complete power and visibility to manage Google Cloud resources centrally by allowing them to approve who can execute actions on particular resources.

What is Cloud Billing?

In Google Cloud, a Cloud Billing account is created and used to specify who is responsible for paying for a certain set of Google Cloud services and Google Maps Platform APIs.

What is a billing administrator?

Your responsibilities as a billing administrator will likely include evaluating orders, helping with accounting, and spotting any inconsistencies between bills, compensation, and client accounts. To fix any account concerns, you can also speak with clients directly.

Conclusion

In this article, we have extensively discussed the details of cloud billing access control along with IAM Relationships, examples of cloud billing access control, and updating Cloud Billing permissions.

We hope that this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge regarding overview of Cloud Billing access control, and if you would like to learn more, check out our articles on Google Cloud Certification. You can refer to our guided paths on the Coding Ninjas Studio platform to learn more about DSADBMSCompetitive ProgrammingPythonJavaJavaScript, etc. To practice and improve yourself in the interview, you can also check out Top 100 SQL problemsInterview experienceCoding interview questions, and the Ultimate guide path for interviews. Do upvote our blog to help other ninjas grow. Happy Coding!!

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