Cost Gate for OCI

An offline Excel tool to request Oracle Cloud resources, know what they cost before you create them, get them approved and keep track of everything that exists.

This extension does only one thing: it copies the tool onto your computer, into the folder of your choice. After that, everything happens in Excel. It connects to nothing and sends no data.

Who is it for?

What you can do with the tool

• Prepare a request form in one click and send it to the requester.
• Know the real cost before you create anything: each resource is priced at Oracle’s official price (per month, per year, over 3 years and over the planned duration, from the list or in hours, days or months), in US dollars and in your local currency. Same prices and calculations as Oracle’s OCI Cost Estimator; the detailed comparison is in the FinOps guide.
• Choose without being an expert: about a hundred standard configurations (virtual machines, storage, databases, networking…), each one described in plain words, with the category names used in the Oracle Cloud console.
• Avoid mistakes and duplicates: the tool flags what is missing, what is expensive, and the existing resources that could be reused.
• Decide and keep a record: approval or rejection with reasons, management approval for the most expensive requests, and a log of every action.
• Track what really exists in Oracle Cloud, with the resource register and the read-only OCI inventory script for Cloud Shell.
• Work with several administrators, each with their own copy, kept in sync by a simple exchange file.

Install the tool in 3 steps

1. Install this extension (“Install” button). A message appears at the bottom right of VS Code: “Cost Gate for OCI is installed”.
2. Click “Install the tool” in that message, then choose the folder where the tool will live, for example your cloud team’s shared folder. A few seconds later, the message “Cost Gate files installed!” confirms that everything was copied.
3. Click “Open the workbook in Excel”, then, in Excel’s yellow bar, “Enable Content”.

That’s all. If you closed the welcome message: press Ctrl+Shift+P, type “Cost Gate: Install or update the tool” and press Enter.

What to expect

• What is copied (about 20 MB), only what you need to use the tool:
  • COST_GATE_MASTER.xlsm: the master workbook, to open in Excel;
  • README.pdf: the getting-started guide, to read first (“User guide” button);
  • docs/: the administrator guide, the requester guide, the FinOps guide and a complete presentation of the tool (PowerPoint and PDF), all in PDF format;
  • examples/: a blank request form and a completed one, to see what they look like;
  • cloud_shell/: the inventory script to run in Oracle Cloud Shell;
  • prices/ and sources/, with docs/PRICE_SOURCES.pdf and docs/TEST_REPORT.pdf: the evidence of where each price comes from and of the tool’s checks, useful for an audit. You do not need to open them day to day.
• Nothing that belongs to you is deleted: if the folder already contains files, they stay where they are.
• Every copied file is verified: if there is a problem, you are told, with the file name.
• No internet connection, neither for installing nor for using the tool.

Your first steps in the tool

The getting-started guide (README.pdf) walks you through it. In short:

1. On the workbook’s home page, click “Administrator mode” so that you can change the settings.
2. Enter your company name (sheet 24_CONFIG), then your local currency and exchange rate (“Exchange rate” button).
3. Click “Generate a request form” and send the form to the requester.
4. When it comes back completed, put it in the INBOX folder, then click “Import received forms”.
5. Check the request, then approve or reject it.

To understand everything at once, open the presentation docs/COST_GATE_PRESENTATION.pdf.

Updating

VS Code updates the extension by itself. Then simply run “Cost Gate: Install or update the tool” again in the same folder:

• the tool files are updated without asking you anything;
• a file you changed is replaced only with your agreement, and the old one is kept as .before-x.y.z;
• files that are no longer used (for example from a previous version) are deleted if you accept, and only if they were never changed;
• your master workbook and your data are never overwritten without your agreement:
  • “Keep my data” (recommended): the new version is placed next to it; open it and click “Import data from the previous workbook”;
  • “Replace the master workbook”: you start again from a blank workbook; the old one is kept as a backup.

Troubleshooting

Requirements

• Windows with desktop Excel 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024 or Microsoft 365 (32 or 64-bit), with a valid license.
• VS Code 1.60 or later.
• Requesters only need Excel: the form they receive contains no macros.

Privacy and security

• The extension and the tool never connect to the internet and send no data.
• The extension contains no personal data and no real company data: the names and identifiers in the examples are fictitious.
• The data you enter stays in your files, on your computer or your shared folder.
• Prices come from Oracle’s public price list, archived with the tool.

Oracle, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and OCI are trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Cost Gate for OCI is an independent tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Oracle.