Every FinOps tool has a dashboard. They're beautiful. They show charts, trends, forecasts, and breakdowns. They have filters, drill-downs, and export options.
And they don't prevent overspend.
Here's why: dashboards require attention. You have to log in, look at the data, interpret what you see, and decide if action is needed. This works great if you have a dedicated FinOps team that checks dashboards daily. But most teams don't.
The Attention Problem
Engineering leaders are busy. They're reviewing PRs, planning sprints, debugging production issues, and managing teams. They don't have time to check dashboards every day. So they check weekly, or monthly, or when someone asks about costs.
By the time they notice a problem in the dashboard, it's already happened. The overspend is in the past. The invoice is coming.
Interpretation Overhead
Even when you do check a dashboard, you have to interpret what you see. Is that spike normal? Is that trend concerning? Should you investigate that service? Dashboards give you data, but they don't give you judgment.
This is why FinOps teams exist—to interpret dashboard data and make recommendations. But most teams can't afford a dedicated FinOps person. So the dashboard sits unused, or checked too late.
One Daily Signal
Instead of a dashboard that requires daily attention, what if you got one daily signal?
A message that says: "Green—on track" or "Amber—attention needed" or "Red—action required." No interpretation needed. No logging in. No charts to analyze.
This is what a signal does. It makes a judgment for you. It compares today's spending to normal, considers your budget, and tells you if something needs attention. Then it delivers that judgment where you already are—Slack, email, or both.
Signals vs. Dashboards
Signals and dashboards solve different problems:
- Signals: "Is there a problem right now?" (Discovery)
- Dashboards: "What exactly is the problem?" (Investigation)
You need both. But you need signals first. Signals tell you when to look at dashboards. Without signals, dashboards are just expensive data storage.
The Contrarian Take
Most FinOps tools focus on dashboards. They add more charts, more filters, more drill-downs. They assume you'll check them daily.
But busy teams don't check dashboards daily. They need signals that come to them, not dashboards they have to visit.
This is why StackSpend sends a daily signal instead of asking you to check a dashboard. The dashboard exists for investigation. But the signal exists for prevention.
If you're checking dashboards daily, you're doing FinOps wrong. You should be getting signals daily, and checking dashboards only when a signal tells you to.