An hour before you ship
Before you launch, a short setup pass saves you from a nasty first invoice. The four items below take about an hour between them. Run through them before you ship.
Turn on a budget and alerts. Set a monthly budget in each provider you use, with an alert at 80 per cent, so you hear about a problem before the invoice does.
Tag from the start. Put a small, consistent set of tags on everything, environment, team, and customer if you bill per customer, so the bill is readable from day one instead of after a painful cleanup.
Right-size before you scale. Choose instance sizes from real need rather than the biggest option, and check them against usage once traffic is real.
Price it roughly. Spend half an hour estimating the monthly cost before launch, so you’re choosing your price rather than learning it from the bill.
After you launch
None of this takes long, and all of it is easier before launch than after. Do it once now, and the first invoice will tell you what you already expected, not something you have to explain later.
