“What does technology cost the business — and can every dollar be explained?”
Every layer of the TBM taxonomy — cost pools, technology resource towers, solutions and consumers — and every TBM practice, from cost transparency and showback to benchmarking, planning and value. Dotwork runs it on the same model as strategy, budgets, the portfolio and the architecture, so the numbers are reconciled to the ledger and actually change decisions. Keep your own names and rules. Move to the next taxonomy version by remapping, not rebuilding. And run FinOps, FOCUS, capitalization and the rest of your frameworks on the same records.
The pressure
Most TBM programs stall in the same place. Allocation rules live in a specialist tool, the mapping from the ledger is rebuilt every quarter, and the business receives a showback report it cannot question. TBM becomes a reporting exercise instead of a way to decide what technology is worth.
What it looks like today
Full coverage
Nothing is left to a spreadsheet on the side. Each element of TBM has a home in Dotwork, on the same model as the rest of the business.
Built for TBM Taxonomy 5.0
How finance sees technology spend.
How IT sees its resources.
What technology delivers.
Who consumes technology, and what for.
What a TBM office actually does.
Where TBM changes what happens next.
What changes
TBM as a quarterly reporting cycle
TBM as a live view over the same model as strategy and delivery
Allocations nobody outside IT finance can trace
Every allocated dollar traced back to the ledger entry it came from
Showback the business disputes
An itemized bill of IT, explainable line by line
Unit costs reported, then forgotten
Unit costs beside the funding and portfolio decisions they should change
The TBM report the business reads
Follow one dollar from the general ledger through cost pool and tower to the solution and the business unit that consumed it. Change an allocation rule and every view — the bill of IT, the cost of a capability, the board pack — updates from the same numbers.
Where other tools stop
Dedicated TBM tools stop at the allocation. The bill goes out as a PDF and the decision happens somewhere else. Here the allocation, the bill and the funding decision share one model.
Flexed to how you run
TBM is a reference, not a cage. Start from the standard taxonomy and shape the last mile to how your company actually works — without losing the ability to compare.
Your names, the standard underneath
Rename pools, towers and solutions to match your chart of accounts and service catalog, while the standard mapping stays intact for benchmarking.
Rules finance can read
Allocation rules and drivers are visible and editable by finance — no specialist required to change the model.
Adopt one layer at a time
Start with cost transparency on the finance layer and add towers, solutions and consumers as the data and the appetite grow.
Book and consumption, held apart
Run allocations on what was booked and on what was consumed for the same period, side by side and never added.
The next version, without a migration project
When the TBM Council publishes a new taxonomy, Dotwork updates the reference model and proposes how each of your records moves. You approve the changes; prior periods keep the mapping they were reported on.
Towers renamed Technology Resource Towers
Relabeled across every view — mappings and history untouched
Cost pools reworked for a finance audience, with operating and capital spend separated
Pools remapped from the ledger, with operating and capital spend carried through to the plan
Labor treated as both a spend-based and a headcount-based pool
Workforce & Labor supplies both measures, compared and never added
New towers for data, risk & compliance and IoT
Towers added, with mapping rules proposed for the spend that belongs in them
A new AI solution type; the Platform solution type retired
AI spend from AI Token Economics lands in the AI type; platform solutions are re-homed under delivery and infrastructure, each move proposed for approval
Every framework, one model
Most companies run TBM beside FinOps, capitalization rules, asset management and a capability map — each in its own tool. On Dotwork they share one set of records, so they agree by construction.
Cloud accountability and billing data
Cloud and SaaS billing lands in the same towers and pools, so FinOps and TBM report one number.
Explore FinOps & FOCUSFinOps for AI · token and model spend
AI token and model spend feeds TBM’s new AI solution type, metered at the rate in force.
Explore TokenomicsASC 350-40 · ASU 2025-06 · IAS 38
Capitalizable labor and software flow from the same ledger and labor records TBM allocates.
Explore Software CapitalizationISO/IEC 19770 · licenses, contracts and renewals
Licenses, contracts and renewals sit beside the towers and solutions they fund.
Explore IT Asset ManagementCapability and process maps
TBM solutions roll up to the business capabilities they serve.
Explore BIZBOK & APQCTIME model · 7 Rs
Every application’s TBM cost informs whether to tolerate, invest, migrate or eliminate.
Explore App RationalizationAI-native TBM
The parts of TBM that used to need a specialist — mapping, tying out, chasing variances, re-mapping for a new taxonomy — happen behind the scenes. Dotwork proposes; a finance owner approves; every change is logged and reversible.
Proposes cost pool and tower mappings for new ledger lines, vendors and accounts, each with a confidence score.
Resolves vendors, accounts and cost centers from decisions you already made, so each month needs fewer decisions than the last.
Checks that every dollar was placed or named as fallout, and scores coverage and confidence across the model.
Compares your mappings with the new taxonomy and proposes how each pool, tower and solution should move.
Sorts the ledger lines behind a variance by cause and names the owner, with the explanation drafted.
Drafts each consumer’s bill of IT and the TBM readout from the reconciled book.
Where it runs in Dotwork
Dotwork does not ask you to adopt a new method. The framework becomes a view over the same model these solutions already read and write.
Fund & Optimize
“Where does the money actually go — and can I trust the number?”
ExploreSteer
“Is the transformation paying off — and can we prove it?”
ExploreFund & Optimize
“Can we still move money before the period closes?”
ExploreFund & Optimize
“What is the cloud bill actually paying for — and is it worth it?”
ExploreFund & Optimize
“Do we have the people we funded?”
ExploreFund & Optimize
“What did we buy, and is it used?”
ExploreFund & Optimize
“Is our space worth what we pay for it?”
ExploreGovern & Deliver
“What does this capability cost to run — and what depends on it?”
ExploreGovern & Deliver
“Can we prove our controls were actually working on what we shipped?”
ExploreHow it compares
TBM and ITFM suites cover the taxonomy after a long implementation. Spreadsheets and BI cover what the suite can’t. TBM on Dotwork covers the whole framework, flexes to how you run and connects it to the rest of the operating model.
| Capability | TBM & ITFM suites | Spreadsheets & BI | TBM on Dotwork |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every layer of the TBM taxonomy | Partly | ||
| Bill of IT, showback and chargeback | Partly | ||
| Unit costs and benchmarks | Partly | ||
| Your own names and rules on the standard underneath | Partly | ||
| Move to the next taxonomy version without a rebuild | Partly | ||
| Every dollar reconciled to the ledger, fallout named | Partly | ||
| AI that proposes mappings for approval | Partly | ||
| FinOps, FOCUS, capitalization and asset management on the same records | Partly | ||
| Wired to budgets, the portfolio, architecture and strategy |
Who it is for
“Does the TBM total tie to our books, and can you explain any dollar in it?
“What does each solution cost to run, and is it worth what we pay?
“How do we stop rebuilding the allocation every quarter?
“What am I being charged for, and what would change it?
“Which applications cost the most for the capability they support?
“How does cloud spend land in the same towers as the rest of IT?
Before you buy
How to get a number instead of a pitch.
1
Good answer · One click from the bill line to the original transaction.
Bad answer · An export to a spreadsheet so someone can explain it later.
2
Good answer · They are shown and labeled, with the data that is missing.
Bad answer · They are spread across everyone so the totals look tidy.
3
Good answer · Unit costs sit beside the budget and portfolio they affect.
Bad answer · It goes into the quarterly deck.
More in Finance & Cost
Cloud accountability and billing data
ExploreFinOps for AI · token and model spend
ExploreASC 350-40 · ASU 2025-06 · IAS 38
ExploreISO/IEC 19770 · licenses, contracts and renewals
ExploreActivity-based costing · rolling forecasts · Beyond Budgeting
ExploreFinance & Cost
The standards finance and IT finance use to say what technology costs and who uses it.
The model underneath
Steer, Fund & Optimize and Govern & Deliver all read and write the same Enterprise Operating Model. The first module you license builds the model. Every module after it adds context instead of another silo — and Dotwork AI reads all of it, stopping where the decision is yours.
See the Enterprise Operating Model© 2025-2026 Dotwork, Inc. All rights reserved.