> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.optimazehq.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Attribution

> Understand attribution models in OPTIMAZE, the difference between the Financial Operating Model and ad-hoc models, and how to read coverage.

Attribution assigns every dollar of technology spend to the part of the business that caused it, a product, a team, a customer segment, a cost centre. Allocation answers how to split a number, attribution answers what caused it, and that cause is what budgets, goals and unit economics are measured against.

An attribution model is a tree. The root holds total spend for the selected sources, each node beneath it holds the spend attributed to that part of the business, and anything not yet attributed sits in an **Unattributed** node.

## Model types

OPTIMAZE has two kinds of model, chosen from the **Attribution Models** menu.

| Model | What it is for | Used by |
| :- | :- | :- |
| **Financial Operating Model** | The authoritative view of how spend maps to your organisation, mirroring your P\&L or cost centre structure. There is one per organisation. | Budgets, goals and unit economics |
| **Ad-hoc models** | Exploratory views for a specific question, such as AI spend by user or spend by product. Create as many as you need. | Analysis and unit economics |

Large organisations can break parts of the Financial Operating Model into **sub-models**, each owned and edited separately and linked back to a node on the parent. See [Edit and publish a model](https://docs.optimazehq.com/attribution/editing-models.md#add-a-sub-model).

![Attribution Models menu showing the Financial Operating Model and Ad-hoc Models groups](https://mintcdn.com/optimaze/1GorH5batRwM9XiF/images/console/attribution-models-menu.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=1GorH5batRwM9XiF\&q=85\&s=daf889a6c6583e6d18a4d50f7f15b5fb)

## Read the attribution view

Open **Attribution** from the sidebar.

| Control | What it does |
| :- | :- |
| **Attribution Models** | Search for and switch between the Financial Operating Model and your ad-hoc models |
| **Surfaces** | Switch what each node shows: **Overview**, **Cost**, **Budgets**, **Unit economics** or **Goals** |
| **Sources** | Limit the view to one billing source, or show **All providers** |
| **Coverage** | The share of spend attributed to named nodes, shown as **Attributed** and a percentage |
| Create icon | **Create ad-hoc model**, a new model opens with a generated name and you as owner |
| Edit icon | Open the editor. An orange dot means the model has an **Unpublished draft**, hover to see who last changed it |
| **Display options** | Change how nodes and edges are drawn |

Each node shows its spend for the selected date range and a trend line. Select **more** on a node to expand its children, or the node menu for node actions. Use the controls at the bottom of the canvas to zoom, lock the layout, recentre, expand and go full screen. The minimap shows where you are in a large model.

![Attribution view with the model toolbar, Surfaces, Coverage and a model with an Unattributed node](https://mintcdn.com/optimaze/1GorH5batRwM9XiF/images/console/attribution-view.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=1GorH5batRwM9XiF\&q=85\&s=9a64b29597c27112fff417e52c44cd6e)

## Coverage

Coverage is the proportion of spend in the selected sources that has been attributed to named nodes. Spend that has not been attributed appears in the **Unattributed** node.

To raise coverage, add nodes that capture the unattributed spend, or use [showbacks](https://docs.optimazehq.com/attribution/showbacks.md) to distribute it across existing nodes. Unit economics and goals are only as reliable as the attribution beneath them, so aim to close the gap before reporting on them.

## Next steps

> **[Edit and publish a model](https://docs.optimazehq.com/attribution/editing-models.md)**
>
> Work in a draft, use Atlas or the manual editor, then publish.

> **[Showbacks](https://docs.optimazehq.com/attribution/showbacks.md)**
>
> Distribute shared or unattributed cost across nodes.


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