Enabling and Disabling a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Billing Account

After you create your GCP billing account or receive permission from your research team to use an existing one, you’ll complete a couple of tasks to set up for use within the All of Us Researcher Workbench. If you haven’t set up your GCP billing account yet, you’ll need to do that first.

Linking your GCP billing account to the Researcher Workbench

To link your GCP billing account to the Researcher Workbench

1. Log in to GCP Console Billing.

2. Select the billing account to be used.

3. Choose “Account Management” on the left hand panel.

4. Navigate to “My Billing Account” on the right hand panel.

5. Select “Add Principal.”

6. Add “terra-billing@terra.bio” and the “@researchallofus.org” username(s) you would like to associate with the account. In the dropdown for that member, select role "Billing" -> "Billing Account User" and save.

• Note: Adding these usernames as “billing users” on your GCP account only allows for a connection between the Researcher Workbench platform and user accounts to be made. It does not grant view access to the payment or project details of your GCP account. Read about how Google uses role-based permissions to manage billing.
• Note for GCP Billing Account Owners and Administrators: If you are the billing account administrator or owner, and need to also use the billing account in your workspace, please ensure you have added your @researchallofus.org account as a "Billing Account User" role. Adding it to the owner or administrator role alone will not allow for proper syncing in the Researcher Workbench. 

Using your GCP billing account to pay

To use your GCP billing account in the Researcher Workbench

Billing is managed at the workspace level. You can set up billing when creating a workspace or change the billing account linked to an existing workspace.

Note: Only the original workspace creator can change the billing account for a workspace. Collaborators, including owners, cannot update billing accounts. Collaborators on a workspace will need to duplicate the workspace in order to edit billing accounts.

For new workspaces

1. Click the blue plus sign ().
   
   
   
   
2. Select the linked billing account from the dropdown menu.
   
   

For existing workspaces

Only workspace creators can update the billing account for an existing workspace.

1. Click the vertical ellipsis ()  in the top left of your workspace tile.
   
   
   
   
2. Select “Edit.”
   
   
   
   
3. Select the linked billing account from the dropdown menu.
   
   
   

Disabling your GCP billing account

To disable your GCP billing account to the Researcher Workbench

Billing is managed at the workspace level. In GCP billing terms, workspaces are referred to as “projects” and are listed that way in your GCP billing account console.

To fully remove permission for a researcher to bill for existing and future work, you’ll need to remove both the “@researchallofus.org” account and existing workspace projects from the account.

To remove a researcher’s permission to bill for future workspace projects

1. Log in to GCP Console Billing.
2. Select the billing account to be used.
3. Click “Manage” in the top right next to "Billing account."
4. Navigate to the Role/Principle list.
5. Expand the section header labeled “Billing Account User.” 
6. Use the edit icon to remove the “@researchallofus.org” accounts for which no future billing permissions are allowed.
   Note: If you plan to disable billing for existing workspaces as well, remove the “terra-billing@terra.bio” account.

To remove a researcher’s permission to continue billing for existing workspace projects

1. Log in to GCP Console Billing.
2. Select the billing account to be used.
3. Click “Account Management” on the left, which will display a page with a full list of associate projects.
4. Use the edit icon to disable billing for projects associated with the Researcher Workbench. Researcher Workbench workspace projects include the prefix “aou-rw…”

Note: Workspaces will continue to incur a charge of $0.20 a month through the billing account unless they are deleted inside the Researcher Workbench. Applications that are left running when a project gets disabled will continue to charge until the application is turned off and data stored in a workspace bucket will continue to incur costs.

As a best practice when disabling projects, researchers should log in to the Researcher Workbench, delete projects they no longer need, and ensure no applications are accidentally running.

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