Recommendations | Yarken Help

Use this guide to understand how Recommendations work in Yarken, where recommendation savings appear, and which articles to use for setup, management, imports, reporting, and analysis.

Overview

Recommendations help teams identify, manage, and measure cost optimization opportunities across technology spend.

A recommendation can be created manually, uploaded from a file, or imported from a configured provider integration. Once recommendation records are in Yarken, teams can review the opportunity, prioritize the work, take action, track status, and measure both potential and realized savings.

Recommendations have two main flows:

User flow: where users find recommendation savings, review opportunities, take action, and analyze outcomes.
Admin flow: how administrators configure connections, activate pipelines, upload data, maintain records, refresh internal data, and validate that recommendation data is available for reporting.

Where recommendations appear in Yarken

Recommendations are visible across several Yarken areas. Some of these areas belong to their own Help Centre page families, such as Reports or Analytics, and are linked here as part of the recommendation user journey.

Area	Menu path	Primary purpose
Home dashboard	Home	Review high-level recommendation savings cards such as Potential Savings (As Of) and Realized Savings (Till Date) where configured.
Recommendations workspace	Admin > Recommendations	Manage recommendation records, review details, create manual recommendations, upload files, update status, dismiss recommendations, and download data.
Cube Refresh	Admin > Cube Refresh	Refresh internal data after recommendation records, uploads, upload rules, connections, or pipelines are updated.
Recommendations Overview	Reports > Cost Transparency > Recommendations Overview	Review potential and realized savings by month, asset type, and source.
Recommendations Data	Analytics > Recommendations	Build custom recommendation reports using recommendation fields, savings measures, status, source, asset, resource, and timeline.
Advanced Connections	Admin > Pipelines > Connections > Advanced	Configure provider connections that supply recommendation data, such as AWS Recommendations where enabled.
Advanced Pipelines	Admin > Pipelines > Pipelines > Advanced	Activate, run, monitor, and troubleshoot recommendation ingestion pipelines.

This structure lets users see recommendation impact in dashboards while administrators manage the source data and ingestion flow behind it.

End-to-end recommendation flow

A recommendation usually moves through this flow:

Configure the source: Set up the provider connection or prepare a recommendation file.
Load recommendations: Run an enabled pipeline, upload a file, or create a recommendation manually.
Refresh internal data: When recommendation data, upload rules, connections, or pipelines have been updated, run Cube Refresh from the bottom of the Admin menu to refresh internal data quickly.
Review recommendations: Use Admin > Recommendations to review details, source, asset, resource, savings, value, and complexity.
Prioritize action: Decide which recommendations should be actioned first based on savings, complexity, value, and business context.
Take action: Start the implementation workflow or coordinate with the responsible team.
Track status: Move recommendations through New, In Progress, Completed, or Dismissed.
Record savings: Track potential savings when the opportunity is identified and realized savings after the action is completed or confirmed.
Report outcomes: Use the Home dashboard, Recommendations Overview, and Recommendations Data to review impact over time.

Recommendations page family

Use these pages for the Recommendations management and setup workflow.

Article	Use it when you need to
Manage Recommendations	Create, review, edit, dismiss, download, and manage recommendation records in Admin > Recommendations.
Upload Recommendations	Upload recommendation files, review uploaded file history, manage upload rules, and troubleshoot file loads.
Set up Recommendation Integrations	Configure provider connections, activate pipelines, run ingestion, and monitor pipeline history.

These pages remain in their original Help Centre sections because they match platform navigation under Reports, Analytics, and related capability areas.

Article	Platform area	Use it when you need to
Savings Recommendations	AI, Insights, and Optimization	Understand the savings lifecycle, recommendation statuses, potential savings, realized savings, value, and complexity.
Recommendations Overview	Reports	Interpret the Cost Transparency report for recommendation savings by month, asset type, and source.
Recommendations Data	Analytics	Build custom Analytics reports for recommendation fields, status, savings, source, resource, and timeline.

User flow: reviewing and acting on recommendations

Users who review savings opportunities typically work in this sequence:

Check high-level savings on the Home dashboard or Recommendations Overview.
Open Admin > Recommendations to review individual recommendation records.
Filter by source, resource type, status, value, complexity, or savings.
Open a recommendation to review the details.
Select Take Action when the recommendation should move into an implementation workflow.
Update status as the recommendation moves through review and implementation.
Record realized savings after the optimization has been completed or confirmed.
Use Recommendations Overview and Recommendations Data to report progress.

This flow helps teams connect recommendation review with measurable savings outcomes.

Admin flow: setting up recommendation data

Administrators use Recommendations setup to ensure recommendation records are created, imported, refreshed, and reported correctly.

A typical setup flow is:

Confirm Advanced Integrations is enabled for the environment.
Configure the required provider connection in Admin > Pipelines > Connections > Advanced.
Confirm provider credentials, roles, permissions, and region settings.
Activate the related recommendation pipeline in Admin > Pipelines > Pipelines > Advanced.
Run or monitor the pipeline.
Confirm the pipeline run succeeds.
Validate that records appear in Admin > Recommendations.
Run Cube Refresh from the bottom of the Admin menu after recommendation data or configuration changes.
Confirm savings values appear correctly in Recommendations Overview, Recommendations Data, and other configured dashboards.

For AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations, the setup requires an AWS Recommendations connection, the required AWS permissions, and an active AWS Recommendations pipeline. Other providers depend on the connections and pipelines enabled for your organization.

Recommendation source options

Recommendations can enter Yarken in several ways.

Source option	Best for
Manual entry	One-off recommendations identified during reviews, workshops, or operational follow-up.
Bulk upload	Recommendation files prepared outside Yarken or migrated from another process.
Advanced Integrations	Automated ingestion from configured provider sources, such as AWS Recommendations where enabled.

Use automated ingestion when provider recommendations should refresh regularly. Use upload or manual entry when recommendations are one-time, internal, or not available from a configured provider source.

Data and reporting relationship

Recommendation records feed multiple Yarken views.

Data managed in	Reflected in
Admin > Recommendations	Recommendation records, status, source, category, asset, resource, potential savings, and realized savings.
Uploaded Files	Upload status, loaded record counts, file errors, and reload activity.
Advanced Pipelines	Provider ingestion status, run history, success or failure, and job details.
Cube Refresh	Internal data refresh after recommendation records, uploads, upload rules, connections, or pipelines are updated.
Recommendations Overview	Dashboard totals and charts for potential and realized savings.
Recommendations Data	Custom Analytics reports and deeper field-level analysis.
Home dashboard	High-level potential and realized savings cards where configured.

If a dashboard value does not look right, validate the underlying records, upload history, and pipeline run status, then run Cube Refresh before treating the report as final.

Governance notes

Use consistent recommendation management practices so savings reporting remains reliable.

Keep recommendation IDs unique.
Standardize source, category, status, complexity, and value values where possible.
Link recommendations to assets and cloud resources when the data is available.
Treat provider-estimated savings as estimated until savings are realized.
Update status as work progresses.
Record realized savings only when the outcome has been completed or confirmed.
Run Cube Refresh after recommendation data, upload rules, connections, or pipelines are updated.
Review pipeline run history and uploaded file status before relying on report totals.
Coordinate with application, infrastructure, cloud, finance, and asset owners before implementing recommendations that may affect operations.