Add a tutorial about monitoring costs with soft budgets (#59226)

Co-authored-by: Laura Coursen <lecoursen@github.com>

Author: sophietheking

content/billing/tutorials/index.md

@@ -10,11 +10,11 @@ topics:
   - Billing
 children:
   - /automate-usage-reporting
+  - /soft-budgets
   - /set-up-budgets
   - /control-costs-at-scale
   - /gather-insights
 contentType: tutorials
 redirect_from:
   - /billing/tutorials/estimate-actions-costs
 ---
-

content/billing/tutorials/soft-budgets.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+---
+title: 'Start monitoring costs with soft budgets'
+intro: 'Set soft budgets to monitor spending without blocking access to paid features while you build an understanding of your costs.'
+shortTitle: 'Monitor costs with soft budgets'
+versions:
+  fpt: '*'
+  ghec: '*'
+topics:
+  - Enterprise
+  - Billing
+permissions: 'Enterprise owners and billing managers'
+contentType: tutorials
+audience:
+  - driver
+allowTitleToDifferFromFilename: true
+---
+
+## About soft budgets
+
+Soft budgets set spending targets without enforcing limits. When spending exceeds the budget, billing managers and enterprise owners receive email notifications, but usage continues uninterrupted.
+
+Soft budgets are especially useful when:
+
+* You’re new to managing costs across multiple products or SKUs
+* You want visibility before enforcing restrictions
+* You expect usage to fluctuate while teams adopt new features
+
+If you need to strictly control or cap spending for specific products, a hard budget may be more appropriate.
+
+## 1. Estimate your budget needs
+
+Before setting a soft budget, make a rough estimate of your expected costs. This doesn’t need to be precise—the goal is to establish a baseline you can refine over time. Consider the following steps:
+
+1. Review your current usage of licenses and metered products. See [AUTOTITLE](/billing/tutorials/gather-insights) and [AUTOTITLE](/billing/how-tos/products/view-productlicense-use).
+1. Identify any upcoming projects or initiatives that may increase your usage.
+1. Calculate the estimated costs based on your usage patterns and any anticipated changes.
+1. Decide on a budget amount that provides some flexibility above your estimated costs to accommodate unexpected usage spikes.
+
+## 2. Set a soft budget
+
+To set a budget for your enterprise or organization, see [AUTOTITLE](/billing/tutorials/set-up-budgets#creating-a-budget).
+
+When creating the budget, leave **Stop usage when budget limit is reached** unchecked. This choice makes the budget “soft”: you’ll receive alerts when the limit is exceeded, but usage won’t be blocked.
+
+## 3. Review and adjust your budget
+
+After setting a soft budget, it's important to regularly monitor your spending to ensure it aligns with your budget goals. You can view your budgets at the top of the "Budgets and alerts" page.
+
+After a billing cycle, review your budget alerts and adjust the budget amount if needed. As you gain confidence in your spending patterns, you can decide whether any products require stricter controls. If so, edit the budget and enable the **Stop usage when budget limit is reached** option to convert it to a hard budget.