Set, check, or remove monthly Azure spending budgets for customers in Partner Center

Appropriate roles: Admin agent

You can set a monthly Azure spending budget for your customers in Partner Center. This budget helps you track and control their Azure spending. You can also use it to compare their actual spending with the budget amount. Your customers can plan their Azure spending better and avoid unexpected bills.

Note

This feature is unavailable in sandbox or Test in Production (TIP) accounts.

Besides setting a budget, you can also monitor your customer's Azure usage. The monitoring can help you detect incorrect configurations or suspicious activities that might increase costs. You can then work with your customers to fix the issues and control the spending. You can also adjust the budget to a higher amount if needed.

Azure spending data

Azure spending data is an estimate. Your actual bill might differ. The amount doesn't include taxes, credits, or other fees.

The spending data is refreshed daily. Your customers continue to use and pay for Azure services and resources until you change their account settings in the Azure portal.

Set Azure spending budget

You can set a monthly Azure spending budget for customers with legacy Microsoft Azure subscriptions in the Partner Center:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.

2. Select Azure spending.

3. On the Azure spending page, under Customers with Microsoft Azure subscriptions, select the customers for whom you want to set a budget.

4. Enter a value for Monthly budget.

5. Choose Apply to save your changes.

You can set a budget for an individual customer in their subscription settings.

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.

2. Select the customer's Company name.

3. On the customer's Subscriptions page, under Usage-based subscription, choose Change budget.

4. Enter a value for the budget.

5. Choose Apply to save your changes.

You can remove a monthly Azure spending budget for your customers in Partner Center.

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.

2. Select Azure spending.

3. On the Azure spending page, under Customers with Microsoft Azure subscriptions, select the customer whose budget you want to remove.

4. Choose Remove budget.

You can track your customers' current Azure spending and monthly budgets at any time.

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.

2. Select Azure spending.

3. On this page, you see the monthly budget, current spending, and budget percentage for each customer with a Microsoft Azure subscription.

How to access the new Azure Spending (NCE) UI

To gain access to the new user interface in the New Commerce Experience (NCE):

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. On this page you view, set, edit, or remove your customers' budgets for Azure plan subscriptions.

Note

The new page shows only customers with Azure plan subscriptions who have an active reseller relationship with the partner. If the relationship ends after setting the budget, the customer will no longer appear on this page.

Set Azure spending budget using the new (NCE) UI.

To set a monthly Azure spending budget for your customers in the Partner Center:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. In the Customers section, choose New budget.
4. In the side panel, search for the customer names for whom you want to set a budget.
5. Enter the budget amount for each customer.
6. Select Save.

To update the monthly budget for a customer:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. In the Customers section, select the customers you want to update the budgets by checking the boxes next to their names.
4. Choose Update budget.
5. In the side panel, you see the customer names and budgets.
6. Update the budget amount for each customer.
7. Select Save.

To remove the monthly budget for your customers:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. In the Customers section, select the customers you want to update the budgets by checking the boxes next to their names.
4. Choose Update budget.
5. In the side panel, you see the customer names and budgets.
6. Clear the budget field for the customer.
7. Select Save.

To monitor your customers' Azure expenses and monthly budgets:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. In the Customers section, review the customers' monthly budgets, current estimates, and percentage of budget used so far.

Important

The estimated amounts are typically 24 hours behind the current usage. It can occasionally be longer, depending on certain limitations.

Notifications for budget limits

Set up email alerts that notify you when your customers' monthly spending reaches a certain amount. After you set up the email alert, you get an email every seven days if your customers use 80% or more of their monthly budget. Then you can monitor their spending and help them stay within budget. To configure email notifications:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select the Notifications (bell) icon.

2. Select My preferences.

3. Configure a preferred email address.

4. Configure the preferred language for the notification.

5. Select all boxes under the Notification preferences section in the Billing workspace.

Note

If the budget goes over 100%, you don't receive any notification.

Itemized costs by service

You can view itemized costs (and estimated usage) by service for usage-based subscriptions:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.

2. Select the customer's Company name.

3. On the customer's Subscriptions page, under Usage-based subscriptions, select the name of the Subscription.

4. On the subscription's page, you can review the Itemized costs by service, and the Estimated usage for the current month.

Next steps

• New commerce experience in CSP - Azure billing