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Manage customer subscriptions

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Applies to: Partner Center | Partner Center for Microsoft Cloud for US Government

Appropriate roles: Admin agent | Billing admin | Helpdesk agent | Sales agent

After you create a record of your customer in Partner Center, you can sell subscriptions to products in the catalog to that customer.

The subscriptions that you can sell are:

  • Products published by Microsoft
  • Software as a service (SaaS) products published by independent software vendors (ISVs) to the commercial marketplace (Azure Marketplace).

Note

You can only sell and manage customer subscriptions if you're a direct-bill partner or an indirect provider. If you're an indirect reseller, contact your indirect provider. For more information, see Which CSP model is best for me?.

Some offers are limited to one subscription per customer. To see a list of which offers are restricted, go to the Partner Center Price lists page.

As a partner in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, you can purchase license-based or metered SaaS subscriptions from independent software vendor (ISV) publishers within Partner Center. You can purchase any license-based or metered SaaS offer that the ISV publisher makes available to you, including any exclusive offers to which you have access. To purchase or manage other commercial marketplace offers from ISVs (such as usage-based offers that involve Azure applications, containers, or VMs), you must go to the Azure portal.

Note

All dates and times in Partner Center are given in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC can differ from your local time by up to 24 hours.

Create a new subscription

To create a new subscription, use the following steps:

  1. From the Partner Center, select Customers and then select a customer from the customer list.

  2. Select Add subscription.

  3. The Online Services tab shows all available marketplace SaaS offers.
    To see only certain types of subscriptions, use the filters:

    Filter Setting
    Publisher Select Microsoft to see only offers from Microsoft.
    Select Partner to see commercial marketplace products published by ISVs.
    Billing type Select the type of subscription billing that you want to use: License or Usage.
    For information that can help you to decide between the monthly and annual billing, see Partner Center billing.
    Category Select Enterprise, Small business, or Trial.
    For information about trial subscriptions, see Offer your customers trials of Microsoft products.

  4. Select the product subscriptions that you want to purchase for your customer. The products that you see depend on the customer segment (for example, education or government) and the filters you apply. Some marketplace offers might not always be available to particular customers or CSP partners. Possible reasons include:

    • The customer already has a subscription to that product and is allowed only one
    • The customer's subscription might be suspended. (In this case, you can reactivate the subscription rather than purchase a new one.) For ISV SaaS offers, there might be several reasons why an offer isn't available:
    • The ISV might not support the customer's billing country or region
    • The ISV might choose not to make the offer available through the CSP program
    • The ISV might make the offer exclusive, to certain CSP partners
    • The ISV offer might not be transactable through Partner Center (for example, containers or some usage-based offers)

  5. For each subscription that you want to add, enter the number of licenses (if needed) and then select Add to cart.

  6. When you're finished adding subscriptions, select Review and review your order.

    Important

    Partners are required to attest to the following:

    "I confirm that my organization is acting as an Indirect Partner when choosing a Reseller and as a Direct Partner in the absence of selecting a reseller" EU/EFTA laws state that partners transacting in those countries/regions must declare other resellers associated within a transaction. The following rules apply:

    • An initial reseller must be chosen before any other resellers
    • Other resellers aren't entitled to any extra incentives, offers, and so on
    • Other sellers entered are validated to ensure that the correct PartnerID is entered where applicable, and that the reseller signed the Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA)
    • A maximum of five other resellers can be entered as part of the transaction

  7. If you're an indirect provider, select the indirect reseller that you want to associate with this customer's subscriptions from the list.

  8. Select Review.

  9. Select Submit.

  10. To add subscriptions, select Add Products.

  11. When you're finished adding customer information and purchasing the required subscriptions, select Done.

  12. When you're ready to purchase these subscriptions, select Buy.

    Important

    Partners should be aware of certain constraints and limits for the number of subscriptions per customer. More information about these limits can be found in the Microsoft Entra service limits and restrictions documentation.

Offers with unique constraints

Multi-geo capabilities add-on

The multi-geo capabilities add-on has a unique license constraint, different from other New Commerce license-based offers.

To purchase the multi-geo capabilities add-on, the partner must purchase a quantity of Multi-geo licenses equal to or greater than 5% of the base licenses the customer owns (across all prerequisite base offers). For example, Customer A has 400 licenses across all compatible base subscriptions. The multi-geo capabilities add-on purchase the partner makes on their behalf must be at least 20 licenses (5% of 400).

To learn more about multi-geo capabilities and their benefits, visit Multi-Geo Capabilities in Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on

The Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on has a unique maximum license constraint, dependent on how many prerequisite SKU licenses a customer owns.

To purchase the add-on, the partner must buy a quantity of Microsoft 365 Copilot equal to or less than the number of base licenses the customer owns (across all prerequisite base offers). For example, if Customer A has 250 licenses across all compatible base subscriptions, a partner can purchase a maximum of 250 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses for Customer A.

Prerequisite licenses are counted across a customer's subscriptions, even if these subscriptions are split between multiple partners. Additionally, if a partner is purchasing a base offer and the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on at the same time, the licenses of the base offer in the cart is also accounted for in the cumulative sum that determines the maximum add-on license limit.

After you buy a subscription

After you buy a subscription for a customer:

  • You can review or edit the subscription by selecting the subscription name from that customer's Subscriptions page. From there you can select add-on licenses if any are available, change the quantity of licenses, or suspend the subscription.

  • For ISV SaaS (license-based and metered) subscriptions: You receive a link to the ISV publisher's site. This link should help you to complete account setup or the deployment of the customer's subscription.

    Note

    Neither you nor your customer will receive an email with instructions to complete account setup or provisioning for this type of ISV subscription.

  • If your subscription comes with a 30-day free trial, the free trial period is applied automatically. As a partner in the CSP program, you can't waive the free trial period on offers that you purchase for customers.

    After the free trial period ends, the subscription converts to paid status and the subscription term begins. The subscription autorenews according to the same schedule.

Export customer subscription information

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.

  2. Select the customer's Company name.

    The Subscriptions page opens, showing a list of the customer's product subscriptions.

  3. Select Export all subscriptions to silently send the customer subscription data to the default download folder on your computer as a .csv file. Data columns include:

    • Subscription ID
    • [Subscription] Name—the product name for the subscription
    • Quantity—number of purchased licenses
    • Status- auto-renewal status and renewal date if applicable
    • Billing cycle—billing term chosen for the given subscription
    • Promotion—promo ID if applicable, otherwise None
    • Reseller—the ID of the reseller that owns and manages the subscription

Update subscriptions with add-ons (traditional license-based commerce)

In traditional license-based commerce, to purchase an add-on, the customer must first have an active base subscription; you can't purchase add-ons through the catalog. In New Commerce, add-ons can be purchased through the catalog, and the below steps don't apply. See New Commerce add-ons for more info.

To update a traditional license-based commerce subscription with an add-on, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Select the subscription that you want to manage.
  4. Below the Status section is a list of available add-ons for the subscription. Update the number of licenses for each required add-on.
  5. Select Submit.
  • Only direct-bill partners and indirect providers can purchase add-ons through Partner Center.
  • Only eligible add-ons are displayed, based on the base requirements and regional availability.
  • Suspending the base subscription also suspends any associated add-ons.
  • Start dates for add-ons align to the base subscription. Charges are calculated from the charge start date and charge end date with prorated charges in the first invoice. For more information, see Partner Center billing.
  • For more information about pricing and offers, see the Cloud Reseller Offer Matrix on the Partner Center Pricing and offers page.

Increase or decrease licenses in new commerce license-based subscriptions

The number of licenses on a subscription can be increased at any time. Billing adjustments appear on the next invoice and reconciliation file.

The number of licenses on a subscription can be decreased only within the first seven days of when the licenses were added to the subscription (except where otherwise required by law). This rule applies whether the licenses were added at the initial purchase, on renewal, or at midterm.

To increase or decrease the number of licenses (within the first seven days), use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.

  2. Choose a customer from the list.

  3. Select the subscription that you want to update.

  4. On the details page, enter the new total number of licenses that you want in the Quantity section.

    If you try to decrease the license count after seven days, you get an error message.

  5. Select Submit.

Note

In both cases of license reduction, you'll be refunded the full amount minus the prorated amount for the days that you used the subscription. (Proration is calculated daily.)

If more than seven days have elapsed since the subscription order was placed or more licenses were added, the license count can't be decreased until the next cancellation window at renewal.

Note

Partners might experience errors when updating a subscription more than 1,200 times. Partners can resolve this by acquiring a second subscription for the given product SKU if necessary. Partners can align the term of a newly acquired subscription to existing subscriptions if needed. Partners needing further assistance can contact partner support.

View licenses available for reduction

Partners can use the Get a Subscription by ID API to find out how many licenses they can reduce.

To view the number of licenses that can be reduced on a subscription, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Select the subscription that you want to check.
  4. Select View licenses to reduce.
  • If the number of licenses can be reduced, the total quantity listed appears with a breakdown of the number of licenses and the associated timestamp by when the number of licenses can be reduced.
  • If the number of licenses can't be reduced, a message appears that says so.

Upgrade for new commerce license-based subscriptions

For new commerce, upgrade means going from one paid subscription to another paid subscription on a higher tier. (Downgrades aren't supported.) New commerce paid-to-paid upgrades enable a customer to upgrade immediately from the current SKU to a SKU with added services.

You can select the subscription to which you want to upgrade when you're configuring license counts. You can select a new subscription or you can select an existing subscription that's eligible for upgrade.

Upgrades can be of two types: full upgrades and partial upgrades.

Note

Cancellation windows aren't applied to upgrades, so changes can't be made after they're submitted.

Note

You can schedule an upgrade for the end of a term or start an upgrade mid-term.

Starting a midterm upgrade removes any upgrades that might have been scheduled.

You can only start upgrades from active subscriptions.

To upgrade a subscription, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Select the subscription that you want to upgrade.
  4. At the top of the page, select Check for upgrades. A right panel will open indicating where there are upgrade paths available for the subscription.
  5. Review Eligible upgrades and choose an upgrade.
    You can upgrade to a new subscription or select an existing subscription (if available) from the Destination subscription dropdown list. You aren't able to select a destination subscription if the subscription is within cancellation window, term durations don't match, or the term end date is before the current term end date.
  6. Populate term duration, the billing frequency, and the number of licenses that you want to upgrade. The number of licenses that you select determines whether the upgrade is a full upgrade or a partial upgrade.
  7. Select Upgrade. Cancellation windows are not applied to upgrades, so changes cannot be made once submitted. Double-check all your upgrade details before continuing. Then select Yes, upgrade to submit the changes.

Note

Not every new commerce product SKU can be upgraded. Some expected upgrade paths aren't yet supported. The following table has examples of upgrades that you might expect to be supported but aren't.

Upgrades that aren't currently supported

Upgraded-from SKU Upgrade-to SKU
Enterprise Mobility + Security E3 Enterprise Mobility + Security E5
Enterprise Mobility + Security E5 Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 without Audio Conferencing
Universal Print Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E3 - Unattended License, Microsoft 365 E5, or Microsoft 365 E5 without Audio Conferencing
Windows 10/11 Enterprise E3 Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 without Audio Conferencing
Windows 10/11 Enterprise E3 VDA Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 without Audio Conferencing
Windows 10/11 Enterprise E5 Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 without Audio Conferencing
Dynamics 365 Human Resources Self Service Dynamics 365 Team Members
Project Online Essentials Dynamics 365 Team Members
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P1 Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2

Remove duplicated licenses after an upgrade

Duplicate (redundant) licenses can be created when purchasing a higher-level SKU in the following cases:

  • The upgrade is unsupported
  • The online services licenses don't need a prerequisite or a Microsoft base compatible product to purchase the higher SKU

When a customer has redundant licenses after an upgrade, the partner should submit a support ticket requesting that the redundant licenses should be canceled. This support ticket should be requested within the first two billing cycles from when the upgraded license was invoiced.

Two-to-one upgrades

If you have two separate standalone SKUs and want to upgrade them both together to one higher value SKU, use this process:

  1. To identify upgrade options, partners should refer to the offers matrix. For each standalone SKU:
    1. Look up the product.
    2. Find its ProductId/SkuId combination.
    3. View the ProductSkuConversion column to see available Upgrade options.
  2. Upgrade the first subscription (one-to-one) using Partner Center or transition API. This action creates a new upgraded subscription.
  3. Use the transition API to transition the second subscription into the already purchased, upgraded subscription.

Once completed, you'll have gone from two separate SKUs to just one higher value SKU.

Full upgrades

A full upgrade is an in-place upgrade, which means that all licenses or additional licenses are being upgraded.

The subscription ID remains the same during a full upgrade, and licenses are assigned automatically.

You must manually assign licenses if the customer purchased the destination SKU from another partner or channel. A warning appears in Partner Center stating that the licenses need to be manually assigned if that is the case.

During a full upgrade:

  • All licenses or additional licenses are upgraded.
  • The subscription ID stays the same.
  • All licenses or additional licenses are transferred to the new subscription.
  • If the customer is upgrading to an existing subscription, licenses are added only to the existing subscription and keep the term duration and billing frequency.

Partial upgrades

Partial upgrades enable a partner to designate some licenses from one SKU to another.

  • Upgrade functionality in traditional license-based subscriptions only enabled every license to be upgraded.

  • Upgrade functionality in new commerce subscriptions enables a partner to move some licenses at their convenience. That gives the partner more control over upgrades.

During a partial upgrade:

  • An upgrade is defined as partial if the upgrade license count is less than the initial subscription's license count.
  • A new subscription that is created during a partial upgrade has the same term end dates as the subscription that the upgrade originated from (that is, the subscriptions are coterminous and end at the same time).
  • You'll have two subscriptions: an existing one and a new one.

License reassignment

License reassignment is always attempted during full upgrades, even if license transfer without reassignment is passed through the API.

License reassignment must be completed manually during partial upgrades or if there are multiples of the same SKU.

Scheduled changes for managing new commerce license-based subscription renewals

Note

New commerce experiences for license-based services have many new capabilities and are available to all Cloud Solution Provider (CSPs). For more information, see New commerce experience for license-based services.

You can schedule subscription changes for the end of a term instead of immediately.

Examples of changes that can be scheduled include:

  • Subscription upgrades
  • License increases or reductions
  • Changes to billing term
  • Changes to billing frequency
  • Changes to coterminous date

You can only schedule changes if:

  • A subscription is active
  • Autorenew is on

To schedule a new change to occur at renewal, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Select the subscription that you want to manage.
  4. Select Manage Renewal.
  5. Make changes to the subscription and select Okay.
  6. Select Submit.

You can access Manage Renewal to view, update, or remove an existing scheduled change.

Note

By default, trial subscriptions convert to the equivalent paid SKU at the end of the trial period.

For scheduled SKU upgrades, if the license quantity doesn't change, user license reassignment is automatic. Otherwise, license reassignment must be done manually.

Saved scheduled changes are deleted if you make any of the following midterm changes:

  • Cancel a subscription
  • Turn off autorenew
  • Change a quantity
  • Upgrade a SKU
  • Convert a trial

Suspend a subscription

You can suspend a subscription and you can resume a subscription.

If there's nonpayment from a customer, you can suspend a subscription to immediately block the customer's access.

You can suspend and resume a subscription without a cancellation as long as the subscription is reactivated by the end the subscription's term.

A customer with a suspended subscription can't sign in or access files and services until the subscription is resumed, but an admin can access data.

All data related to the subscription is deleted if the subscription isn't reactivated by the end of the subscription's term.

The partner continues to be billed during suspension (unlike in legacy), and customer access to services can be restored when payment resumes.

Resuming a subscription immediately restores a customer's access to a subscription's services as long as the suspension is reversed within the subscription's term.

You can reverse a suspension at Partner Center or using the APIs.

Note

Suspending a new commerce subscription will turn off auto-renew. Partners that remove a suspension should be sure to turn auto-renew back on if desired.

To suspend a subscription at Partner Center, use the following steps:

  1. Go to the customer's subscription page and select the subscription that you want to suspend.
  2. Select Suspend.
  3. In the pop-up dialog, select OK.

Cancel a subscription

You can cancel a subscription if a customer requests it.

Cancel new commerce license-based subscriptions

For new commerce offers, partners can cancel their subscription with a prorated refund within the first seven days of any term, except where otherwise required by law.

After the seven day window ends, cancellation is no longer available. The partner is billed for the full term even if the customer stops paying for or using the subscription (applicable to any billing plan).

When a cancellation is complete:

  • The customer immediately loses access to the service.
  • The service can't be restored.
  • The state for the subscription is unrecoverable.

To cancel a new commerce license-based subscription, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Find the subscription that you want to cancel.
  4. In the Status section, select Cancel Subscription.
  5. Select Submit.

If you encounter a system issue during a transaction and you have documented proof, you can submit a support ticket in Partner Center.

Cancel Marketplace SaaS subscriptions

You can cancel traditional license-based SaaS subscriptions from ISV publishers within the Partner Center commercial marketplace. As long as you cancel within the cancellation period, you'll receive a full refund.

To cancel a Marketplace SaaS subscription, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Find the subscription that you want to cancel.
  4. In the Status column, select Cancel. Then select Submit.
  5. If a dialog appears, fill out any relevant details and select Submit.
  6. To confirm the cancellation, select Yes, cancel.

Note

You can also choose to cancel an Azure Marketplace subscription by using APIs. To do so, see Cancel an Azure Marketplace subscription.

Subscription renewals

Note

The new commerce experiences for license-based services include many new capabilities and are available to all Cloud Solution Provider (CSPs). For more information, see new commerce experiences overview.

By default, active subscriptions are set to automatically renew when the subscription period expires. For subscriptions to commercial marketplace products, or new commerce subscriptions, you can optionally choose not to automatically renew the subscription. For upcoming renewals, partners can create a scheduled change to upgrade the Product/SKU, increase, or decrease the number of licenses, modify the billing term and frequency, or update coterminous dates. For API details, see Manage scheduled changes for new commerce subscriptions - Partner app developer.

To stop an active subscription from automatically renewing, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Select Subscriptions.
    Any license-based subscriptions that you purchased for the customer appear in a list.
  4. On the subscription details page, in the Status section, clear the Auto-renew checkbox.
  5. Select Submit.

Suspending a new commerce subscription turns off autorenew. Partners that remove a suspension should be sure to turn autorenew back on if desired.

Note

If a subscription is set to renew, the renewal is processed the day after the subscription term end date. Renewals start at the end of the term. For example, if the term end date is 2023-03-01T00:00:00Z UTC it is inclusive of the whole day. The renewal will start after the term ends (2023-03-02T00:00:00Z UTC) and can take up to 24 hours. Partners have a seven day window (except where otherwise required by law) to cancel or reduce seats after renewal completes. The seven day window starts precisely at this datetime of renewal completion.

Applying changes to new commerce license-based subscriptions

Some changes to new commerce subscriptions can't be made while the system waits to execute a renewal at the end of the subscription term or a cycle change to apply a billing frequency change in the middle of a term. Each of these events starts at 12:00 AM, the day of the event. Some of the subscription properties might not be updateable until the event (renewal or cycle charge) is completed.

  • Cycle charges: The following properties are read-only and can't be changed until the cycle charge is completed: next charge instruction to change billing frequency.
  • Renewal event: The renewal is queued and executed. Until the renewal, completed partners find the following properties are read-only until renewal is completed: Auto renew, scheduled changes next term instructions, and suspend or reactivate.

Note

Subscriptions can take up to 24 hours to complete their renewal which starts UTC 12:01 AM on the day of the new term. During this window partners can attempt updates to license counts, the subscription's partner of record, the friendly name of the subscription and can also cancel the subscription. If the subscription is still waiting to be processed the partner will get an error response (409: Conflict for API requests). Partners can resubmit the request after waiting for two minutes and the changes should then be accepted.

Manage trials for new commerce license-based subscriptions

Trials for new commerce license-based subscriptions:

  • Come with 25 licenses
  • Have autorenew turned on by default
  • Last for a period of one month (ISO 8601 P1M) After P1M, trials autorenew to the paid equivalent subscription, but autorenewal can be turned off.

On conversion to a new subscription, the term duration defaults to Annual, and the billing cycle defaults to Monthly. You can modify term duration and the billing plan if you decide to convert the trial.

You can convert trials:

  • To an equivalent paid subscription
  • To a higher-tier subscription or an existing subscription
  • At midterm or schedule trial conversion

During a trial, the following actions aren't available:

  • Increasing or reducing quantity
  • Changing the status of the subscription

Note

To convert from a trial to an existing subscription, the existing subscription's end date must occur on the same day as or after the trial's end date.

Promotions don't apply when you're converting from a trial to a paid subscription.

Midterm trial conversion

Trials last for P1M, but you don't have to wait until the end of the trial to convert to a paid subscription. You can convert a trial at any time during the trial.

When you convert at midterm, you can't decrease the number of licenses from the default of 25.

Just like in upgrades, you can convert to a new subscription or choose an existing subscription.

If you select a new subscription, you can choose the term duration and billing frequency, and choose at least 25 licenses to convert with.

If you select an existing subscription, the 25 licenses are added to the existing subscription and keep the existing term duration and billing frequency.

To convert a trial at midterm, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Find the trial subscription that you want to convert.
  4. Select Convert trial to paid subscription in the top banner.
  5. Choose an eligible conversion for your subscription.
  6. Select the quantity, billing frequency, and term duration, if applicable.
  7. Select Submit.

Scheduled trial conversion

If you want to use a trial for its full duration but don't want to convert to the equivalent paid subscription, or if you want to convert with less than the default of 25 licenses, you can choose to schedule the conversion.

To schedule a conversion, autorenew must be on.

To schedule a trial to convert at the end of the P1M, use the following steps:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
  2. Choose a customer from the list.
  3. Find the trial subscription for which you want to schedule a conversion.
  4. Select Manage Renewal.
  5. Make changes to the subscription and select Okay.
  6. Select Submit.

The trial will convert with the scheduled changes after the P1M.

Transfer a new commerce license-based subscription

To transfer a new commerce experiences (NCE) license-based subscription to a new partner, you need to follow the below process. Here are the general steps you would typically follow.

  1. The customer and the current partner (source partner) have conversations and agree to transfer the subscription to another different partner (target partner).
  2. The source partner and target partner have conversations to understand all details about the subscriptions to transfer.
  3. The target partner sends a relationship request to the customer who has subscriptions they want to transfer.
  4. The customer accepts the relationship request.
  5. The target partner creates a transfer request to the current source partner. They include the customer email to receive the notifications and the source partner's Microsoft Id.
  6. The source partner receives an email notification of the transfer request, or transfers accepted by viewing the events in their audit log.
  7. The source partner opens the transfer request and decides which subscriptions to transfer. The source partner then submits the transfer request.
  8. The system creates a new subscription for the customer on the target partners billing account. The system also cancels the old subscription under the source partner's billing account.

View more information about transferring new commerce subscriptions

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