Microsoft volume licensing invoices

Important

This article applies only to volume licensing (VL) invoices for non-Azure products bought under a direct VL agreement type, except for Microsoft Products & Services Agreements (MPSA), Federal Government, Special agreements, and Select Plus agreements.

The invoice for your VL subscription provides a summary of charges and instructions for how to pay your invoice. You can view the invoice online in the Microsoft 365 admin center. You can also download a copy of your invoice in the Portable Document Format (PDF) to send via email.

Before you begin

To access VL invoices in the admin center, you must satisfy both of the following conditions:

1. You must be the Bill To contact for the corresponding contracts.
2. You must have signed in to the admin center and become an Invoice Reader.

View or download your invoice

1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center go to the Billing > Your products page, then select the Volume licensing tab.
2. In the Contracts section, select View contracts.
3. Find the contract you want to see invoices for, select the three dots (More actions button), then select View Invoices.
4. On the Invoices page, you see the list of invoices generated for that contract. You can download the invoice PDF and invoice recon file. For information about the invoice recon file, see Overview of the invoice recon file later in this article.

Overview of the invoice PDF

Your invoice is a PDF that contains at least two pages:

• Page one is the billing Summary, and contains general information about the invoice, amount due, and payment instructions, if applicable. It also contains address information for your organization and high-level details about your order.
• Page two and beyond lists the individual products in your order. The last page contains the Net Amount, Sales Tax, and Total, which correspond with the amounts shown in the Summary section on page one.

Understanding your invoice

At the top of page one of your invoice, is the Summary section.

The following table explains the terms in the Summary section of your invoice.

Term	Description
Invoice Number	A unique number generated by Microsoft that identifies your spending for the corresponding billing period.
Invoice Date	The date Microsoft generated the invoice.
PO Number	The purchase order (PO) number that you specify. The PO number can't be updated on an invoice that is already paid.
PO Date	Generally, the date when the order was entered into Microsoft systems.
Billing Period	The date range covered by the invoice.
Due Date	The date when the invoice payment is due to Microsoft.
Payment Terms	Explains the arrangement for when the invoice payment is due.
Total Amount Due	The total amount of all charges for the specified billing period.

Addresses

The addresses shown on your invoice might be different, depending on the size and configuration of your organization.

The following table explains the terms for the addresses section of your invoice.

Term	Description
Sold To	The name and address of the organization that bought the subscription.
Bill To	The address of your billing department.
Ship To	Contains details of the location where the products are shipped or used for tax exemption, if applicable.
End Customer	The address where the service is used.

Billing Summary

The Billing Summary section gives the breakdown of the total amount due.

Total=Charges-Commitment Usage (if applicable)+Sales Tax

Payment Instructions

The PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS section contains the account information you need to send your wire transfer payment. This account information varies by country/region.

Billing details by product

Page two lists billing details by product, including unit price, quantity, commitment usage (if applicable), net charge, tax rate, tax amount, and total corresponding to each usage charge.

Overview of the invoice recon file

The invoice recon file is a CSV file that includes the same information as the Invoice in a format that facilitates quicker reconciliation. The following table explains the line-item details in the invoice recon file.

Line item	Definition
Invoice Number	A unique number generated by Microsoft that identifies your spending for the corresponding billing period.
Invoice Date	The date Microsoft created the invoice.
Document Type	Determines whether it's an invoice or credit note.
Agreement Number	The contract number.
Bill To	Customer Number, Bill To Customer Name, and Bill To Customer Country are details of the billing department.
Sold To	Customer Number, Sold To Customer Name and Sold To Customer Country are details of the organization that bought the subscription.
Ship To	Customer Number, Ship To Customer Name, and Ship To Customer Country are details of the location to which the products are shipped or used for tax exemption, if applicable.
End Customer Name and End Customer Country	Details of the final consumer where the service is used.
Purchase Order Number	The purchase order (PO) number that you specify.
Billing Currency	Shows the currency chosen by the end customer in terms of payment.
Transaction Type	Reflects whether it's a debit invoice or a credit memo.
Line Item Number	The line ID for internal reference.
Usage Country	The location where the product is used.
Delivery	Tells how the invoice is delivered.
MS Part Number	A reference number for the product.
Item Name	The description of the purchased product.
Product Family	The logical categorization of products.
License Type	Reflects the terms of buying the product.
Price Level	The price categorization of product.
Billing Option	How frequently the customer is billed. The frequency options are upfront, monthly, every three months, every six months, or yearly.
Taxable	Indicates whether the product is taxable.
Pool	The classification of the product into a system, server, or application.
Service Period Start Date, Service Period End Date	Indicates the eligible service period.
Reason Code	A code used to indicate a credit or return of a product.
Description	The explanation of the reason code.
Quantity	The number of units bought or used.
Unit Price	The price per unit product.
Extended Amount	The quantity multiplied by the unit price.
Commitment Usage	The amount of monetary commitment that was used.
Net Amount	The extended amount minus the commitment usage.
Tax Rate	The tax rate applicable to the product based on the country/region of billing.
Tax Amount	The net amount multiplied by tax rate.
Total	The sum of the net amount and tax amount.
Is Third Party	Indicates whether the product or service is a third-party product.

Invoice FAQ

In this section:

What type of invoices can I see?
Who receives volume licensing invoices by email?
What is the difference between invoice PDF and invoice recon file?
Why can't I see volume licensing invoices in the Microsoft 365 admin center?
How do I request permission to view volume licensing invoices?
How often and when am I billed?
Why is my total due different from last billing period?
What is the tax rate applied to my invoice?

What type of invoices can I see?

You can see two types of invoice documents issued by Microsoft: debit invoices and credit memos.

The admin center doesn't display invoices for volume licenses purchased via Microsoft License Solution Partners or for orders relating to Microsoft Product and Services Agreement (MPSA), Federal Government, Special Agreements, and Select Plus agreement types.

Who receives volume licensing invoices by email?

The Bill To contact or participant named on the licensing contract receives invoices by email from microsoft-noreply@microsoft.com.

You can confirm who the Bill to contact is by going to Contracts > View contract details > Contacts.

Be sure to add microsoft-noreply@microsoft.com to your safe senders list or modify any existing email rules to avoid emails landing in your junk folder.

What is the difference between invoice PDF and invoice recon file?

The invoice PDF is a tax compliant document that provides a detailed bill for the selected billing period.

The invoice recon file provides line-item level details for better reconciliation and analysis for the selected billing period.

Note

Currently there's no functionality to send the invoice recon file by mail.

Why can't I see volume licensing invoices in the Microsoft 365 admin center?

There are several reasons that you might not see an invoice:

• The invoice isn't ready yet. Go to View Order Details to check the billing period.
• You don't have the correct Invoice Reader role for the account you signed in with.
• You only have access to invoices for licensing IDs / contracts for which you're the Bill To contact.
• The Invoice created date must be November 18, 2022, or later.
• The invoice you're looking for relates to licenses purchased via a License Solution Partner, not to purchases made directly from Microsoft. You won't see invoices for parent agreements. Purchase orders and invoices are issued at License ID level under the parent program agreement.

How do I request permission to view volume licensing invoices?

The Invoice Reader VL role is automatically assigned in the admin center to the Bill To Contact named in the agreement contract submitted by your Microsoft partner or seller at the time of contract creation.

The Invoice Reader role can't be assigned or removed by another VL Administrator. To change the contact Bill To requires your Microsoft partner or seller to complete a Change of Contact Information Request to update the legal participants, or contacts. Contact your Microsoft partner or seller for more information.

How often and when am I billed?

Depending on the billing frequency you choose when you buy your subscription, you receive an invoice either upfront, monthly, every three months, every six months, or yearly. The amount of time since the last invoice date is the Billing Period and is on page one of the invoice. This time represents the date range during which charges accrue for the current invoice. If you made a change to your subscription outside of this date range, like adding or removing licenses, the associated charges appear on the invoice for the next billing period.

Why is my total due different from last billing period?

If the amount billed is different than expected, that can happen for a few reasons:

• You added or removed licenses from your subscription. Licenses changed mid-term are shown on the next invoice. You might see a credit and rebill for the previous service period to account for this change. For details about what this looks like in your invoice, see page two of the invoice and the recon file.
• You opted for a ramped pricing model.
• Your subscription renewed for a new term and the license price changed.

What is the tax rate applied to my invoice?

The tax rate applied to the invoice depends on the country/region of billing. You can check the invoice recon file for the tax rate applied to each item.

For more information, contact your Microsoft partner or seller.

Contact volume licensing support

Important

Microsoft Volume Licensing Support teams don't make changes to volume licensing orders or invoices.

For help finding VL invoices, Bill to Contacts and Invoice Readers, submit a case in the admin center > Help & Support. If you can't access the admin center, see Contact volume licensing support.

Customers should contact their Microsoft partner or seller for questions relating to the following issues:

• The accuracy of invoice or pricing applied to products
• The billing frequency or billing coverage periods
• The application of tax rates on invoices
• Changing the legal participant Bill to Contact on a License ID
• Submitting or canceling a new order or a renewal order

Tip

To identify the partner or seller for a licensing ID, go to the Billing > Your Products page, select the Volume Licensing tab, select Contracts, then select View contract details.