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Set up third-party billing for Microsoft 365 Backup Storage

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Developers can create an application to manage Microsoft 365 Backup Storage in their customer's tenants. However, a Billing Policy must be created that associates your Microsoft 365 Backup Storage application to pay-as-you-go billing that has been configured in your tenant.

To create a Billing Policy, you need to perform the following steps:

  1. Set up pay-as-you-go billing.

  2. Create a Billing Policy for your application.

Note

An application can only be associated to one and only one Billing Policy. However, a Billing Policy can have more than one application associated to it.

Note

Creating a Billing Policy requires that your tenant has at least one user license that entitles you to SharePoint or OneDrive.

Step 1: Set up pay-as-you-go billing

Warning

This step needs to be performed in the same tenant that your Microsoft 365 Backup Storage application was created and registered in. That is, this should be performed in your tenant (and not your customer's tenants).

Microsoft 365 Backup is a pay-as-you-go offering that charges based on consumption, unlike traditional seat-based licenses. To set up pay-as-you-go for Microsoft 365 Backup, you need to have this information:

  • Valid Azure subscription. An Azure subscription provides a logical container for your resources. Each Azure resource is associated with only one subscription. Creating a subscription is the first step in adopting Azure. To learn more about Azure, see Azure fundamental concepts.

  • Resource group. A resource group provides a logical grouping of resources within an Azure subscription.

  • Region. The region in which you want to register the service.

  • Owner or contributor. Name of an owner or contributor role on the Azure subscription.

Once you have the information on this list, you're ready to go to Step 2: Create a Billing Policy for your application.

If you don't have an Azure subscription or resource group, follow these steps.

Create a new Azure subscription with the same organization and Microsoft Entra tenant as your Microsoft 365 subscription:

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal with your Microsoft 365 admin, Microsoft Entra DC admin, or Global Administrator account.

    Important

    Microsoft recommends that you use roles with the fewest permissions. This helps improve security for your organization. Global Administrator is a highly privileged role that should be limited to emergency scenarios when you can't use an existing role.

  2. In the left navigation, select Subscriptions, and then select Add.

  3. On the Add subscription page, select an offer and complete the payment information and agreement.

To create a new Azure resource group, you can follow steps in Manage Azure resource groups by using the Azure portal to create a resource group.

Important

Any subsequent changes made to the pay-as-you-go billing can take up to 24 hours to become effective.

Step 2: Create a Billing Policy for your application

Warning

This step needs to be performed in the same tenant that your Microsoft 365 Backup Storage application was created and registered in. That is, this should be performed in your tenant (and not your customer's tenants).

To create a Billing Policy for your application, you need to perform the following steps:

Important

Download the latest SharePoint Online Management Shell. If you installed a previous version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell, go to Add or remove programs and uninstall "SharePoint Online Management Shell". You might also need to uninstall all previous versions by running Uninstall-Module Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell -Force -AllVersions. Make sure you review the System Requirements and Install Instructions.

  1. Connect to SharePoint as at least a SharePoint Administrator in Microsoft 365. To learn how, see Getting started with SharePoint Online Management Shell.

    Example:

    Connect-SPOService -Url "https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com"

  2. Run the following command to create the Billing Policy for your application:

Note

To create a Billing Policy for your application, you must be an owner or contribution role on the Azure subscription from Step 1.

New-SPOAppBillingPolicy -ApplicationId <ApplicationId> -UsageCharges AppOwnerIsCharged -AzureSubscriptionId <AzureSubscriptionId> -ResourceGroup <ResourceGroup> -AzureRegion <AzureRegion>

Where:

  • "ApplicationId" is the Application Id of your Microsoft 365 Backup Storage application.
  • AzureSubscriptionId is the Azure Subscription Id from Step 1.
  • ResourceGroup is the Resource Group from Step 1.
  • AzureRegion is the Azure Region from Step 1.

Note

Microsoft 365 Backup Storage only supports AppOwnerIsCharged UsageCharges.