Manage billing frequency

  • Article

Appropriate roles: Admin agent | Billing admin | Global admin

You can change how often license-based subscriptions are billed, from annual billing to monthly, or from monthly billing to annual.

To learn about changing billing frequency using application programming interfaces (APIs), see Change the billing cycle for a customer subscription.

Prerequisites

To change the billing frequency of a subscription, you must be a partner in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, and every subscription in an order must be:

  • Active
  • A paid subscription
  • On the current price list
  • On the same billing cycle
  • Part of license-based offer
  • Part of an active promotion (if part of a promotion)

What happens when you change the billing frequency

When you change the billing frequency of a subscription:

  • Promotional pricing or discounts are removed.
  • The term of the subscription is reset to 12 months.
  • The price is reset to the price on the current price list.
  • The billing frequency of every subscription in the order is changed.
  • The billing frequency of any add-ons associated with the subscription is changed.
  • A pro-rata credit and a new monthly or annual charge appear on the next invoice and reconciliation file.

Note that billing frequency is changed at the order level. When you change the billing frequency of a subscription in an order, the revised billing frequency is applied to all the subscriptions within that order.

Other considerations

The following considerations also apply to billing frequency changes:

  • You can change billing frequency as often as you like.
  • You can change billing frequency at any time during a subscription.
  • The subscription GUID doesn't change when you change the billing frequency of the subscription.
  • There's no charge for changing billing frequency. However, any promotional pricing or discounts are removed, and the subscription is billed at the price on the current price list after you make the change.

Switch billing plans

The instructions are different in the legacy and new commerce experiences:

Change only billing frequency (scheduled change) - new commerce experience

Find out what changes can be made in the middle of your term for each term duration and billing frequency combination (also referred to as billing plan) in the new commerce experience.

You can change just the billing frequency at Partner Center if the subscription qualifies. The change isn't immediate: it takes effect in the next billing cycle. This doesn't reset the billing term.

Note

Partner Center doesn't support switching to an "upfront" billing plan at midterm, which is only supported at the time of purchase. ("Upfront" billing is when the billing term is the same as the billing plan (Examples: annual term and annual billing plan or monthly term and monthly billing plan).)

Eligible changes

Term duration Billing frequency Billing frequency changes accepted
Triennial Monthly Yes (Monthly to Annual)
Triennial Triennial (Upfront) None
Triennial Annual Yes (Annual to Monthly)
Annual Annual (Upfront) None
Annual Monthly None
Monthly Monthly (Upfront) None

To change billing frequency, use the following steps:

  1. Go to the customer's subscription page and select the subscription that you want to change.
  2. Select Manage billing frequency.
  3. A side panel displays the current billing frequency and a dropdown list that has the options for changing the frequency.
  4. Select a new billing frequency.

Change billing frequency along with billing term and other fields (immediate change) - new commerce experience

You can move to a higher term mid-term, but changing to a lower term isn't accepted. Even when nearing the renewal date, it's not possible to alter the subscription term from Annual (P1Y) to Monthly (P1M). Let's consider a customer who has a 12-month contract running from January 1, 2023, to January 1, 2024. If an attempt is made to switch this subscription to P1M on December 20, 2023, this change won't be allowed. This restriction applies even if the end date for the P1M subscription is outside of the existing subscription end date, such as January 1, 2024.

If you change your term, you can also update the billing frequency.

Note

In some cases the Triennial term might not be supported for a particular product and SKU, and won't show as an available term within the dropdown.

Eligible changes

Term duration Billing frequency Term duration changes accepted Billing frequency changes accepted
Triennial Monthly None None
Triennial Triennial (Upfront) None None
Triennial Annual None None
Annual Annual (Upfront) Yes (Annual to Triennial) Yes (Triennial term with Monthly, Triennial, or Annual billing plan)
Annual Monthly Yes (Annual to Triennial) Yes (Triennial term with Monthly, Triennial, or Annual billing plan)
Monthly Monthly (Upfront) Yes (Monthly to Annual, or Monthly to Triennial) Yes (Annual term with Monthly or Annual billing plan), or (Triennial term with Monthly, Triennial, or Annual billing plan)

To change billing term and billing frequency:

  1. Go to the customer's subscription page and select the subscription that you want to change.
  2. Change the term duration by selecting an option in the dropdown list.
  3. In the next dropdown list that opens, select a different billing frequency.
  4. Select Submit.

Note

If you change the term or billing plan of a subscription with a promotion, you might lose your promotion if the new billing plan or term aren't eligible for that promotion. If the updated subscription is eligible for a different promotion, it will automatically apply.

Change billing frequency (legacy experience)

Billing frequency is changed at the order level. After billing frequency is changed, the revised billing cycle is applied to all the subscriptions within that order.

Use the following steps to change the billing frequency of an online service for a customer:

  1. Sign in to the Partner Center and select Customers.

  2. Select the customer whose subscription billing frequency you want to change.

  3. On the customer's page, select the subscription that you want to change. Notice the renewal date in the following example:

  1. On the Subscriptions page, you can see the current billing frequency. Scroll down, and under Billing frequency, select Monthly or Annual.
  1. A confirmation window appears with important information about changing billing frequency, and a list of the subscriptions about to be changed. Select OK to make the change.
  1. The new renewal date is displayed with the user's subscription information. You can see the changed billing frequency in the subscription details.

Next steps

For step-by-step instructions for how to change billing frequency, see Billing frequency changes.