Frequently asked questions

General

What is Volume Licensing Central?

Microsoft Volume Licensing Central is a new tool that will simplify the Volume Licensing (VL) experience end to end and ultimately provide a single pane of glass for VL processing.

Does the workspace support both direct and indirect agreements?

Yes, the workspace supports both, including US Federal Government agreements, Open Value Licensing (OVL), and Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA).

Will the workspace be live or updated every few hours like explore.ms?

The workspace will be updated every few hours like explore.ms.

Can you customize columns on My views?

Yes. You can customize this view by selecting the columns and saving the custom view in the My views section.

In explore.ms, partners can export the details to an Excel sheet. Is this same functionality available in Reporting & Analytics workspace?

Yes, you can export several reports to Excel in the Reporting & Analytics workspace—the same as in explore.ms.

Will the same or advanced capabilities and column selections in explore.ms be provided in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

There will be advanced filter capabilities and column selections provided in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Will partners need to register the partner organization PCN to manage the information of the supporting customer the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

No, partners won’t need to set the partner organization PCN. They can see and manage their owned customer information.

Is the Open Value (OV), Independent Software Vendor (ISV), and SPLA programs in scope for the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

Yes, they are available in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Will the reporting function be provided for Select Plus, Open License and Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA) in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

Select Plus and Open License reports will be available on VLC through Export to excel capability in October 2024. The data will not be available for MPSA in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Will the subscription data and function be available in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

Subscription data is available as part of Agreement overview - License information tab.

How can a new partner user request access to the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

New partner users need to reach out to their partner admin for access. Partner admins can grant new users access to the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Will there be different layers of role access restrictions for company users in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

Yes. There will be two roles for the reporting workspace:

1. Report viewer – has permission to view information in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.
2. Reporting admin – can manage user access for partner reporting roles.
3. Check if you can now access Volume Licensing Central.

Agreement

What’s the status of my agreement? How do I check it?

Currently, partners can view the status of their agreement in the Reporting & Analytics workspace. Go to the Agreement tile > My views – Purchase Order (left menu), and either type in the agreement number in the search bar or select the agreement number link anywhere in the workspace.

Can the channel price sheet (CPS) be downloaded from the CPS tab?

You’ll find CPS information in the CPS tab. There’s currently no functionality available in the Reporting & Analytics workspace to download the CPS. It will be considered as an update requirement in the future.

How do you check all current licenses on an enrollment?

Partners can see the current licenses on the enrollment under the License information tab.

Can we get the tenant data or information that’s associated with the lead agreement in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

No, the linked relation between the lead agreement and its tenants isn’t provided in the Reporting & Analytics workspace. It will be considered as a future enhancement.

Will it be possible to see agreements with "future" status in VL Central portal?

It is now available. If you have an agreement number, you can enter it into the search bar on top right and you will get the result irrespective of the status of the Agreement. This is true for any PO, Invoice, Customer name. You don’t need to go into the specific View to get the data as you can enter it in the search box present on every screen in VLC.

Is it possible to select Future status in agreement view?

You can change the date selection by selecting Custom date and by applying this would allow you to see the Future Option in Agreement status.

Where can I see extended term period details?

Select the Agreement from the My Views dropdown menu and navigate to the agreement details page by clicking on the agreement number. Then, go to the Financial Reporting tab and select the Purchase Order sub-tab. Here, you may see eligible and ineligible label against purchase order line items for the Purchase order type ‘Term Extension Period’. Additionally, if the extended term is valid for the agreement, the Extended Term End Date will be added to the Agreement overview summary and financial reporting summary.

Orders, reservations, reconciliations

What’s the status of my order? How do I check it?

Partners have visibility of the order status in the Reporting & Analytics workspace. Go to the Purchase Order tile or My views – Purchase Order (left menu), and either type in the purchase order (PO) number in the search bar or select the PO number link anywhere in the workspace.

For POs, will the tool show the same PO details we currently see in explore.ms?

The workspace will have the same set of columns that are currently in explore.ms. In explore.ms, the details are under Purchase Order Details, while the Reporting & Analytics workspace has these details under Purchase Order Line Items.

Why is my order on hold?

An order can be on hold for various reasons. Here are some possible scenarios:

1. PO on hold status, pending submission
2. PO needs additional information/clarification/correction
3. Explore data not updated yet when PO was already accepted by Microsoft operations team
4. PO pending Microsoft internal approval for some reason
5. Unable to submit PO due to system issue

Why was my order rejected?

Orders can be rejected for various reasons. Here are some possible scenarios:

1. Partner is unclear about program rules; incorrect offering; incorrect SKU against enrollment offering, and other reasons
2. Submit Software Agreement-only SKUs (OV/Open Value Subscription or OVS) in initial order when there’s no prior agreement tag to the new agreement
3. Incorrect usage date (for renewal order)
4. Incorrect usage of the anniversary box in the Partner Order Entry Tool (POET) for Campus and School Agreement (CASA)/OV/OVS
5. Incorrect order type (Basic Enterprise Commitment; new order)
6. In any other Microsoft internal validation, the order has been rejected as invalid order

What’s my true-up compliance status? How do you check this?

Partners can view their true-up status in the Reporting & Analytics workspace under the Agreement tile or My views (left menu). Select the Agreements dropdown arrow, then select True-up compliance status to view the progress status. The true-up compliance status is also highlighted under each agreement on the right side below the summary.

How do you check the status of OLS reservations and reconciliations?

Partners have visibility of license reservations in the Reporting & Analytics workspace under the Reservations tile. They can also go to My views (left menu), select the Agreements dropdown arrow, and then select Reservations to view the reconciliation status. Reservations are also available under each agreement in the Financial reporting tab.

Where can I view Purchase Order issues in VL Central Reporting & Analytics?

In My views Purchase order - you can click on each Purchase Order Status. A PO Issues pane is displayed that tells the details for each Purchase Order status - including EDI Error message and issue description for respective Purchase Orders.

Will all PO references be either "System PO" or "Customer PO"?

Agreement Financial reporting PO and Summary tabs are updated to Show direct PO instead of System PO number.

Where can I find Line-item status for Purchase Order Line Items in VL central?

Navigate to My Views and select Purchase Order Line Item from the Agreements’ dropdown. There, you can find the column named as Line Item Status, which displays the status of the purchase order line items.

Is there any capability to view data beyond the one-year time limit in My Views-Purchase Order Line Items?

Yes, you can view data beyond one year in My Views. Select Purchase Order Line Items from the Agreements dropdown. To display data for periods longer than one year, use the ‘anytime’ filter option available under the Purchase order date filter. The ‘anytime’ option works with either the Agreement number or Primary Customer Name. You may enter desired Agreement numbers or Primary Customer Name and select apply to get relevant results.

Price list

Will it be possible to download the price list in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

Yes, the download functionality will be available in Reporting & Analytics. Partners can download the price list as an Excel file.

How do you find available SKUs?

Partners can select the Reporting & Analytics workspace, then select the price list on the right side of the page and go to the Products tab at the top to view available SKUs. The fixed price is also shown under Special pricings in My views.

Will it be possible to save the customized view of the price list in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

Yes, it’s possible to save the customized view for the price lists. Select 'Save view' and you will see it in the list of views saved.

Where can I find Product details in VL Central?

Navigate to the VL Central home page and select the ‘Reporting & Analytics’ workspace. From the left menu bar, choose Price Lists. Clicking on Price Lists will redirect you to the price list view. To view product details, select the product details tab at the top.

What is the maximum number of rows allowed for the Pricelist download report?

The limit has been increased from 200,000 to 600,000, beyond this threshold, the report will be truncated, and notifications will be received both in the notification area and within the download panel.

Invoice and billing

Is it possible to download a copy of the invoice in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

Yes, partners can request a copy of the invoice within an agreement under the Financial Reporting–Invoices tab or by going to My views–Invoices directly in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Is it possible to know the billing schedule under an agreement?

Yes, it will be provided under each agreement in the Financial reporting section, under the Billing schedule tab.

Is it possible to download multiple invoices?

Yes, you can by selecting multiple invoices.

Where can I find invoice details in VL Central?

You can find invoice details in My Views - invoice line items.

Can I view Azure Overages in the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

The Invoice PDF should be the source to view Azure Overage orders. Invoice PDFs are available to download in the R&A workspace.

Is it possible to retrieve invoice details based on the Agreement Start Date?

Choose Invoice Line Items from the My Views Agreements’ dropdown. You’ll find a filter option for the Agreement start date, which helps users retrieve details based on the start date. Users can select either pre-defined date range for the agreement start date or specify a custom date range.

Where can I find Invoice Email Audit Trail information?

Invoice Email Audit Trail information is now available as the email status column under My Views Invoices. This column provides information on the delivery status of invoice emails to recipients by opening in the right pane.

Anytime filter

Can the anytime option allow both auto date filter and custom date filter?

Yes, now users can use both filters which improve search results.

Can we have an extended history for agreements in VL Reporting and Analytics?

On applying either Agreement number or Primary Customer name filters in my views, the date value changes to 'Anytime' by default, allowing for unrestricted access to all data for the selected Agreement or Customer. Users can also directly edit the default date filter to select Custom > ‘Anytime’ option and provide Agreement number or Primary Customer name to get all results unrestricted by time.

Schedule report

Can we have the ability to schedule reports for all our customers at once?

Scheduled reports now live in VL Central R&A. Users can now schedule reports to download at a daily, weekly or monthly recurrence by specifying the filters and columns needed for any My views report. Users will receive an email when scheduled download report is ready and can visit VL Central to download the report.

I want to schedule reports for more than 20 columns, how can I do this?

Navigate to My Views, Saved views and Price Lists select any entity from the dropdown menu, and choose more than 20 columns from the Show/Hide columns window. Then, click on the ‘Schedule’ button at the bottom. This will open the Schedule download window. Specify the report name and recurrence details to schedule the report.

Messages

How can I find out messages which are sent to customers in past?

To see messages, choose the Messages entity from the My Views Agreements’ dropdown. In the Message entity view, you can see the details of messages and email communications sent to customers from Microsoft systems for VL applications. Users can view and resend these messages.

Copy Function

How do I copy data from VL Central?

You can select and copy any text by dragging your cursor over it and use the usual copy and paste. Additionally, you can go to My Views, select any entities from the dropdown menu, highlight any row from the grid view to activate the copy button, and then click the “Copy” button to copy the text. This feature is available for all reports including saved views, Price Lists and Agreement summary tabs (License Information & Financial Reporting) as well.

Documents & templates

Where can I access forms, agreement templates and all other documents available in Explore MS on VL Central?

You can access all documents available in Explore.ms through the Documents & Templates workspace in VL Central. You can either navigate to the VL Central home page and find a tile for Documents & Templates under ‘Go to’ or click on the Help icon present on top right where you’ll find a Quick Links option for Documents & Templates.

How will I get access to Documents & Templates under VL Central?

If you are a current user of VL Central Reporting & Analytics workspace with Report viewer role, you will automatically have access to Documents & Templates in VL Central, no exclusive access is needed.

My Views

Where can I view VL Key’s information in VL Central Reporting & Analytics?

Select Volume Licensing keys from the My Views dropdown menu. Next, navigate to the View Keys column by clicking on any key icon. A pane will appear on the right side displaying the key information. Additionally, there is an export button available within this pane.

Where can I find Fulfillment details w.r.t Online Consumptions in VL Central Reporting & Analytics?

Select Online Consumptions from My Views dropdown menu, where users can locate the fulfilment details pertaining to Online Consumption.

Where can I find Fulfillment details w.r.t Online Subscriptions in VL Central Reporting & Analytics?

Select Online Subscriptions from My Views dropdown menu, where users can locate the fulfilment details pertaining to Online Subscription.

Where can I view Benefits' information in VL Central Reporting & Analytics?

Select Benefits from My Views dropdown menu, where users can locate benefit details of all benefits.

Other

Will APIs be provided for the Reporting & Analytics workspace?

No, APIs aren’t currently available.

Will the Reporting & Analytics workspace work in Chrome and Safari?

Yes, you can access and use Reporting & Analytics in any browser.

Microsoft Volume Licensing Central is a new tool that will simplify the Volume Licensing (VL) experience end to end and ultimately provide a single pane of glass for VL processing.

Yes, the workspace supports both, including US Federal Government agreements, Open Value Licensing (OVL), and Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA).

The workspace will be updated every few hours like explore.ms.

Yes. You can customize this view by selecting the columns and saving the custom view in the My views section.

Yes, you can export several reports to Excel in the Reporting & Analytics workspace—the same as in explore.ms.

There will be advanced filter capabilities and column selections provided in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

No, partners won’t need to set the partner organization PCN. They can see and manage their owned customer information.

Yes, they are available in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Select Plus and Open License reports will be available on VLC through Export to excel capability in October 2024. The data will not be available for MPSA in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Subscription data is available as part of Agreement overview - License information tab.

New partner users need to reach out to their partner admin for access. Partner admins can grant new users access to the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Yes. There will be two roles for the reporting workspace:

1. Report viewer – has permission to view information in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.
2. Reporting admin – can manage user access for partner reporting roles.
3. Check if you can now access Volume Licensing Central.

Currently, partners can view the status of their agreement in the Reporting & Analytics workspace. Go to the Agreement tile > My views – Purchase Order (left menu), and either type in the agreement number in the search bar or select the agreement number link anywhere in the workspace.

You’ll find CPS information in the CPS tab. There’s currently no functionality available in the Reporting & Analytics workspace to download the CPS. It will be considered as an update requirement in the future.

Partners can see the current licenses on the enrollment under the License information tab.

No, the linked relation between the lead agreement and its tenants isn’t provided in the Reporting & Analytics workspace. It will be considered as a future enhancement.

It is now available. If you have an agreement number, you can enter it into the search bar on top right and you will get the result irrespective of the status of the Agreement. This is true for any PO, Invoice, Customer name. You don’t need to go into the specific View to get the data as you can enter it in the search box present on every screen in VLC.

You can change the date selection by selecting Custom date and by applying this would allow you to see the Future Option in Agreement status.

Select the Agreement from the My Views dropdown menu and navigate to the agreement details page by clicking on the agreement number. Then, go to the Financial Reporting tab and select the Purchase Order sub-tab. Here, you may see eligible and ineligible label against purchase order line items for the Purchase order type ‘Term Extension Period’. Additionally, if the extended term is valid for the agreement, the Extended Term End Date will be added to the Agreement overview summary and financial reporting summary.

Partners have visibility of the order status in the Reporting & Analytics workspace. Go to the Purchase Order tile or My views – Purchase Order (left menu), and either type in the purchase order (PO) number in the search bar or select the PO number link anywhere in the workspace.

The workspace will have the same set of columns that are currently in explore.ms. In explore.ms, the details are under Purchase Order Details, while the Reporting & Analytics workspace has these details under Purchase Order Line Items.

An order can be on hold for various reasons. Here are some possible scenarios:

1. PO on hold status, pending submission
2. PO needs additional information/clarification/correction
3. Explore data not updated yet when PO was already accepted by Microsoft operations team
4. PO pending Microsoft internal approval for some reason
5. Unable to submit PO due to system issue

Orders can be rejected for various reasons. Here are some possible scenarios:

1. Partner is unclear about program rules; incorrect offering; incorrect SKU against enrollment offering, and other reasons
2. Submit Software Agreement-only SKUs (OV/Open Value Subscription or OVS) in initial order when there’s no prior agreement tag to the new agreement
3. Incorrect usage date (for renewal order)
4. Incorrect usage of the anniversary box in the Partner Order Entry Tool (POET) for Campus and School Agreement (CASA)/OV/OVS
5. Incorrect order type (Basic Enterprise Commitment; new order)
6. In any other Microsoft internal validation, the order has been rejected as invalid order

Partners can view their true-up status in the Reporting & Analytics workspace under the Agreement tile or My views (left menu). Select the Agreements dropdown arrow, then select True-up compliance status to view the progress status. The true-up compliance status is also highlighted under each agreement on the right side below the summary.

Partners have visibility of license reservations in the Reporting & Analytics workspace under the Reservations tile. They can also go to My views (left menu), select the Agreements dropdown arrow, and then select Reservations to view the reconciliation status. Reservations are also available under each agreement in the Financial reporting tab.

In My views Purchase order - you can click on each Purchase Order Status. A PO Issues pane is displayed that tells the details for each Purchase Order status - including EDI Error message and issue description for respective Purchase Orders.

Agreement Financial reporting PO and Summary tabs are updated to Show direct PO instead of System PO number.

Navigate to My Views and select Purchase Order Line Item from the Agreements’ dropdown. There, you can find the column named as Line Item Status, which displays the status of the purchase order line items.

Yes, you can view data beyond one year in My Views. Select Purchase Order Line Items from the Agreements dropdown. To display data for periods longer than one year, use the ‘anytime’ filter option available under the Purchase order date filter. The ‘anytime’ option works with either the Agreement number or Primary Customer Name. You may enter desired Agreement numbers or Primary Customer Name and select apply to get relevant results.

Yes, the download functionality will be available in Reporting & Analytics. Partners can download the price list as an Excel file.

Partners can select the Reporting & Analytics workspace, then select the price list on the right side of the page and go to the Products tab at the top to view available SKUs. The fixed price is also shown under Special pricings in My views.

Yes, it’s possible to save the customized view for the price lists. Select 'Save view' and you will see it in the list of views saved.

Navigate to the VL Central home page and select the ‘Reporting & Analytics’ workspace. From the left menu bar, choose Price Lists. Clicking on Price Lists will redirect you to the price list view. To view product details, select the product details tab at the top.

The limit has been increased from 200,000 to 600,000, beyond this threshold, the report will be truncated, and notifications will be received both in the notification area and within the download panel.

Yes, partners can request a copy of the invoice within an agreement under the Financial Reporting–Invoices tab or by going to My views–Invoices directly in the Reporting & Analytics workspace.

Yes, it will be provided under each agreement in the Financial reporting section, under the Billing schedule tab.

Yes, you can by selecting multiple invoices.

You can find invoice details in My Views - invoice line items.

The Invoice PDF should be the source to view Azure Overage orders. Invoice PDFs are available to download in the R&A workspace.

Choose Invoice Line Items from the My Views Agreements’ dropdown. You’ll find a filter option for the Agreement start date, which helps users retrieve details based on the start date. Users can select either pre-defined date range for the agreement start date or specify a custom date range.

Invoice Email Audit Trail information is now available as the email status column under My Views Invoices. This column provides information on the delivery status of invoice emails to recipients by opening in the right pane.

Yes, now users can use both filters which improve search results.

On applying either Agreement number or Primary Customer name filters in my views, the date value changes to 'Anytime' by default, allowing for unrestricted access to all data for the selected Agreement or Customer. Users can also directly edit the default date filter to select Custom > ‘Anytime’ option and provide Agreement number or Primary Customer name to get all results unrestricted by time.

Scheduled reports now live in VL Central R&A. Users can now schedule reports to download at a daily, weekly or monthly recurrence by specifying the filters and columns needed for any My views report. Users will receive an email when scheduled download report is ready and can visit VL Central to download the report.

Navigate to My Views, Saved views and Price Lists select any entity from the dropdown menu, and choose more than 20 columns from the Show/Hide columns window. Then, click on the ‘Schedule’ button at the bottom. This will open the Schedule download window. Specify the report name and recurrence details to schedule the report.

To see messages, choose the Messages entity from the My Views Agreements’ dropdown. In the Message entity view, you can see the details of messages and email communications sent to customers from Microsoft systems for VL applications. Users can view and resend these messages.

You can select and copy any text by dragging your cursor over it and use the usual copy and paste. Additionally, you can go to My Views, select any entities from the dropdown menu, highlight any row from the grid view to activate the copy button, and then click the “Copy” button to copy the text. This feature is available for all reports including saved views, Price Lists and Agreement summary tabs (License Information & Financial Reporting) as well.

You can access all documents available in Explore.ms through the Documents & Templates workspace in VL Central. You can either navigate to the VL Central home page and find a tile for Documents & Templates under ‘Go to’ or click on the Help icon present on top right where you’ll find a Quick Links option for Documents & Templates.

If you are a current user of VL Central Reporting & Analytics workspace with Report viewer role, you will automatically have access to Documents & Templates in VL Central, no exclusive access is needed.

Select Volume Licensing keys from the My Views dropdown menu. Next, navigate to the View Keys column by clicking on any key icon. A pane will appear on the right side displaying the key information. Additionally, there is an export button available within this pane.

Select Online Consumptions from My Views dropdown menu, where users can locate the fulfilment details pertaining to Online Consumption.

Select Online Subscriptions from My Views dropdown menu, where users can locate the fulfilment details pertaining to Online Subscription.

Select Benefits from My Views dropdown menu, where users can locate benefit details of all benefits.

No, APIs aren’t currently available.

Yes, you can access and use Reporting & Analytics in any browser.