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Understand your Microsoft business billing account

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When you sign up to try or buy Microsoft business products, a billing account is automatically created for you. You use your billing account to manage your account settings, invoices, payment methods, and purchases from us.

You might have access to multiple billing accounts. For example, you can have one billing account when you buy directly from Microsoft, and another when you have access to your organization’s billing account.

Before you begin

What are the types of billing accounts?

The Billing accounts page in the Microsoft 365 admin center provides a view of your business accounts with Microsoft. The following types of billing accounts are supported:

  • Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA): This billing account is created when your organization works with a Microsoft representative, an authorized partner, or buys products and services independently. For MCA billing accounts, you have a corresponding billing profile that contains your subscriptions.
  • Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement (MOSA): This billing account was created when you signed up for a Microsoft 365 subscription directly. You might have a MOSA billing account if your account hasn’t yet moved to the Microsoft Customer Agreement. For MOSA billing accounts, you receive an invoice for each order, on the account anniversary.

View my billing accounts

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
  2. Select the Navigation menu, then select Billing > Billing accounts.
  3. The Billing accounts page lists the billing accounts associated with your organization.
  4. The Billing account type column indicates what type of agreement you signed with Microsoft for each billing account. Select a billing account name to view its details page.

Select a default billing account

If you have more than one billing account, you can use the billing account selector to set a default billing account. When you set a default billing account, we use that account as the first choice for all your billing activities. You can change your default billing account at any time.

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
  2. Select the Navigation menu, then select Billing > Bills & payments.
  3. On the Invoices tab, select Change billing account.
  4. Select a billing account from the list, then select Set as default.

You can also change your default billing account from the Your products page.

  1. In the admin center, select the Navigation menu, then select Billing > Your products.
  2. Select Change billing account.
  3. Select a billing account from the list, then select Set as default.

Understand the billing account details page

The top of the billing account details page contains your account profile and shows the legal and tax information about your organization. You can update your profile to change your legal address and phone number. This account is the legal entity that pays for the products that you buy from Microsoft.

The following table lists the terms shown on the billing account details page.

Field name Description
Billing account ID The unique identifier for your billing account.
Name The name of your billing account. To change the name, select Update name.
Status A read-only field that specifies the status of your commercial account with Microsoft.
My current role The role you have on this billing account. See section on billing account roles below.
Sold-to address The details of the legal entity responsible for payment and identified on the invoice. This section contains the name and address of the individual or organization responsible for the account, together with a contact email address and phone number. The address provided here is used to determine your tax rate unless you opt to provide an alternative shipping address during your purchase. For more information, see Tax information.
Tax ID This field only applies if you’re in a country or region that requires you to provide a VAT or local equivalent. For more information, see Tax information.
Registration number (Optional) A legal registration number that you provide to us so we can review the details of your account. For more information, see About registration numbers and under-review notifications. To add a registration number, select Edit.
Type The type of billing account.
Agreements Links to the agreements signed by your organization with Microsoft

Note

If you need to change the Sold-to name, you must contact support to change it. Requests to change the Sold-to name require a credit check. Complete this form, and be ready to share one of following documents with Microsoft when you contact support:

  • Government-issued document or registration letter
  • Print out of the local company's registry

Support can help with name and address changes where only the customer name changes, but the entity remains the same. Any documentation you provide should clearly show that only the entity’s name has changed. If the change is the result of a transaction, including the sale of a business, a change of controls, or a divestiture or “spinoff” of a Customer Affiliate, please contact your Microsoft Seller or Microsoft support.

What are billing account roles?

If you have an MCA billing account type, the top of the billing account details page includes a Billing account roles tab. This section lists the names of the users and admin center roles assigned to specific billing account roles. Billing account roles are specific to billing accounts and provide different levels of access to the billing account for your organization.

Important

Billing account roles only apply to billing accounts, and don't apply to other Microsoft 365 admin center scenarios.

If you’re a Global Administrator, you can assign yourself a Billing account role in the Microsoft 365 admin center through the billing account roles and permissions. Elevating your access to manage billing accounts gives you the ability to view and manage cost and billing for your accounts. You can view invoices, charges, products that are purchased, and the users who have access to the billing accounts.

You can provide others with access to the billing account in the Microsoft 365 admin center through the billing account roles and permissions. For instructions about how to grant billing account access to other users, see Assign billing account roles.

Only a billing account owner can grant access to a billing account. You can assign the following roles to users:

Role Description
Billing account owner Can assign roles, edit accounts, sign agreements, and view accounts.
Billing account contributor Can edit accounts, sign agreements, and view accounts.
Billing account reader Can view accounts.

Assign billing account roles

  1. Go to the admin center
  2. Select the Navigation menu, then select Billing > Billing accounts.
  3. On the Billing accounts page, select the billing account.
  4. Under Billing account roles, select Assign roles.
  5. In the Assign roles pane, type the name or email address, select the role you want to assign to them, then select Assign.

You can view the roles assigned to users for a billing account and related billing profiles across associated tenants.

  1. Go to the admin center
  2. Select the Navigation menu, then select Billing > Billing accounts.
  3. On the Billing accounts page, select a billing account.
  4. Under Billing account roles, select View related role assignments.

To export the information shown in the Related billing role assignments pane, select Export to CSV.

What are associated billing tenants?

If you have an MCA billing account type, you can give users from other tenants access to collaborate on a single set of resources across all products. For more information about associated billing tenants and how to add and assign roles to them, see Manage billing across multiple tenants in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

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Manage your Microsoft business billing profiles (article)