Set, check, or remove monthly Azure spending budgets for customers in Partner Center

Appropriate roles: Admin agent

You can set a monthly Azure spending budget for your customers in Partner Center. This budget helps you track and control their Azure spending. You can also use it to compare their actual spending with the budget amount. Your customers can plan their Azure spending better and avoid unexpected bills.

Note

This feature is unavailable in sandbox or Test in Production (TiP) accounts.

Besides setting a budget, you can also monitor your customer's Azure usage. The monitoring can help you detect incorrect configurations or suspicious activities that might increase costs. You can then work with your customers to fix the issues and control the spending. You can also adjust the budget to a higher amount if needed.

Azure spending data

Azure spending data is an estimate. Your actual bill might differ. The amount doesn't include taxes, credits, or other fees.

The spending data is refreshed daily. We bill you for Azure services and resources your customers use until you update their account settings in the Azure portal.

Set Azure spending budget for legacy Microsoft Azure subscriptions

You can set a monthly Azure spending budget for customers with legacy Microsoft Azure subscriptions in the Partner Center:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.

2. Select Azure spending.

3. Find the customers and select the desired customers for budget setting on this page.

4. Enter a value for Monthly budget.

5. Choose Apply to save your changes.

You can set a budget for an individual customer in their subscription settings.

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.

2. Select the customer's Company name.

3. On the customer's Subscriptions page, under Usage-based subscription, choose Change budget.

4. Enter a value for the budget.

5. Choose Apply to save your changes.

You can remove a monthly Azure spending budget for your customers in Partner Center.

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.

2. Select Azure spending.

3. Select the customer whose budget you want to remove.

4. Choose Remove budget.

You can track your customers' current Azure spending and monthly budgets at any time.

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.

2. Select Azure spending.

3. Review the monthly budget, current spending, and budget percentage for each customer.

How to access the new Azure Spending (NCE) page

To gain access to the new user interface in the New Commerce Experience (NCE):

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. Set, edit, or remove your customers' budgets for Azure plan subscriptions on this page.

Note

The new page shows only those customers with Azure plan subscriptions who have an active reseller relationship with the partner and a budget. If the relationship ends, the customer is no longer displayed on this page.

Set Azure spending budget using the new (NCE) page.

To set a monthly Azure spending budget for your customers in Partner Center:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. Go to the Customers section and select New budget.
4. Set a budget by searching for customer names in the side panel.
5. Select Save.

To update the monthly budget for a customer:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. Select the customers by checking the boxes next to their names in the Customers section.
4. Choose Update budget.
5. View customer names and budgets in the side panel.
6. Update the budget amount for each customer.
7. Select Save.

To remove the monthly budget for your customers:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. Select the customers by checking the boxes next to their names in the Customers section.
4. Choose Update budget.
5. View customer names and budgets in the side panel.
6. Clear the budget field for the customer.
7. Select Save.

To monitor your customers' Azure expenses and monthly budgets:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Billing.
2. Select Azure spending (NCE) from the task menu on the left side.
3. Review the customers' monthly budgets, current estimates, and percentage of budget used so far in the Customers section.

Important

Estimates are typically 24 hours behind actual usage but sometimes the delay can be longer due to specific constraints.

Notifications for budget limits

Set up email alerts that notify you when your customers' monthly Azure spending reaches a certain amount. After you set up the email alert, you get an email every seven days if your customers use between 80% and 100% of their monthly budget. This way you can monitor your customers’ spending and help them stay within budget. To configure email alerts or notifications:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select the Notifications (bell) icon.

2. Select My preferences.

3. Configure a preferred email address.

4. Configure the preferred language for the notification.

5. Select all boxes under the Notification preferences section in the Billing workspace.

Note

You don't get a notification if the budget exceeds 100%.

Itemized costs by service

You can view itemized costs (and estimated usage) by service for usage-based subscriptions:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.

2. Select the customer's Company name.

3. Go to the customer's Subscriptions page. Select the Subscription name under Usage-based subscriptions.

4. Review Itemized costs by service and Estimated usage for the current month on the subscription page.

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