Manage customer subscriptions

Applies to: Partner Center | Partner Center for Microsoft Cloud for US Government

Appropriate roles: Admin agent | Billing admin | Helpdesk agent | Sales agent

After you create a record of your customer in Partner Center, you can sell subscriptions to products in the catalog to that customer.

The subscriptions that you can sell are:

• Products published by Microsoft
• Software as a service (SaaS) products published by independent software vendors (ISVs) to the commercial marketplace (Azure Marketplace).

Some offers are limited to one subscription per customer. To see a list of which offers are restricted, go to the Partner Center Price lists page.

As a partner in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, you can purchase license-based or metered SaaS subscriptions from independent software vendor (ISV) publishers within Partner Center. You can purchase any license-based or metered SaaS offer that the ISV publisher makes available to you, including any exclusive offers to which you have access. To manage or purchase other commercial marketplace offers from ISVs, such as usage-based offers involving Azure apps, containers, or VMs, go to the Azure portal.

Create a new subscription

To create a new subscription, use the following steps:

1. From the Partner Center, select Customers and then select a customer from the customer list.

2. Select Add subscription.

3. The Online Services tab shows all available marketplace SaaS offers.
   To see only certain types of subscriptions, use the filters:

   Filter	Setting
   Publisher	Select Microsoft to see only offers from Microsoft. Select Partner to see commercial marketplace products published by ISVs.
   Billing type	Select the type of subscription billing that you want to use: License or Usage. For information that can help you to decide between the monthly and annual billing, see Partner Center billing.
   Category	Select Enterprise, Small business, or Trial. For information about trial subscriptions, see Offer your customers trials of Microsoft products.

4. Select the product subscriptions that you want to purchase for your customer. The products that you see depend on the customer segment (for example, education or government) and the filters you apply. Some marketplace offers might not always be available to particular customers or CSP partners. Possible reasons include:

   • The customer already has a subscription to that product and is allowed only one
   • The customer's subscription might be suspended. (In this case, you can reactivate the subscription rather than purchase a new one.) For ISV SaaS offers, there might be several reasons why an offer isn't available:
   • The ISV might not support the customer's billing country or region
   • The ISV might choose not to make the offer available through the CSP program
   • The ISV might make the offer exclusive, to certain CSP partners
   • The ISV offer might not be transactable through Partner Center (for example, containers or some usage-based offers)

5. For each subscription that you want to add, enter the number of licenses (if needed) and then select Add to cart.

6. When you're finished adding subscriptions, select Review and review your order.

   Important

   Partners are required to attest to the following statement:

   "I confirm that my organization is acting as an Indirect Partner when choosing a Reseller and as a Direct Partner in the absence of selecting a reseller."

   • EU/EFTA laws state that partners transacting in those countries/regions must declare other resellers associated within a transaction. The following rules apply:
     • An initial reseller must be chosen before any other resellers
     • Other resellers aren't entitled to any extra incentives, offers, and so on
     • Other sellers entered are validated to ensure that the correct PartnerID is entered where applicable, and that the reseller signed the Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA)
     • A maximum of five other resellers can be entered as part of the transaction

7. If you're an indirect provider, select the indirect reseller that you want to associate with this customer's subscriptions from the list.

8. Select Review.

9. Select Submit.

10. To add subscriptions, select Add Products.

11. When you're finished adding customer information and purchasing the required subscriptions, select Done.

12. When you're ready to purchase these subscriptions, select Buy.

Entra tenant subscription limits

Partners should be aware of certain constraints and limits for the number of subscriptions per customer. More information about these limits can be found in the Microsoft Entra service limits and restrictions documentation. Partners that are over the limit can't acquire new subscriptions and need to consolidate their customer's subscriptions so they are below the Entra restrictions. Partners can add licenses to existing subscriptions and work with partner center support to consolidate licenses and reduce redundancy.

Offers with unique constraints

Multigeo capabilities add-on

The multigeo capabilities add-on allows customers to use Microsoft 365 services across multiple geographic regions. However, before purchasing these add-ons, certain rules and requirements must be followed.

• Unique licensing constraint: Unlike other license-based offers in the new commerce experience (NCE), the multigeo add-on has a specific minimum purchase requirement based on the number of base licenses owned by the customer.
• Minimum quantity rule:
  • The partner must purchase at least 5% of the customer's total base licenses across all required base offers.
  • Example:
    • Customer Contoso owns 400 licenses across all eligible base subscriptions.
    • The partner must purchase at least 20 multigeo licenses (5% of 400 = 20).

To learn more about multigeo capabilities and their benefits, visit multigeo capabilities in Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on

To buy the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on, partners must follow a license limit based on how many eligible base licenses the customer has.

• License limit: The number of Copilot add-on licenses must be equal to or less than the total number of prerequisite base licenses the customer owns. For example, if Customer A has 250 eligible base licenses, the partner can buy up to 250 Copilot add-on licenses for that customer.
• Subscription sharing: Base licenses are counted across all subscriptions the customer owns even if those subscriptions come from different partners.
• Purchasing together: If a partner buys the base offer and Copilot add-on in the same order, the new base licenses in the cart are included when calculating the allowed number of add-on licenses.

This rule helps ensure that each Copilot license is tied to a valid base subscription.

View order history

To confirm your customer order was successful, or to view your order history, follow these steps:

1. After you place an order, you see the Order confirmation page.
2. From Order confirmation, select Review order history.
3. View the Order status.
4. Select Order ID to see each item's Fulfillment status within your order.

You can also get to your Order history by following these steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. On the Customers page, find the customer whose order history you want to view.
3. Select the Customer name.
4. Select Order history from the left navigation.

After you buy a subscription

After you buy a subscription for a customer:

• You can review or edit the subscription by selecting the subscription name from that customer's Subscriptions page. From there you can select add-on licenses if any are available, change the quantity of licenses, or suspend the subscription.

• For ISV SaaS (license-based and metered) subscriptions: You receive a link to the ISV publisher's site. This link should help you to complete account setup or the deployment of the customer's subscription.

  Note

  You or your customer don't receive an email with instructions for setting up or provisioning this ISV subscription.

• If your subscription comes with a 30-day free trial, the free trial period is applied automatically. As a partner in the CSP program, you can't waive the free trial period on offers that you purchase for customers.

  After the free trial period ends, the subscription converts to paid status and the subscription term begins. The subscription autorenews according to the same schedule.

Export customer subscription information

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.

2. Select the customer's Company name.

   The Subscriptions page opens, showing a list of the customer's product subscriptions.

3. Select Export all subscriptions to silently send the customer subscription data to the default download folder on your computer as a .csv file. Data columns include:

   • Subscription ID
   • [Subscription] Name—the product name for the subscription
   • Quantity—number of purchased licenses
   • Status- autorenewal status and renewal date if applicable
   • Billing cycle—billing term chosen for the given subscription
   • Promotion—promo ID if applicable, otherwise None
   • Reseller—the ID of the reseller that owns and manages the subscription

Update subscriptions with add-ons (traditional license-based commerce)

In traditional license-based commerce, to purchase an add-on, the customer must first have an active base subscription; you can't purchase add-ons through the catalog. In New Commerce, add-ons can be purchased through the catalog, and the below steps don't apply. See New Commerce add-ons for more info.

To update a traditional license-based commerce subscription with an add-on, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Select the subscription that you want to manage.
4. Below the Status section is a list of available add-ons for the subscription. Update the number of licenses for each required add-on.
5. Select Submit.

• Only direct-bill partners and indirect providers can purchase add-ons through Partner Center.
• Only eligible add-ons are displayed, based on the base requirements and regional availability.
• Suspending the base subscription also suspends any associated add-ons.
• Start dates for add-ons align to the base subscription. Charges are calculated from the charge start date and charge end date with prorated charges in the first invoice. For more information, see Partner Center billing.
• For more information about pricing and offers, see the Cloud Reseller Offer Matrix on the Partner Center Pricing and offers page.

Increase or decrease licenses in new commerce license-based subscriptions

The number of licenses on a subscription can be increased at any time. Billing adjustments appear on the next invoice and reconciliation file.

The number of licenses on a subscription can be decreased only within the first seven days of when the licenses were added to the subscription (except where otherwise required by law). This rule applies whether the licenses were added at the initial purchase, on renewal, or at midterm.

To increase or decrease the number of licenses (within the first seven days), use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.

2. Choose a customer from the list.

3. Select the subscription that you want to update.

4. On the details page, enter the new total number of licenses that you want in the Quantity section.

   If you try to decrease the license count after seven days, you get an error message.

5. Select Submit.

View licenses available for reduction

Partners can use the Get a Subscription by ID API to find out how many licenses they can reduce.

To view the number of licenses that can be reduced on a subscription, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Select the subscription that you want to check.
4. Select View licenses to reduce.

• To check if licenses can be reduced, start by submitting the request. You also find a breakdown showing the number of licenses and the deadline by which the reduction can happen. If it isn't possible to lower the number, you see a message explaining why.

Upgrade for new commerce license-based subscriptions

For new commerce, upgrade means going from one paid subscription to another paid subscription on a higher tier. (Downgrades aren't supported.) New commerce paid-to-paid upgrades enable a customer to upgrade immediately from the current SKU to a SKU with added services.

You can select the subscription to which you want to upgrade when you're configuring license counts. You can select a new subscription or you can select an existing subscription that's eligible for upgrade.

Upgrades can be of two types: full upgrades and partial upgrades.

To upgrade a subscription, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Select the subscription that you want to upgrade.
4. At the top of the page, select Check for upgrades. A right panel opens indicating where there are upgrade paths available for the subscription.
5. Review Eligible upgrades and choose an upgrade.
   You can upgrade to a new subscription or select an existing subscription (if available) from the Destination subscription dropdown list. To choose a destination subscription, make sure it isn't in the cancellation window. Check that the term durations match and that the new term's end date isn't earlier than the current term's end date.
6. Populate term duration, the billing frequency, and the number of licenses that you want to upgrade. The number of licenses that you select determines whether the upgrade is a full upgrade or a partial upgrade.
7. Select Upgrade. Cancellation windows aren't applied to upgrades, so changes can't be made once submitted. Double-check all your upgrade details before continuing. Then select Yes, upgrade to submit the changes.

Upgrades that aren't currently supported

Remove duplicated licenses after an upgrade

Duplicate (redundant) licenses can be created when purchasing a higher-level SKU in the following cases:

• The upgrade is unsupported
• The online services licenses don't need a prerequisite or a Microsoft base compatible product to purchase the higher SKU

To cancel a duplicate or redundant subscription after an upgrade, use the AI assistant if available, or submit a ticket manually as soon as possible. Ensure that you file the request during the customer's current subscription term. For instance, if the upgrade occurs with three months remaining in the subscription, you need to submit the ticket within those three months.

More upgrade information

Here's a summary of the common upgrade terms with definitions and examples:

Common subscription upgrade terms

Suite categories

Most suites can be divided into two main types: user personas and industries.

• User persona: Differentiates between information workers (IW) and frontline workers (FLW). IW suites are designed for office-based tasks and include full-featured applications. Frontline worker (FLW) suites are simpler and made for workers in roles that don't require desks.
• Industry: Suites are customized to meet the rules and needs of specific sectors, such as business, government, or education.

Add-on security and compliance suites

Microsoft offers other suites to enhance security and compliance capabilities beyond the base suites:

• E5 Security
• E5 Compliance, including:
  • Information Protection and Governance
  • Insider Risk Management
  • eDiscovery and Audit
• EMS E5
• EMS E3
• Microsoft Intune Suite
• Microsoft Entra Suite

Upgrade principles

To help customers move toward Microsoft 365 E3 or Microsoft 365 E5 (or their industry-specific equivalents), upgrades should unlock extra value and guide them through the process.

Linear upgrades

Upgrades within the same industry and persona-based suite category, such as Microsoft 365 E3 to Microsoft 365 E5. You can also move from a standalone product, such as eDiscovery and Audit, to a larger suite like Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance. These kinds of upgrades are always allowed.

Switching categories

When you switch between suite categories, three key principles define valid upgrades:

• Price: The upgraded product costs more than the current one. For example, moving from Microsoft 365 F3 to Office 365 E3.
• Value proposition: The upgraded product provides more features or expands on the current product’s benefits. For instance, upgrading from Microsoft Business Premium to Microsoft 365 E3.
• Constraints: The upgrade removes limits, allowing growth. For example, moving from Business to Enterprise SKUs removes the 300-license cap, or upgrading from FLW to Enterprise SKUs lifts device restrictions.

Exceptions

• Many-to-one upgrades: In certain cases, customers can combine multiple lower-value products into a single higher-value product. Even if the overall revenue per license decreases, it's still a valid upgrade. For example, customers can consolidate multiple subscriptions into one comprehensive solution. To cancel duplicate or redundant subscription after this kind of upgrade, see remove duplicate licenses after an upgrade.

Two-to-one upgrades

If you have two separate standalone SKUs and want to upgrade them both together to one higher value SKU, use this process:

1. To identify upgrade options, partners should refer to the offers matrix. For each standalone SKU:
   1. Look up the product.
   2. Find its ProductId/SkuId combination.
   3. View the ProductSkuConversion column to see available Upgrade options.
2. Upgrade the first subscription (one-to-one) using Partner Center or transition API. This action creates a new upgraded subscription.
3. Use the transition API to transition the second subscription into the already purchased, upgraded subscription.

Once completed, you go from two separate SKUs to just one higher value SKU.

Full upgrades

A full upgrade is an in-place upgrade, which means that all licenses or extra licenses are being upgraded.

The subscription ID remains the same during a full upgrade, and licenses are assigned automatically.

You must manually assign licenses if the customer purchased the destination SKU from another partner or channel. A warning appears in Partner Center stating that the licenses need to be manually assigned if that is the case.

During a full upgrade:

• All licenses or extra licenses are upgraded.
• The subscription ID stays the same.
• All licenses or extra licenses are transferred to the new subscription.
• If the customer is upgrading to an existing subscription, licenses are added only to the existing subscription and keep the term duration and billing frequency.

Partial upgrades

Partial upgrades enable a partner to designate some licenses from one SKU to another.

• Upgrade functionality in traditional license-based subscriptions only enabled every license to be upgraded.
• Upgrade functionality in new commerce subscriptions enables a partner to move some licenses at their convenience. That gives the partner more control over upgrades.

During a partial upgrade:

• An upgrade is defined as partial if the upgrade license count is less than the initial subscription's license count.
• To ensure all subscriptions align, any new subscription created during an upgrade has the same end date as the original subscription. This alignment means both subscriptions are coterminated..
• You have two subscriptions: an existing one and a new one.

License reassignment

License reassignment is always attempted during full upgrades, even if license transfer without reassignment is passed through the API.

License reassignment must be completed manually during partial upgrades or if there are multiples of the same SKU.

Scheduled changes for managing new commerce license-based subscription renewals

You can schedule subscription changes for the end of a term instead of immediately.

Examples of changes that can be scheduled include:

• Subscription upgrades
• License increases or reductions
• Changes to billing term
• Changes to billing frequency
• Changes to coterminous date

You can only schedule changes if:

• A subscription is active
• Autorenew is on

To schedule a new change to occur at renewal, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Select the subscription that you want to manage.
4. Select Manage Renewal.
5. Make changes to the subscription and select Okay.
6. Select Submit.

You can access Manage Renewal to view, update, or remove an existing scheduled change.

Saved scheduled changes are deleted if you make any of the following midterm changes:

• Cancel a subscription
• Turn off autorenew
• Change a quantity
• Upgrade a SKU
• Convert a trial

Suspend a subscription

You can suspend a subscription and you can resume a subscription.

If there's nonpayment from a customer, you can suspend a subscription to immediately block the customer's access.

You can suspend and resume a subscription without a cancellation as long as the subscription is reactivated by the end the subscription's term.

A customer with a suspended subscription can't sign in or access files and services until the subscription is resumed, but an admin can access data.

All data related to the subscription is deleted if the subscription isn't reactivated by the end of the subscription's term.

The partner continues to be billed during suspension (unlike in legacy), and customer access to services can be restored when payment resumes.

Resuming a subscription immediately restores a customer's access to a subscription's services as long as the suspension is reversed within the subscription's term.

You can reverse a suspension at Partner Center or using the APIs.

To suspend a subscription at Partner Center, use the following steps:

1. Go to the customer's subscription page and select the subscription that you want to suspend.
2. Select Suspend.
3. In the pop-up dialog, select OK.

Cancel a subscription

You can cancel a subscription if a customer requests it.

Cancel new commerce license-based subscriptions

For new commerce offers, partners can cancel their subscription with a prorated refund within the first seven days (168 hours) of any term, except where otherwise required by law.

After the seven day window ends, cancellation is no longer available. The partner is billed for the full term even if the customer stops paying for or using the subscription (applicable to any billing plan).

When a cancellation is complete:

• The customer immediately loses access to the service.
• The service can't be restored.
• The state for the subscription is unrecoverable.

To cancel a new commerce license-based subscription, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Find the subscription that you want to cancel.
4. In the Status section, select Cancel Subscription.
5. Select Submit.

If you encounter a system issue during a transaction and you should documented proof, you can submit a support ticket in Partner Center.

Cancel Marketplace SaaS subscriptions

You can cancel traditional license-based SaaS subscriptions from ISV publishers within the Partner Center commercial marketplace. As long as you cancel within the cancellation period, you receive a full refund.

To cancel a Marketplace SaaS subscription, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Find the subscription that you want to cancel.
4. In the Status column, select Cancel. Then select Submit.
5. If a dialog appears, fill out any relevant details and select Submit.
6. To confirm the cancellation, select Yes, cancel.

Subscription renewals

By default, active subscriptions are set to automatically renew when the subscription period expires. For subscriptions to commercial marketplace products, or new commerce subscriptions, you can optionally choose not to automatically renew the subscription. For upcoming renewals, partners can create a scheduled change to upgrade the Product/SKU, increase, or decrease the number of licenses, modify the billing term and frequency, or update coterminous dates. For API details, see Manage scheduled changes for new commerce subscriptions - Partner app developer.

To stop an active subscription from automatically renewing, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Select Subscriptions.
   Any license-based subscriptions that you purchased for the customer appear in a list.
4. On the subscription details page, in the Status section, clear the Auto-renew checkbox.
5. Select Submit.

Suspending a new commerce subscription turns off autorenew. Partners that remove a suspension should be sure to turn autorenew back on if desired.

Applying changes to new commerce license-based subscriptions

To make changes to new commerce subscriptions, you might need to wait if the system is processing a renewal at the end of the subscription term or applying a billing frequency change during the term. Each of these events starts at 12:00 AM, the day of the event. Some of the subscription properties might not be updateable until the event (renewal or cycle charge) is completed.

• Cycle charges: The following properties are read-only and can't be changed until the cycle charge is completed: next charge instruction to change billing frequency.
• Renewal event: The renewal is queued and executed. Until the renewal, completed partners find the following properties are read-only until renewal is completed: Auto renew, scheduled changes next term instructions, and suspend or reactivate.

Manage trials for new commerce license-based subscriptions

Trials for new commerce license-based subscriptions:

• Come with 25 licenses
• Have autorenew turned on by default
• Last for one month (ISO 8601 P1M) After P1M, trials autorenew to the paid equivalent subscription, but autorenewal can be turned off.

On conversion to a new subscription, the term duration defaults to Annual, and the billing cycle defaults to Monthly. You can modify term duration and the billing plan if you decide to convert the trial.

You can convert trials:

• To an equivalent paid subscription
• To a higher-tier subscription or an existing subscription
• At midterm or schedule trial conversion

During a trial, the following actions aren't available:

• Increasing or reducing quantity
• Changing the status of the subscription

Midterm trial conversion

Trials last for P1M, but you don't have to wait until the end of the trial to convert to a paid subscription. You can convert a trial at any time during the trial.

When you convert at midterm, you can't decrease the number of licenses from the default of 25.

Just like in upgrades, you can convert to a new subscription or choose an existing subscription.

If you select a new subscription, you can choose the term duration and billing frequency, and choose at least 25 licenses to convert with.

If you select an existing subscription, the 25 licenses are added to the existing subscription and keep the existing term duration and billing frequency.

To convert a trial at midterm, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Find the trial subscription that you want to convert.
4. Select Convert trial to paid subscription in the top banner.
5. Choose an eligible conversion for your subscription.
6. Select the quantity, billing frequency, and term duration, if applicable.
7. Select Submit.

Scheduled trial conversion

To make the most of your trial without converting it into a paid subscription, or to convert with fewer than the default 25 licenses, plan the conversion ahead of time.

To schedule a conversion, autorenew must be on.

To schedule a trial to convert at the end of the P1M, use the following steps:

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Customers.
2. Choose a customer from the list.
3. Find the trial subscription for which you want to schedule a conversion.
4. Select Manage Renewal.
5. Make changes to the subscription and select Okay.
6. Select Submit.

The trial will convert with the scheduled changes after the P1M.

Transfer a new commerce license-based subscription

To transfer a new commerce experiences (NCE) license-based subscription to a new partner, you need to follow the below process. Here are the general steps you would typically follow.

1. The customer and the current partner (source partner) have conversations and agree to transfer the subscription to another different partner (target partner).
2. The source partner and target partner have conversations to understand all details about the subscriptions to transfer.
3. The target partner sends a relationship request to the customer who has subscriptions they want to transfer.
4. The customer accepts the relationship request.
5. The target partner creates a transfer request to the current source partner. They include the customer email to receive the notifications and the source partner's Microsoft ID.
6. The source partner receives an email notification of the transfer request, or transfers accepted by viewing the events in their audit log.
7. The source partner opens the transfer request and decides which subscriptions to transfer. The source partner then submits the transfer request.
8. The system creates a new subscription for the customer on the target partners billing account. The system also cancels the old subscription under the source partner's billing account.

View more information about transferring new commerce subscriptions.

Related content

• Purchase commercial marketplace products for your customers
• Manage commercial marketplace products for your customers
• Transfer new commerce subscriptions
• Commercial marketplace overview