Step 1 - Prepare your account for private offers

This article explains how to perform a precheck to ensure that your billing account and subscription settings, roles and permissions, and policies are configured to allow you to accept and purchase private offers. Private offers align to your billing account, during purchase you need your organization's billing account ID. The billing account ID is also needed when requesting a private offer from your vendor.

Check billing account and subscription settings

Check billing account and subscription settings by running the private offer eligibility report. You must have an eligible Azure subscription associated with the billing account used for the private offer. Your billing account policy must be enabled for Azure Marketplace purchases and must have a valid payment instrument associated. Check your purchase controls on the billing account that might block marketplace purchases on your subscription. To learn more, see Private offer eligibility report.

Check permissions

There are two steps needed to procure a private offer: accept and purchase. The person accepting the private offer and the person purchasing the private offer require different permissions, depending on the type of agreement—Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) or Enterprise Agreement (EA). The private offer eligibility report can help identify who in an organization has the correct permissions—the roles needed are summarized in the following table:

Agreement type Permissions to accept offer Permissions to purchase or subscribe
Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) Billing account owner or contributor Subscription owner or subscription contributor
Enterprise Agreement (EA) Enterprise administrator Subscription owner or subscription contributor
Microsoft online service program (MOSP) Account administrator Account administrator

Note

For virtual machine service reservation (VMSR) private offers, the subscription owner or reservation purchaser role has permission to purchase. The subscription contributor doesn't have this permission.

Identify the individual in your organization who can accept the private offer, then provide the email address to your vendor. Once your vendor completes the private offer, there's a prompt in Partner Center to send an email notification to that person that the offer is ready for acceptance. More details are available in the roles and permissions article.

Note

Marketplace permissions used to accept and purchase a private offer are aligned with billing roles and Azure role-based access controls. To prevent accidental or unauthorized purchasing, the private offer eligibility report helps you understand if you have the correct permissions, subscription, and billing account settings for purchasing and subscribing to private offers.

Locate your billing account ID

You need to provide your billing account ID to the Microsoft partner to create the private offer. Your billing account ID can be found in three different ways:

  • On the private offer eligibility report, follow the instructions to download the eligibility report. In the report, go to the row with the specific subscription, for example, the billing account ID in column D.

  • If you have access to Cost Management + Billing, then go to the Azure portal under Cost management + Billing > Properties > ID.

    Note

    You will need the right permissions to access billing information on the Azure Portal.

    Screenshot of the Cost management + Billing properties page

  • If you know the subscription you plan to use for your purchase, select Subscriptions and then the relevant subscription > Properties (or Billing Properties) > Billing account ID.

    Screenshot of the Subscription Name properties page.

  • The Billing Account ID for Microsoft Online Service Programs (MOSP) can be found in the Pay-As-You-Go subscription properties tab in Settings > Properties.

    Note

    There're several ways to get to the Pay-As-You-Go -> Properties screen:

    • In the Azure portal, select Subscriptions under Azure services near the top of the page.

      Screenshot of the Azure services page icons, with Subscriptions highlighted.

    • If you have recently viewed your subscriptions, select Subscriptions in Resources -> Recent.

      Screenshot of the Resources page icons, with a link to Pay-As-You-Go highlighted.

    • Select Navigate -> Subscriptions in the middle of the page.

      Screenshot of the Navigate section, with Subscriptions highlighted.

Check the billing account type

  • If you have access to one Billing Scope: In the Azure portal, go to Cost Management + Billing, and select Settings > Properties. The Billing account type is displayed as either Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA), Enterprise Agreement (EA), or Microsoft Online Services Program (MOSP).

    Screenshot of the Billing Overview page, with the Billing account type section highlighted.

  • If you have access to multiple billing scopes: In the Azure portal, go to Cost Management + Billing, and select Settings > Properties. The Billing account type is displayed as either Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA), Enterprise Agreement (EA), or Microsoft Online Services Program (MOSP).

    Screenshot of the Billing scopes page, with the Billing Type section highlighted.

Enable private marketplace for private offers

If the private marketplace is enabled for the tenant associated with your private offer's billing account, make sure the private offer's plan is included in the collection. Alternatively, apply the Enable private products collection rule. For more information on managing collections in the private marketplace, refer to Govern and control using private Azure Marketplace.

Note

If the private offer product is a VMSR, professional services, or SaaS that includes custom pricing with customized metering quantities, or user limits, the Enable private products collection rule must be enabled by the private marketplace's Marketplace Admin to complete the purchase. If you have questions about the type of private offer used, contact your vendor.

By completing the above steps, you're prepared to successfully purchase a private offer. You'll need people with the proper permissions to accept the private offer terms and complete purchasing the private offer. This process typically involves collaboration within your organization by different individuals.

Reach out to support if you have questions to get ready for a private offer purchase, and we can help you to get started!

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