Understand your bill and reconciliation data in Partner Center

Appropriate roles: Billing admin | Admin agent

Understand your bill clearly.

Find your reconciliation files for legacy (D-invoices) and new commerce (G-invoices)

You can find your invoices in the Billing workspace in Partner Center.

You can also find your billing history or overview, Azure spending trends, and reconciliation files in this workspace.

To find and download your reconciliation files:

New commerce experience

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select the Billing workspace.

2. Go to the Billing overview (NCE) task menu.

3. Navigate to the Billing | Billing Overview (NCE) page.

4. Choose the desired year and currency (if applicable) in the upper right corner.

5. Select the invoice number.

6. Find the reconciliation file on the side panel.

7. Select Download report. A notification appears at the top of the page indicating the file is being processed.

8. Navigate to the Reports (NCE) page to track the progress of your download. You can monitor the status of your request in the status column of the request line item.

Legacy

1. Sign in to Partner Center and select the Billing workspace.

2. Go to the Billing history task menu.

3. Naviage to the Billing history page.

4. Select the Recurring tab.

5. Choose the appropriate year.

6. Select the drop-down arrow next to the billing period.

Note

You can asynchronously download all new commerce reconciliation files from the Partner Center portal.

Understand reconciliation files (or line items)

The reconciliation files give a detailed list of your charges and credits, helping you track financial transactions accurately. To create invoices for customers, use customer details in the reconciliation files. For more information on how to effectively reconciliation files, see how to use the reconciliation files.

Understand billed and unbilled reconciliation files (or line items)

Reconciliation files (or line items) provide a detailed record of every charge or credit for the billing period. These records play a vital role in maintaining precise billing accuracy and empowering proactive financial decisions.

Billed or closed billing period reconciliation file: This file includes all finalized charges and credits from a specific billing period. Its purpose is to ensure that every invoiced amount aligns with the services delivered and to match the total of all line items correctly with the corresponding invoice.

• For instance, if you're billed for 100 units of a service in January, this file lists these 100 units to confirm consistency with the invoice.
• Covers all charge types, including usage-based (for example, pay-as-you-go services) and non-usage-based (for example, flat fees or license-based subscriptions).

Unbilled or open billing period estimates file: This file provides almost real-time projections of charges and credits for an active billing period that isn't yet invoiced. The goal is to help you forecast costs and optimize budgets.

• Updated regularly to reflect ongoing usage and contractual charges.
• Split into two separate files: one for usage-based charges and another for non-usage-based charges.
• Exclusively available for partners in the new commerce experience (NCE) of the Cloud Solution Provider program (CSP).

By consistently using reconciliation files, you can enhance billing accuracy and financial planning, leading to more efficient and reliable business operations.

Key benefits of reconciliation files

• Ensure accurate billing and prevent billing discrepancies by cross-checking invoices with actual usage.
• Manage costs proactively with up-to-date estimates to avoid financial surprises.
• Bill customers with confidence and boost customer trust with precise billing line items.

What products are included in the new commerce invoice reconciliation line items?

To maintain full visibility into all billing line items or transactions of these products—including charges and credits—use monthly invoice reconciliation files or line items. Here's how to access and use them effectively:

• Download: Download the files from the Partner Center portal.
• API access: Alternatively, programmatically access them via APIs. For more information, see billed invoice reconciliation.

By regularly reviewing these files or APIs, ensure a smooth and transparent billing process.

Products included in the monthly invoice reconciliation

• Azure pay-as-you-go
• Azure reservation
• Azure savings plan
• License-based product or online services, such as Office, Dynamics, and Power Apps
• Perpetual software
• Software subscription
• Marketplace or non-Microsoft SaaS product

What products are included in the new commerce daily rated usage reconciliation line items?

The daily rated usage reconciliation files or line items focus on usage-based Azure services (for example, virtual machine, storage, reservations) and pay-as-you-go third-party SaaS products.

Products included in the daily rated usage reconciliation

• Azure pay-as-you-go: both charges and usage appear based on the daily usage
• Azure reservation: usage is shown, but charges only appear once usage exceeds the prepurchased capacity limit
• Azure savings plan: usage is shown, but charges only appear once usage exceeds the committed amount limit

Why do some SaaS products not appear in the new commerce daily rated usage reconciliation line items?

When you buy third-party SaaS products through your Azure plan subscriptions, their visibility in your billing reconciliation files or line items varies based on their billing model. Here's what you need to know:

• Many third-party SaaS products charge a flat monthly/annual fee (not tied to daily usage). These costs appear only in invoice reconciliation files or line items, not in daily usage files or line items.
• SaaS products billed using pay-as-you-go rates (for example, per-user, per-API-call) appears in daily usage files or line items.

By understanding these distinctions, you gain full visibility into all Azure plan expenses.

Map taxes or VAT to your invoice reconciliation line items

Here's how to validate an invoice with taxes or VAT:

1. Add the Tax values from your legacy license-based reconciliation files or line items.
2. Add the TaxAmount values from your legacy usage-based reconciliation files or line items.
3. Add the TaxTotal values from your new commerce invoice reconciliation files or line items.

Why are some products visible only in invoice reconciliation line items and not in daily rated usage line items?

To clarify why some products appear only in invoice reconciliation files or line items and not in daily rated usage files or line items, here's a breakdown of how billing works for different product types:

Usage-based vs. fixed-fee products

• Usage-based products:

  • Charged based on daily consumption (For example, pay-as-you-go Azure virtual machine, storage).
  • Appear in both daily rated usage line items (tracking daily usage) and invoice reconciliation line items (finalized billing).

• Fixed-fee products:

  • Charged a flat rate (For example, per-user licenses, third-party SaaS subscriptions).
  • Only appear in invoice reconciliation line items because there's no daily usage to track.

Azure subscriptions may include fixed-cost components (For example, reserved instances and savings plans) alongside usage-based services. Here's why they behave differently:

• Fixed monthly/annual fees:

  • Appear in invoice reconciliation line items as line items (For example, "USD 100/month Azure reservation fee").
  • Daily charges show USD 0 in usage data since the cost isn't tied to daily usage.

• Usage tracking still occurs:

  • Even for fixed-cost Azure services, daily rated usage line items might show zero charges to maintain visibility into resource activity (For example, reserved instance utilization).

Example scenarios

Product type	Monthly invoice reconciliation	Daily rated usage
Microsoft 365 Business Premium (per-user license)	✅ Fixed fee	❌ Not included
Azure virtual machine (pay-as-you-go)	✅ Usage-based	✅ Usage-based
Azure reserved instance	✅ Fixed fee	✅ Zero charge (usage tracking)

Key takeaways

• Invoice reconciliation = All billed products (usage-based and fixed-fee).
• Daily rated usage = Only usage-based products, including Azure reservations and savings plans (even if charges are zero for fixed-cost Azure services).

By understanding these distinctions, you can streamline billing reviews, reduce confusion, and ensure compliance.

Note

Each billing event generates a charge (cost incurred) or credit (amount deducted). These charges and credits are reflected as invoice reconciliation line items according to the billing plan.

Why does my invoice reconciliation data show a zero-tax amount when the invoice has taxes?

In some countries or regions invoice reconciliation files or line items show a zero-tax amount, despite taxes included on those invoices. This discrepancy occurs because of a specific tax calculation and representation strategy. Here's a concise explanation:

Tax calculation method

In some regions, taxes are calculated on the total amount of the invoice rather than on individual line items. This approach means that the tax is applied once to the total, which can differ from summing taxes calculated on each line item.

Rounding discrepancies

When taxes are calculated for individual line items and then rounded to two decimal places, it can lead to small yet noticeable differences. These differences are noticeable in scenarios where multiple line items are involved, and each line item's tax is rounded independently. The sum of these rounded amounts can differ from the tax calculated on the total amount, leading to noncompliance with tax regulations.

Example:

Consider two items that cost $9.75 and $10.25, with a tax rate of 10%. The total before tax is $20, and the tax is ($20 × 10 ÷ 100) $2. The line-item tax might appear as follows: Product 1 ($9.75 × 10 ÷ 100 = $0.975, rounded to $0.98) and Product 2 ($10.25 × 10 ÷ 100 = $1.025, rounded to $1.03).

Transaction	Amount	Tax
Product 1	$9.75	$0.98
Product 2	$10.25	$1.03

Although the difference between the sum of line-item taxes $2.01 ($0.98 + $1.03) and the total tax $2.00 is just one cent, this one-cent discrepancy might seem negligible, but it highlights a critical issue in tax compliance. Tax regulations often require precise calculations, and even small rounding discrepancies can lead to noncompliance.

Solution: Tax on invoices only

To mitigate these discrepancies, taxes are exclusively shown on the invoices rather than on individual reconciliation files or line items for the specific countries or regions. This approach ensures that:

1. Compliance with tax regulations: By calculating tax on the total amount rather than individual line items, the system adheres to tax regulations more accurately, reducing the risk of noncompliance due to decimal rounding errors.

2. Consistency: The pretax amount remains consistent across both the reconciliation files (or line items) and the corresponding invoices. This consistency enhances transparency and trust in the billing process.

3. Efficiency: Calculating tax on the total amount instead of each line item simplifies the calculation process, avoids unnecessary calculations, saves time, and reduces potential errors.

Benefits

• Compliance: Aligns with local tax laws, reducing the risk of noncompliance.
• Accuracy: Minimizes errors from rounding discrepancies.
• Efficiency: Streamlines the billing process by calculating tax once on the total amount.
• Transparency: Provides clear and consistent financial information, fostering trust.

Why are the charges on my invoice reconciliation data different from the daily rated usage line items?

When you notice discrepancies between your invoice and daily usage files or line items, it can be due to several factors affecting how charges are calculated and presented. Understanding these differences is key to accurate financial management and ensures correct billing for your usage.

1. Exclusion and inclusion of products

• Daily rated usage: The daily rated usage primarily focuses on pay-as-you-go resources under your Azure subscription. These services are billed based on actual usage. For a list of products in the daily rated usage reconciliation, see products included in the daily rated usage reconciliation.
• Invoice reconciliation: The invoice reconciliation covers charges for all products and subscriptions across your customers. The invoice reconciliation includes a broader range of services, some not being pay-as-you-go.

2. Taxes and adjustments

• Invoice reconciliation other additional charges like taxes and fees, which aren't reflected in daily rated usage.
• To compare the charges for a specific product or subscription, use the BillingPreTaxTotal in daily rated usage files or line items and the Subtotal in invoice reconciliation files or line items. These values should be comparable before any taxes and adjustments are applied.

3. Discounts and credits

• Discounts and credits can significantly lower the invoice amount, including:
  • Contract terms that offer volume discounts.
  • Service level agreements (SLAs) that provide credits for service downtime.
  • Promotional offers or special campaigns.
  • Tier pricing that offers reduced rates for higher usage volumes.
• Due to these discounts and credits, the Subtotal on your invoice reconciliation files or line items might be lower than the BillingPreTaxTotal from daily rated usage files or line items.

4. Decimal roundoff

• Minor discrepancies can occur due to differences in decimal precision. The daily rated usage often displays amounts with up to 10 decimal places for BillingPreTaxTotal, offering a precise amount.
• In contrast, the invoice reconciliation typically rounds the Subtotal to two decimal places, in line with standard financial practices. This rounding can lead to slight variances in the final amounts.

5. Timing and Dates

• To avoid mismatches due to date ranges, ensure both documents cover the same billing period.

Suggested actions

1. Product comparison:

   • Review the list of products in daily usage and compare with invoice line items and identify any discrepancies.

2. Tax and fee check:

   • Verify if taxes or other fees are added to the invoice reconciliation that aren't in the daily rated usage.

3. Discount review:

   • Check for any applicable discounts or credits that might lower the invoice total.

4. Date verification:

   • Ensure the date ranges on both documents are the same.

5. Decimal rounding consideration:

   • Acknowledge minor differences due to rounding, especially with many line items.

Understanding these factors can help reconcile differences between your invoice reconciliation and daily rated usage files or line items. By reviewing both documents carefully, you can ensure all charges are accounted for correctly. If you have further questions or need assistance, reach out to the support team. They can provide detailed explanations and help ensure accurate billing.

When should you contact the support team?

Contacting the support team should be your next step when you thoroughly reviewed the reconciliation data and identified discrepancies that you can't resolve on your own. Here's a structured approach to determine when to reach out to the support team:

1. Initial self-check

Before contacting support, perform an initial self-check to ensure you covered all bases:

• Compare line items: Check for missing or differing charges in both documents.

• Quantity or billable quantity: Verify that the quantities billed for the same product or subscription match in both the invoice reconciliation and daily rated usage data. Discrepancies here can indicate an issue.

• Customer ID: Confirm that the Customer ID is consistent across both reconciliations, especially for pay-as-you-go charges. An inconsistency here might indicate a data mismatch.

• Product ID, SKU ID, or Subscription ID: Ensure that all pay-as-you-go charges are correctly listed and match in both reconciliations. Missing or differing charges suggest a need for further investigation.

• Subtotal and BillingPreTaxTotal comparison: Calculate the percentage difference between the Subtotal from the invoice reconciliation and the BillingPreTaxTotal from the daily rated usage data. If the difference exceeds 5%, it warrants further scrutiny.

• Review pricing: Look for differences in pricing that could explain discrepancies.

• Taxes and fees: Invoices might include other taxes or fees not shown in daily usage.

• Discounts and credits: Apply any applicable discounts or credits that might reduce the invoice total.

• Rounding differences: Compare differences due to the decimal rounding off between daily rated usage and invoice reconciliation.

2. When to contact support

You should contact the support team if:

• Significant discrepancies: After your initial checks, you find significant discrepancies that you can't reconcile on your own. These checks include substantial differences in quantities, IDs, or financial totals.

• Unexplained charges: You encounter charges that you can't account for or understand based on your usage and subscription details.

• Subtotal and BillingPreTaxTotal: Differences are more than 5%.

• Technical issues: You face technical difficulties accessing or interpreting the reconciliation data, which prevents you from performing a thorough comparison.

• Consistent errors: You notice a pattern of discrepancies over several billing periods, suggesting a systemic issue that needs to be addressed.

3. Preparing for support contact

When you decide to contact support, ensure you have the following information ready to facilitate a quicker resolution:

• Reconciliation information: Have both the invoice reconciliation and daily rated usage details at hand, with specific discrepancies highlighted.

• Details of discrepancies: Provide a clear description of the discrepancies, including any calculations or comparisons you made.

• Account and subscription information: Share relevant account details, including Customer IDs, Product IDs, SKU IDs, or Subscription IDs, to help the support team search your account quickly.

• Previous correspondence: Have any previous correspondence or case numbers ready, If you contacted support before about similar issues.

By following these steps, you can efficiently identify when to escalate issues to the support team, ensuring a productive and effective resolution process. Remember, the support team is there to assist you, so don't hesitate to reach out after you perform your due diligence and need further help.

How prorated charges or credits are calculated?

Prorated charges or credits happen when a subscription is adjusted in the middle of a charge cycle due to changes like license adjustments or cancellations. This process ensures that you're only billed for the exact period during which they use the licenses. Here's a step-by-step explanation:

Proration principle

Prorating charges ensures billing is accurate by calculating the exact days in the month when a purchase, recurring cycle, or renewal begins. For more information about the charge cycle, see new commerce charge cycle.

Here's how proration works with different months:

• For 30-day months: If the charge cycle starts in months with 30 days, like April or June, the monthly charge is divided by 30 to calculate the daily rate.
• For 31-day months: In months with 31 days, like July or August, the monthly charge is divided by 31.
• For February: Special consideration is given to February, which typically has 28 days but has 29 days during a leap year. Therefore, the monthly charge is divided by 28 or 29, depending on whether it’s a leap year or not.

Proration process

• Refund (Wipe): The system calculates the unused portion of the subscription from the adjustment date to the end of the charge cycle. We calculate this amount by multiplying the daily rate per license by the number of licenses and the remaining days in the cycle after the adjustment.
• Charge (Recreate): Simultaneously, the system charges for the new number of licenses, but only for the remaining days in the charge cycle.

Example

Let's say you bought 10 licenses of an annual "Microsoft Business Standard" subscription with a monthly billing plan on April 10, 2023, with USD 10 per month for each unit. On June 20, you added five more licenses.

• Initial subscription: USD 10 per license × 10 licenses = USD 100 per month.
• Daily rate: USD 10 ÷ 30 = USD 0.3333333. The monthly unit price is divided by 30 as the recurring cycle charges began in June 10. For more information, see proration principle.
• Adjustment on June 20: Increase to 15 licenses.
  • Refund: 10 licenses * USD 0.3333333 per day × 20 days (June 20 to July 9) = USD 66.66 (rounded down to tow decimal places).
  • Charge: 15 licenses * USD 0.3333333 per day × 20 days (June 20 to July 9) = USD 99.99 (rounded down to tow decimal places).
  • Total charge for June: USD 100 + USD 99.99 - USD 66.66 = USD 133.33.

Total amounts might change due to taxes, exchange rates, and other adjustments.

Find reseller information in reconciliation files or line items

To view the reseller for a purchased product or service, use these attributes of your reconciliation data. The reseller or tier 2 MPN ID is only visible in the reconciliation data for indirect providers.

Attribute/Column name	Description	Expected value
MpnId	The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program identifier of the Cloud Solution Provider program (CSP) partner (direct or indirect).	The associated partner ID you mentioned while enrolling in the CSP program.
ResellerMpnId / Tier2MpnId	The reseller of record for the subscription can be identified using Partner Center under each subscription for indirect providers.	See expected values for the Reseller or Tier 2 MPN ID attribute or column

Expected values for the Reseller or Tier 2 MPN ID attribute or column

Depending on the reseller's involvement, you see different values for the reseller's MPN ID:

• 0 or blank: No reseller is involved, meaning the transaction is direct between the customer and the partner.
• –1: The reseller was removed, likely from the partnership or the specific transaction. Historical transactions should still reflect the original MPN ID, while future ones don't involve the reseller.
• A reseller's MPN ID: The reseller is involved in the transaction.

Verify reseller involvement

Before checking the MPN ID, always verify if a reseller was part of the transaction. Reviewing the purchase details using the order history ensures accuracy in your records.

Involve a reseller in the purchase process

To involve a reseller, create customer subscriptions with their participation. For detailed guidance, see create customer subscriptions in Partner Center. This process is crucial for maintaining accurate records and ensuring resellers receive their due recognition and benefits.

Implications of removing a reseller

Removing a reseller might not impact historical transactions but could affect future ones. Consider how to handle existing subscriptions, either by transferring them to another reseller or taking them over directly.

Understanding these processes and the significance of MPN ID values helps you maintain accurate billing and reconciliation information, ensuring smooth operations and effective management of your Microsoft partnership.

Related content

• How to use the reconciliation files