Troubleshooting earnings in Partner Center: Frequently asked questions

Global and local campaigns (or anything referred to as a Direct Pay model), or any lump sum adjustments usually don't contain reconciliation details like customer name, subscription ID, or invoice number.

If the lever measures growth (for example, revenue growth for a time duration for the enrolled partner), it's likely that you see customer names along with other transactional details only in the Earnings - Growth report and not in the Earnings - Default report.

For all other levers, if you see customer names for the rest of the earning lines for the same engagement or lever, there are a few possibilities:

• If reconciliation attributes like customer ID, customer name, subscription ID, or invoice number are missing for only one or two earnings lines, and only in earning details like lever or earning amount, it's most likely a manual adjustment. Review the reason code attribute in the Earnings-Default report about why it was performed. Usually, these adjustments can't be attributed to a single customer.
• If all recently added earning lines (for example, "refer latest calc date") are missing other reconciliation details (and not just customer name) for the engagement or lever, it's a data latency issue. The information is most likely available in three to five days.
• If other reconciliation attributes are available and only the customer ID and customer name are missing, it's most likely a brand new subscription and didn't go through the invoice process. For new subscriptions, customer names for customer ID type = TPID are available only after 45 to 60 days.

Adjustments usually don't have references to a single transaction or usage instance. They're performed at a later stage. Adjustments usually have bare minimum details. Examples are enrolled partner information, program or lever and earning amount, and reason code. You can understand the reason for an adjustment by referencing the reasonCode column in the download. The following table lists reason codes for adjustments and their descriptions.

If you haven't received a single earning yet for a program, first make sure you appear as Enrolled in the program on the Incentives - Overview page for the specific partner enrollment ID. Next, make sure you meet partner eligibility criteria. To learn more, see the Global program guides. In general, you receive earnings only after you enroll and meet partner eligibility criteria.

For all programs other than Microsoft Commerce Incentives

If you're enrolled and meet partner eligibility criteria, earnings might not be available for one of the following reasons:

• Customers don't meet eligibility.
• Customers don't meet transaction eligibility. (For example, customers don't meet the minimum revenue threshold, or the product isn't eligible for that lever.)
• There's no transaction or consumption for the time period.

For Microsoft Commerce Incentives

If you're enrolled, you can check if you're eligible for an engagement on the Incentives - Engagements page in the Eligibility section. If you appear as ineligible, review the details for criteria not met.

In some cases, the ineligibility details aren't outlined. In these cases, refer to the Incentives - Engagements summary section to review the complete list of partner eligibility criteria. You can also refer to the Microsoft Commerce Incentives guide.

If you're eligible for the engagement, but not yet earning for a lever, it might be because of one of the following reasons:

• Customers don't meet eligibility.
• Customers don't meet transaction eligibility. (For example, customers don't meet the minimum revenue threshold, or the product isn't eligible for that lever.)
• There's no transaction or consumption for the time period.

Program, engagement, or lever refreshes happen every year or at a set cadence for all incentive programs. Make sure the program, engagement, or lever you're concerned about is still active, and review the program rules. Refer to the summary of policy changes section for Microsoft Commerce Incentives.

If the program or engagement policies changed, or if new policies are introduced, make sure you appear as enrolled in the main program and that you're listed as eligible for the engagements. Make sure you understand the cadence of when earnings are first generated for the program. It's possible that the first earning published for the new program year might happen on a later date than the usual cadence.

Other possibilities include:

• Your relationship with the customer changed and made you ineligible for incentives.
• Customers don't meet the transaction, consumption, or usage eligibility.

Make sure that you're enrolled and eligible to participate in the engagement. To troubleshoot and understand why specific customers or subscriptions are ineligible, check the Revenue page. Review the list of ineligible reason codes.

On the Revenue and Usage summary view, you can see the total distinct revenue per customer or distinct usage per customer. Apply solution area or engagement name filters to narrow down and understand the total amount used to compute incentives compared with the total that became ineligible. Ineligible reporting is limited to the list of ineligible reason codes that we currently support. It's possible that other transactional rules failed and that revenue doesn't show up anywhere on the Revenue page.

Outside of the manual adjustment, which is explained here, the following scenarios could generate negative earnings:

• A return or wipe scenario could initiate a negation in the commerce transaction, which results in a corresponding negative earning. These kinds of earnings have all the reconciliation details like customer ID, order ID, or invoice number.

  transactionId	earningId	earningDate	transactionAmountUSD	earningAmountUSD	lever	earningType	calcDate
  Trans-123	Earn-123	7-Aug-2023	-386	-7	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Sep-2023
  Trans-123	Earn-456	7-Aug-2023	-386	-10	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	co-op	14-Sep-2023

• Based on the restatement policy defined for each incentive program, the earnings for a specific program could be updated if any changes or corrections were made to the data points that were used to compute the earning. For example, Microsoft Commerce Incentives overall could restate earnings for rolling 12 months with exceptions. These kinds of earnings have all the reconciliation details like customer ID, order ID, or invoice number.

  • Changes could financially affect where the transactionAmountUSD published ends up changing within the restatement policy period. For example, in August 2023, a transaction was recorded as $500. Then in October 2023, it was adjusted to $300 based on meter corrections.

    transactionId	earningId	earningDate	transactionAmountUSD	earningAmountUSD	lever	earningType	calcDate
    Trans-123	Earn-123	7-Aug-2023	500	5	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Sep-2023
    Trans-123	Earn-456	7-Aug-2023	-500	-5	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Oct-2023
    Trans-123	Earn-789	7-Aug-2023	300	3	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Oct-2023

  • If the published transactionAmountUSD ends up being the same, other than some negligible updates to the associated attributes, the changes might have no financial effect.

    transactionId	earningId	earningDate	transactionAmountUSD	earningAmountUSD	lever	earningType	calcDate
    Trans-123	Earn-123	7-Aug-2023	500	5	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Sep-2023
    Trans-123	Earn-456	7-Aug-2023	-500	-5	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Oct-2023
    Trans-123	Earn-789	7-Aug-2023	500	5	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Oct-2023

  • If earning was generated and reversed, which resulted in a net 0, it means partner, customer, or transaction eligibility was incorrectly applied at first and then reverted.

    transactionId	earningId	earningDate	transactionAmountUSD	earningAmountUSD	lever	earningType	calcDate
    Trans-123	Earn-123	7-Aug-2023	500	5	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Sep-2023
    Trans-123	Earn-456	7-Aug-2023	-500	-5	Core Modern Work & Security billed revenue - Direct Partner	Rebate	14-Oct-2023

For Microsoft Commerce Incentives, earnings could be restated for rolling 12 months. An earning generated in October 2023 might be updated if there are any corrections or restatements received from sources up to September 2024. It won't change beyond that time. For example, if an Azure consumption recorded for March 2023 is restated in July 2023 because of Azure meter corrections, the earnings that correspond to that Azure consumption record, which was originally created in April 2023, is revised in August 2023.

For all other programs, refer to the respective program guides to understand the restatement period.

To learn if you've reached the maximum earnings cap for an engagement, download the Max Cap Balance file from the Reports page. Learn more about the available attributes in MaxCapBalance.

The maximum cap is usually defined for an engagement for a period and is measured by using various parameters like customer and subscription. Only attributes at which the maximum cap is measured are populated in this file. For specific details, refer to the Microsoft Commerce Incentives program guide.

The balanceEarningOpportunityUSD attribute reflects how much more you can earn for an engagement for a defined period. After it comes down to 0, you can no longer earn for that engagement. To give you transparency into any revenue or usage that you continue to drive with the customer after you reach the maximum cap, the Earnings - Default report shows $0 earning for the applicable engagement along with the reasonCode attribute set to Max cap met.

Choose the custom time filter and set the start date as the first day of the program year (for example, October 1, 2023) and the end date as the current date. You want to narrow the result set to show only the earnings generated during this period. Choose the Earnings summary - By program view. It shows the top 50 earning program, engagement, or lever combination. Apply the program name, solution area, or partner role filters to narrow the result set.

• To get the distinct earnings and how much was paid (pretax amount) per engagement and per lever, refer to the Earnings page. See the Earnings summary - By program view (apply the program name and engagement name filters, if needed) for the chosen time period. Instant download of the view is also available.
• To view the distinct earnings and the corresponding payment status at a more granular level, download the Earnings - Default report. This report won't have all the reconciliation details except for Azure quarter over quarter, for which customer and subscription information was provided effective September 2023.
• To understand the underlying transactions that contributed to the earning, download Earnings - Growth.

Every incentive engagement could have a different earning calculation cadence. Because of this variability, the all-up earning numbers could change frequently.

An easy way to identify the delta earnings is to reference CalculationDate. For example, say that you downloaded the Earnings - Default report on January 15, saw change in earnings two weeks later, and downloaded another report on January 31. You can identify the delta earnings published by identifying all the earnings with CalculationDate between January 15 and January 31.

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