Ask the Expert: How to Maximise Benefits of Consolidated Billing

While many partners may already be receiving their Microsoft CSP invoices in the consolidated billing format; by June 30th, 2021 Dicker Data will exclusively manage Microsoft CSP billing this way, aligning to Microsoft’s Modern Commerce requirements.

We chat to Microsoft licencing expert, Anna Shaw, Microsoft Operations Lead, Dicker Data about what consolidated billing is and how partners can embrace the benefits to streamline their administration.

Can you tell me about your role in the Microsoft team and how you work with partners?
As the Operations Lead for Microsoft at Dicker Data I manage the team of licensing and sales specialists who work with partners every day. We work through support requests around MPN, the licencing programs, billing and work closely with the technical support team.

What is Consolidated Billing?
Rather than being billed multiple times a month for each tenant change, consolidated billing means you would only receive 1 invoice per month. The bill is generated on the first week of every month and will show variance changes and cycle bills through the period, the total value for each seat based subscription as well as the total invoice value against your business.

How do you calculate the amounts for additions and/or reductions that might have occurred during that month?
Additions or reductions that occur during the month get accounted for in the next invoice. For example, if a license was already paid for, for 30 days and got cancelled in 15, the refund would appear during the next invoicing run. If there was an addition within the month, then the additional amount will be pro-rated to the existing date of the subscription.

It is for this reason that partners typically feel most impact to their business in the first 2 months after switching over to consolidated billing.

By the third month you should have a clear idea of the process and expected revenue. I encourage you to reach out to my team in this period to work through changes with you.

How do we keep track of the changes and new amounts?
Our invoices are sent with all the details relating to every tenant and every change that was made, making it easy to be referenced by your accounts team. We also have features such as excel downloads and reporting tools which show dates and changes.

What are the benefits for me & my business?
Partners can enjoy greater visibility of their recurring revenue which allows for improved forecasting and supports business agility.

Specifically, you will be able to:

• Minimise administration and time taken by accounts to reconcile at the end of the month 
• Improve reporting and detail provided on subscription spend
• Reduce the impact when Microsoft enforcing the change moving over to the modern commerce model