Azure Billing and Recon- Invoices Are Not Correct

• Advanced Azure Billing

There are certain challenges that can arise depending on how Azure is being billed which can lead to an Azure invoice to look incorrect. See the following scenarios below.

Azure is being billed 2 months behind.

• This happens when the invoicing process runs before the azure consumption is reported from Microsoft. So now the automated invoices are going to be behind by a full cycle.
  • It is recommended to use separate billing contracts for Azure and set the start date of the contract to the 15th of the month 
• How to identify this scenario:
• • Look at the billing contract start date.
  • Look at the date the "Created on" date of the provider invoice. This is easily available on the Active Provider Invoices list view on the provider invoice tab in Work 365. The Created On date indicates when the provider invoice was created as a record in Work 365. 
    • The Provider Invoice created on date will likely be after the invoice date of the Azure Contracts.
• How to Fix:
  • Ensure the Azure subscriptions are on a dedicated Azure billing contract. Set the billing contract start date out to about the 12th of the month. This should give enough leway time for the invoice from Microsoft to sync into the system by the time the Work 365 invoice is automatically generated.

​​​​​​​The customer's invoice does not match the invoice from Microsoft in Work 365

• Go into Microsoft Partner Center, and download the Daily Rated Reconciliation file (this is the consumption only file, there will be no license billing on this recon file)
• Go to the Provider invoice in Work 365 and download the consumption from there directly.
  • ​​​​​​​Advanced Azure users: on the Provider invoice click on the Azure/Advanced tab of the Subscription. Then download the partner file. 
  • Once the consumption data is downloaded apply filters to all the columns
• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​On the Microsoft daily rated file, look at the billing pre-tax total.
• On the Work 365 usage summary download, look at list price. in a new column calculate a formula for List Price*Overage Quantity. This calculated formula is the total cost of the Azure consumption
  • Compare this calculated total for cost of Azure consumption with the billing pre-tax total from the Microsoft file. Do the costs match?
• Also look at the markup % and line total on the Work 365 download. 
• If the cost comparison between Work 365 and Microsoft are the same, then the Work 365 customer invoices should be correct as the chargeable consumption totals include the markup %
  • There is one exception here where the Work 365 invoice may be invoicing consumption data from more than one consumption cycle. 

The total Azure amount on the invoice does not look correct

• Follow the steps from the previous scenario of comparing the consumption data from the Work 365 provider invoice to the Microsoft daily rated recon file. 
• If the above steps are taken and the Work 365 invoice still looks incorrect:
  • Download the daily rated usage file.
    • On the Work 365 Invoice form click on the Advanced tab download the partner file. 
    • Once the consumption data is downloaded apply filters to all the columns
      • Look at the charge end date. This indicates the consumption cycle being billed. Click into the filter drop down for charge end date. Is there more than one charge end date listed? If so is the other charge end date for a prior month's consumption cycle? ​​​​​​​
      • ​​​​​​​Also look at the provider invoice the consumption is synced to in the provider invoice filter. Is there more than one provider invoice listed from prior consumption cycles?
  • This likely indicates the system has included consumption from a prior billing cycle. 
    • To resolve this issue adjust the dates on the billing contract to invoice each cycle after consumption has been imported

Invoice amount for Azure Reserved Instances does not match the Microsoft license reconciliation file:

Review this video - Billing Azure Reserved Instances

• When comparing a Work 365 customer invoice to the Microsoft license recon file, and the Work 365 invoice amount looks incorrect complete the following steps:
  • ​​​​​​​Compare the reservation subscriptions listed on the Billing Contract with the list of reservations on the Microsoft recon file.
    • You may have to sync missing Subcriptions or update already Synced subcriptions to associate them with the correct Billing Contract.  
      • ​​​​​​​Are there older reserved instance subscriptions which have expired and Microsoft is no longer invoicing for on the recon file? If so,
        • ​​​​​​​Click into the expired reserved instance subscriptions. click deactivate on the subscription page.
        • Also these expired SKUs most likely don't need to be credited back so select Do Not Apply Refund before hitting save. This will automatically archive the license change log record. 
        • Repeat for any other expired reserved instances.
      • If every reserved instance subscription is accounted for, compare the selling prices on the subscriptions to the cost prices on the Microsoft Recon file.
      • Confirm if there are any mid-term changes listed on the invoice which should not be. If so it's likely there were still some license change logs records which had not been archived before regenerating the invoice. 
        • Either delete the line item from the invoice directly or delete the invoice, update the LCLs as archived and then regenerate the invoice.
      • Are there any credit line items on the Microsoft invoice which are missing on the Work 365 invoice? If so
        • Create NRI one time credits on the customer's billing contract.
          • Select the last date of the previous cycle as the effective date and provision date for the NRI
          • Purchase type = generic
          • Sales Unit = Primary Unit
          • Selling Price per unit = -x (x=the credit amount)
        • Delete the customer's invoice.
        • Regenerate the invoice.

If there are any questions completing the above steps please reach out to support@work365apps.com.