Manage Microsoft NCE subscription

To manage your Microsoft NCE subscription, use the Managing tab of the subscription page in the Customer Control Panel (see Subscription details). Some operations are also available from the subscription card in the list of subscriptions of your account (see List of subscriptions).

To manage the licenses purchased within all Microsoft subscriptions of your account, see Manage Microsoft NCE licenses.

In this article:

License quantity check

Microsoft 365 Business line

If the product is in the Microsoft 365 Business line, the platform:

• When purchasing a new subscription or increasing the resource quantity in an order of any type for an existing subscription, does not allow to place the order if Microsoft informs that the total number of licenses across all subscriptions in the tenant exceeds 300 for a single product.

• At the last step of the order of any type, informs you that organizations with more than 300 users should consider Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans, and Microsoft may impose a limit of 300 licenses for all business plans with prior notice.

A list of products in the Microsoft 365 Business line:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic.

• Microsoft 365 Business Standard.

• Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

• Microsoft 365 Apps for Business.

Add-ons

The maximum resource quantity available in an add-on plan depends on the total resource quantity purchased under the main plans.

Automatic detection of price changes

The platform automatically checks the Microsoft price list preview three times a month — on the 3rd, 13th, and 23rd at 08:00 UTC+3 — to detect upcoming price changes for Microsoft NCE plans. This allows you to learn about upcoming Microsoft price changes in advance and take them into account when managing plans, subscriptions, and orders.

During the check, the platform compares the price in the Microsoft price list preview with the price configured for the corresponding plan. If a price change is detected, the platform automatically enables the Price change parameter and sets Price change from to the date when the new Microsoft price takes effect.

If Price change is already enabled, the platform updates Price change from if the expected price change date has changed.

Prolong subscription

Prolongation is used for P1Y Monthly subscriptions only. Reducing the number of ordered licenses during the subscription prolongation is not available.

Renew subscription

Main specifics of manually renewing Microsoft subscriptions:

• You can upgrade and downgrade resources with every renewal of a subscription.

• You can also renew a subscription with switching its plan (see Renew with switch).

• Microsoft does not provide a grace period for expired Microsoft NCE subscriptions. It means that after the expiration date, if you don’t place a renewal/renewal with switch order, or the auto-renew option is not enabled, an unpaid subscription is deleted and cannot be renewed.

• You can cancel a subscription within a limited period after every renewal while charges are not yet closed, similar to cancelling it after purchase (see Delete subscription).

It is also possible to renew an expiring Microsoft subscription (NCE, Software, AppSource) from the Customer Control Panel if:

• The Manual renewal of expired subscription is enabled in the service terms;

• Placing a Renewal order is available for the subscription.

After you submit a manual renewal order for such a subscription in the Customer Control Panel, the system will validate the possibility of renewing it - specifically compare the current time with the subscription expiration date & time (on the Microsoft side), taking the time-zone difference into account.
In this case:

• If the renewal cutoff has not yet been reached, renewal is still available through Microsoft.

• If the renewal cutoff has been reached, renewal is no longer available through Microsoft.
  A notification will be displayed informing you that the subscription can’t be renewed on the vendor’s side. You will have to buy a new subscription if you want to continue using this service.

Switch plan

For Microsoft NCE subscriptions, switching the plan is performed only manually and used in the following cases:

• Switching from a trial to a paid subscription.

• Full upgrade — switching a paid subscription to a plan with another SKU.

• Partial upgrade — moving part of the licenses from a paid subscription to a plan with another SKU.

• Renewing a paid subscription with switching its plan.

Switch from trial to paid subscription

Switching to a paid plan is only available for trial subscriptions until they expire. After the subscription expiration, switching is not possible. For switching from a trial to a paid Microsoft NCE subscription, the immediate switch is used.
In this case:

• In a switch plan order, reducing the number of licenses below 25 is not available. If you need a subscription with fewer than 25 licenses, order a new subscription rather than use switching (see Order Microsoft NCE subscription).

• After switching from a trial, the cancellation policy within a limited period is not applied to a paid subscription (see Delete subscription).

• The platform uses the license transfer mode for switching when available on the Microsoft side.

Full upgrade

For switching a paid Microsoft NCE subscription to a plan with another SKU, the immediate switch is used.

In this case:

• Switching is available during the limited by the reseller period before the subscription expiration date.

• The number of licenses in a switch plan order is prefilled with the current value from the subscription.

• Downgrading of licenses is not available.

• The subscription expiration date is not changed if the period of a new plan matches the current period of the subscription.

• When available on the Microsoft side, the platform uses the license transfer mode.

• After switching a subscription, a linked discount from Microsoft is no longer applied.

Partial upgrade

• Only part of the subscription's licenses can be moved. The initial subscription must retain at least one license.

• The licenses can be moved either to a new subscription or to an existing eligible destination subscription.

• The initial subscription is reduced by the number of transferred licenses. The expiration date of the new subscription depends on the source and target subscription periods.

• Partial upgrades are available only when the target plan is offered by Microsoft for the initial subscription and a corresponding plan is available in the platform.

• If all licenses need to be moved to another SKU, use the Full upgrade functionality instead.

Renew with switch

For renewing a paid subscription with switching its plan, a delayed order is used with the provisioning date set to the subscription expiration date.

Renewing a paid Microsoft NCE subscription with switching its plan has the following specifics:

• The number of licenses in a switch plan order is prefilled with the current value from the subscription.

• For renew with switch plan orders, the system also validates the subscription’s renewal eligibility from the Microsoft side similarly to the renewal order provisioning process described above.

• After a switch plan order gets the Waiting for provisioning status, the Auto-renewal option of a subscription in the platform is turned off.

• On the subscription details page, a message is displayed with the date when a switch plan order will be provisioned — the subscription expiration date.

• After switching the plan, cancelling a subscription within a limited period is available similar to ordering a new subscription (see Delete subscription).

• After switching to a P1Y Annual or P1M Monthly plan, all charges are closed with a delay after completing the order, similar to ordering a new subscription (see Delete subscription).

Change resources

• All Microsoft NCE plans have only one resource — License.

• For trial subscriptions, the number of licenses is fixed at 25.

• Reducing the number of licenses is only available within a limited period after the purchase and renewal of a subscription and after increasing the quantity of resources.
  For a resource downgrade order, the platform checks whether this reduction is currently allowed on the Microsoft side and what is the minimum quantity that should remain in the subscription. If by the time the order is provisioning, the conditions on the Microsoft side change (for example, the allowed period ends), the order with the previously successfully validated quantity will still get the Provisioning failed status.

Stop and activate subscription

Stopping and activating are not available for Microsoft NCE subscriptions.

Delete subscription

Deleting a Microsoft NCE subscription means cancelling a paid subscription and deleting all related user data. Deleting a subscription is available within a limited period after its purchase and renewal.

Next to the subscription deletion button, a countdown timer is displayed. When the period expires, the timer disappears, and deleting the subscription becomes unavailable. Also with that, for P1Y Annual and P1M Monthly subscriptions, charges for the whole period are closed.

Cancellation terms of a Microsoft NCE subscription after its purchase (renewal):

• Deleting a subscription up to 23:59 of the day — full refund. For P1Y Annual and P1M Monthly subscriptions activated less than one hour before the next billing day (UTC+3), deleting is not available, since their charges are closed immediately.

• Deleting a subscription later but within a limited period after its purchase and renewal while charges are not closed — partial refund for the unused subscription period only with closing charges for the consumed part of the subscription period up to the subscription deletion day (excluded). If the next billing day is closer, the period when deletion is available is shorter and limited by the next billing day.

• Deleting a subscription later (or after the next billing day) is not available. Charges are closed, and no refunds are available.