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Key next steps after accepting your Microsoft Customer Agreement

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This article helps you get started as you begin to manage Azure billing and subscriptions under your new Microsoft Customer Agreement.

Some of the benefits under the agreement include:

  • Flexibility to choose how you want to pay for your Azure consumption.
  • Free tools to help you understand and optimize your costs.
  • A single place to manage your Azure purchases at Azure.com.

Start building your solutions in Azure

When you move existing subscriptions to your Microsoft Customer Agreement billing profile, service isn't changed and there's no service downtime.

If you’re a new customer, Azure automatically creates a default subscription for you.

Note

Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet customers must manually create their first subscription. For more information, see Create a Microsoft Customer Agreement subscription.

After your subscriptions are moved, access to the subscriptions is unchanged for your users. All consumption against the subscriptions route invoices under your new contract. When you start consuming Azure services, your new invoice under the Microsoft Customer Agreement is generated on the fifth day of every month and your default payment method is wire transfer. Learn how to set up your payment method to avoid delays.

How billing works under the agreement

When you or your organization signed the Microsoft Customer Agreement, a billing account was automatically created. You use your Microsoft Customer Agreement (billing account) to track costs and manage billing. By default, the user who accepted the Microsoft Customer Agreement becomes the owner of the billing account. They have permission to manage billing for the account. The user can add other users, who also have permission to view and manage the billing account.

Update your PO and tax ID number

Update your PO number in your billing profile and, after moving your subscriptions, ensure you update your tax ID. The tax ID is used for tax exemption calculations and appears on your invoice. Learn more about how to update your billing account settings.

Confirm payment details

When you move from a pay-as-you-go or an enterprise agreement to a Microsoft Customer Agreement, your payment method changes. The following table compares your previous payment method against your new one.

MCA purchase method Previous payment method - Credit card Previous payment method - Invoice New payment method under MCA - Credit card New payment method under MCA - Invoice
Through a Microsoft representative ✔ ✔ ⁴ ✔ ²
Azure website ✔ ✔ ¹ ✔ ✔ ³

¹ By request.

² You continue to pay by invoice/wire transfer under the MCA but will need to send your payments to a different bank account. For information about where to send your payment, see Pay your bill after you select your country/region in the list.

³ For more information, see Pay for your Azure subscription by invoice.

⁴ For more information, see Pay your bill for Microsoft Azure.

Complete outstanding payments

Make sure that you complete any outstanding payments for your older pay-as-you-go or EA contract subscription invoices. For more information, see Understand your Microsoft Customer Agreement Invoice in Azure.

Cancel support plan

Learn how to cancel a previous support plan.

Need help? Contact us

If you have questions or need help, create a support request.

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