Support and billing overview

Article
05/10/2022

About Dynamics 365 Support

Where is Dynamics 365 support available?

Support is available in markets where Dynamics 365 Online services are offered. Some specific services might not be covered in all regions immediately after general availability (GA).

For which languages does Microsoft provide support?

Microsoft provides support in English globally and provides additional languages within certain regions. These additional languages include: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese.

English	Japanese	Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese	Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese
^*Provided globally all day, every day	^*Provided to customers in Japan all day, every day	Available to customers in Europe/Middle East/Africa regions during those regions' business hours Spanish/Portuguese available to customers in South America during that region’s business hours	Available to customers in Asia/Pacific region during that region’s business hours

^*24/7 (all day, every day) support is available based on issue severity and your support offering.

Note

Translation services might be available to assist with additional languages outside normal business hours.

Do I get 24/7 support?

Microsoft provides all day, every day support for all Severity A issues and might provide all day, every day assistance for issues of other severity based on your support offering.
For those issues that do not qualify for all day, every day support, Microsoft provides assistance during local business hours only.

What hours are considered local business hours for support?

For most countries or regions, business hours are from 9 AM to 5 PM weekdays (weekends and holidays excluded). For North America, business hours are defined as 6 AM to 6 PM Pacific Time, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. In Japan, business hours are from 9 AM to 5:30 PM weekdays.

Do I need a support plan if I need assistance with a technical issue experienced with Dynamics 365?

Yes, you need a support plan to receive one-on-one technical support. Some Dynamics 365 Online subscriptions include subscription support plans. You can find more information about the existing support plans at Dynamics 365 Support Plans. The following table outlines the best way to submit a new support request based on your product or service and customer support plan. Microsoft partners should use the Partner Center portal or the Premier support path listed in the table, as applicable.

Subscription (included)	Professional Direct	Premier Support	Unified Support
Customer Engagement and AI apps including mixed reality apps and Insights apps	Power Platform Admin center
Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (online and on-premises)	Lifecycle Services
Dynamics 365 Business Central	Support is provided through partners only. Contact your Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) for assistance.
	Software Assurance	Advantage/Advantage+	Premier Support	Unified Support
Dynamics 365 on-premises (Customer Engagement, Dynamics GP)	Support for Business		Services Hub

What support is included with a Dynamics 365 support plan?

We have designed our Dynamics 365 support plans to meet different business needs. All support plans provide access to Technical Support for break-fix issues. Higher tiers of support plans offer Technical Support on an all day, every day basis, faster initial response times and access to Advisory Support, and other benefits. You can find more information about the existing support plans at Dynamics 365 Support Plans.
Dynamics 365 is covered by the Subscription, Professional Direct, Premier, and Unified support plans.

What is a break-fix issue?

Break-fix issues are technical problems you experience while using Dynamics 365 services. “Break-fix” is an industry term that refers to “work involved in supporting a technology when it fails in the normal course of its function, which requires intervention by a support organization to be restored to working order.”
How functionality works is not considered a break-fix issue but is more closely related to training. These “how-to” questions involve a transfer of knowledge and can often be answered by reviewing product documentation, raising a question in online community forums, or contacting a knowledgeable individual such as a partner. While there might be some elements of knowledge transfer involved in solving a break-fix issue, in general, assisted training is not included in Dynamics 365 support plans.

How does Professional Direct Limited Advisory support compare to Premier Advisory support?

Professional Direct (ProDirect) Limited Advisory support provides you access to Dynamics 365 Support guidance based on (1) publicly available, best practices documentation regarding Dynamics 365 and (2) information from the Dynamics 365 Forums. ProDirect advisors offer you support based on their access to Microsoft documentation, to the Dynamics 365 support engineers, and also to the Dynamics 365 product group. Best practices guidance might include:

Planning for deployments and migrations.
Boosting performance.
Improving reliability and recoverability.
Enhancing security.

ProDirect, however, is more limited than Premier Advisory Support. ProDirect advisors do not provide detailed advisory assistance specific to an individual customer, such as design, architecture, or code reviews; detailed instructions for application or configuration tuning (for example, performance tuning); or the verification of specifications. ProDirect does not provide onsite support or engage in implementation activities such as, but not limited to, coding or configuration for customer development or deployment on Dynamics 365.

What is a preview (beta) service or feature?

Microsoft may provide access to Dynamics 365 preview, beta, or other prerelease features, services, software, or regions, to obtain feedback and for evaluation purposes. There are many different kinds of preview services and features for Dynamics 365, with service availability and program access being the biggest differentiators:

Public Preview: Made available to Dynamics 365 subscribers through the Power Platform admin center, these services are intended to give subscribers an early look into what is coming and a chance to test upcoming services and features.
Private Preview: Provided only to a small subset of customers, in direct contact with the Dynamics 365 engineering teams, focused on direct and constant feedback during the development phase of a service.
Limited Preview: A fixed and limited number of customers can have access to this preview program, and once a maximum threshold is met, no more users are allowed into the program.

When Microsoft offers you early access to Dynamics 365 preview services and features, these preview services and features are subject to reduced or different service terms as set forth in your service agreement and the preview supplemental terms. Preview services and features are provided “as-is,” “with all faults,” and “as available,” and are excluded from the Service SLAs or any Limited Warranties provided by Microsoft for Dynamics 365 Services released to general availability (GA), and are made available to you on the condition that you agree to these terms of use, which supplement your agreement governing use of Dynamics 365.

Do Dynamics 365 support plans cover preview (beta) services or features?

Support for Dynamics 365 services and features is provided only for “generally available” programs—see the previous question. Public preview and/or beta services may be supported through our forums or other channels.
Any technical support for a public preview service or feature is limited to break-fix scenarios and is available only in English with no 24/7 support available.

Using Dynamics 365 Support

How do I contact Dynamics 365 Support?

You get easy access to Dynamics 365 Support by selecting the portal from the following table that matches the product for which you need assistance. Microsoft partners should use the Partner Center portal or the Premier support path listed in the table, as applicable.

Service	Support portal
Customer Engagement and AI apps including mixed reality apps and Insights apps	Power Platform Admin center
Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (online and on-premises)	Lifecycle Services
Dynamics 365 Business Central	Support is provided through partners only. Contact your Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) for assistance.
Product
Dynamics 365 on-premises (Customer Engagement, Dynamics GP)	Support for Business or Premier Support

Why is submitting a request online the preferred method of contacting Dynamics 365 Support?

Submitting support requests online allows us to deliver fast and deep technical expertise in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Due to the detailed nature of the requests, it is much easier to provide relevant information online, compared to reading this information over the phone. This model also eliminates unproductive hold time and provides instead a simple, intuitive online process. As a result, customer problems are routed more quickly, to the most qualified engineer.

Is there a phone number I can call to contact Dynamics 365 Support?

Contacting Dynamics 365 Support over the phone will not speed up the processing of your request, and you will get a much better and faster experience by contacting support via the correct support portals listed earlier in this topic. If you cannot submit a request online, you can find a local support number from our list of regional Global Customer Service Centers.

How do I submit a support request?

Access to technical support is provided through one of the support plans included with Dynamics 365 or through one of the premium support plans. Submit a technical support request from the correct support portal for the product or service for which you need assistance (see the table earlier in this topic). To begin the support-request submission process:
From the Power Platform Admin center, select Help + support from the left navigation pane and then New support request from the top navigation.
From the Lifecycle Services portal, choose a project, select Support from the option list, and then select Submit an incident.
From Support for Business, select the Dynamics 365 product family followed by the specific Dynamics 365 product or service for which you need help.
From the Premier Portal, select New support request from the Support requests page navigation, enter your access ID and password or select your associated access ID, and proceed with your submission.
Access to subscription management and billing support is included with your Dynamics 365 Online subscription. To open a Billing and Subscription Management support request, sign in to the Microsoft 365 Portal, select the Admin app, and select the Support – New Support Request option from the left navigation. This provides access to the Need Help? pane, where you can type your Subscription Management question. If the recommended articles do not address your issue, select the Contact Support link at the bottom of the Need Help? pane and provide the additional information needed to submit the support request.

If you cannot submit a support request online, you can find a local support phone number from our list of regional Global Customer Service Centers.

How do I get support if I don’t have a Dynamics 365 subscription yet, and I get an error message while creating one?

You can open a Subscription Management support request through the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal, as long as you have a tenant administrator sign-in credentials to the portal. To open a Subscription Management support request, sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal, select the Admin app, and select the Support – New Support Request option from the left navigation. This provides access to the Need Help? pane, where you can type your Subscription Management question. If the recommended articles do not address your issue, select the Contact Support link at the bottom of the Need Help? pane, and provide the additional information needed to submit the support request.

Who can submit a support request?

Any users with the tenant admin roles on the tenant containing the Dynamics 365 subscriptions can submit a support request. End users are not enabled for opening a support request and will need to have their permissions elevated within the tenant to accomplish this task. There is no alternative to this experience.

How do I authorize another person to submit support requests for a particular Dynamics 365 subscription?

To grant permission, you must have a tenant administrator role on the tenant that contains the Dynamics 365 subscription. Assign the Service Administrator role to all users who want to create and manage support requests for that given tenant but do not require other permissions. Learn more about role assignments in the portal.

I am developing applications on behalf of my client or assisting my client who is running Dynamics 365. How do I get support?

You can get support from Dynamics 365 in two ways:

Being an administrator of your customer’s tenant, you can use or purchase a Dynamics 365 Support plan for that account, as any subscription you own under the same account is covered by the same support plan. You can also use your Partner benefits (for example, Advanced Support for Partners or Microsoft Partner Network Support) to submit a support request.
Get support using your customer’s account. To do so, the Partner (you) must have administrator or owner privileges to the customer’s subscription, most often through being a Delegated Administrator on the tenant. The Partner can then use the customer’s subscription, or the Partner can use their Dynamics 365 Support Benefits (for example, Advanced Support for Partners or Microsoft Partner Network Support) to submit a support request.

What is Initial Response Time, and how quickly can I expect to hear back from someone after submitting my support request?

Initial Response Time is the period from when you submit your support request to when a Microsoft Support Engineer contacts you and starts working on your support request. The Initial Response Time varies with both the support plan and the Business Impact of the request (also known as Severity). Initial Response Times are calculated using business-hours support for subscription-based support. Elevated support plans will contain non–business hours response times.

Severity level	Customer’s situation	Initial Response Time
Critical	Critical business impact Customer’s business has significant loss or degradation of services and requires immediate attention.	Unified Core/Advanced: < 1 hour, 24/7 Unified Performance: < 30 minutes, 24/7
Severity A	Critical business impact Customer’s business has significant loss or degradation of services and requires immediate attention.	Subscription: < 1 hour, 24/7 ProDirect: < 1 hour, 24/7 Premier: < 1 hour, 24/7
Severity B	Moderate business impact Customer’s business has moderate loss or degradation of services, but work can reasonably continue in an impaired manner.	Subscription: < 4 hours ProDirect: < 2 hours Premier: < 2 hours, 24/7
Standard	Standard business impact Customer’s business has moderate loss or degradation of services, but work can reasonably continue in an impaired manner.	Unified Core: < 8 hours, 24/7 Unified Advanced/Performance: < 4 hours, 24/7
Severity C	Minimum business impact Customer’s business is functioning with minor impediments of services.	Subscription: < 8 hours ProDirect: < 4 hours Premier: < 4 hours

How quickly will you resolve my support request?

Microsoft is committed to assist you in resolving your issue as soon as possible. Sometimes that means focusing efforts on reducing the business impact and mitigating any negative impact to your operation, before moving to a full solution. Therefore, we make a commitment to Initial Response Time and working with you until the impact of your issue is mitigated, having no direct SLA for support request resolution. The time it takes to troubleshoot and resolve a support request varies greatly based on the specifics of the issue. We will work with you to get the issue resolved as fast as possible. This applies to all levels of support.

I’m running a non-Microsoft technology with Dynamics 365 or a custom application built using Open Source Software (OSS). Does my plan support it?

Microsoft offers customers the ability to run non-Microsoft technologies along with Dynamics 365. For all scenarios that are eligible for support through a Dynamics 365 Support plan, Microsoft Support will help in isolating the issue between the Dynamics 365 instance and your custom application.
Full technical support will be provided if the issue is determined to be caused by a Dynamics 365 service or platform. Commercially reasonable support will be provided to all other scenarios. When an adequate solution to your issue is not achieved, you might be referred to other support channels that are available for the non-Microsoft software.

How do I get support during an outage or Service Interruption Event (SIE)?

View the service health in Office 365 at a glance. You can also check out more details and the service health history.
Use Message center in Office 365 to keep track of upcoming changes to features and services. We post announcements there with information that helps you plan for changes and understand how they might affect users.
Finally, if service health and Message center do not show any active or recent service issues, contact support using your technical support plan.

Which support plan do I need in order to request a Root-Cause Analysis (RCA)?

Dynamics 365 technical support does not conduct RCAs as part of any support experience. If any RCA is conducted, the Dynamics 365 engineering team will conduct the RCA. RCAs are only provided to published service-related incidents when multiple customers or services are not available. Any RCA created will be published through the Microsoft 365 Message center and will not be emailed directly to tenant admins. These published RCAs are only available in English. Any other request for an RCA to a specific scenario impacting your tenant will not be honored by the engineering team.

Purchasing and billing

How do I purchase Dynamics 365 Support?

Dynamics 365 Support plans may be purchased either online or through an Enterprise Agreement. The Professional Direct support plan is available online through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. You must be the Dynamics 365 tenant administrator or owner to purchase a support plan.
If you purchase Dynamics 365 through an Enterprise Agreement (EA), you can add a Professional Direct support plan to your Enterprise Agreement by contacting your Large Account Reseller (LAR).

When will I be billed for Dynamics 365 Support?

When you purchase a Dynamics 365 Support plan online, you will be charged immediately for the first month. You will be charged the monthly amount on the first day of each subsequent billing cycle. Enterprise Agreement (EA) purchases will follow the agreement billing cycle.

What happens at the end of the term?

At the end of your term, your plan will automatically renew to the same Dynamics 365 Support plan, using the same payment method.

How do I change or cancel my Dynamics 365 Support plan?

Manage your support plan subscriptions through the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal.

To change your support plan, first cancel your existing support plan, and then purchase a new support plan.
To cancel your support plan, select the support plan subscription that you want to cancel, and then select Cancel subscription. Learn more by reviewing this article.

If you still have questions, open a new support request with the Billing team in the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal.

Dynamics 365 Support requires commitment for the duration of the subscription term. Cancellation will not result in a prorated refund.

Dynamics 365 Support for Enterprise Agreement (EA)

How do I purchase a Dynamics 365 Support plan under an Enterprise Agreement?

Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers can purchase Dynamics 365 ProDirect and Premier technical support through their reseller.

How do I upgrade to a higher-tier Dynamics 365 Support plan?

Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers can purchase an upgrade to move from Subscription to Professional Direct, where available. To purchase the upgrade, contact your Large Account Reseller (LAR).

I have multiple EA enrollments. Do I need a support plan for each EA enrollment?

Yes, each EA enrollment requires a separate support plan. If you have one Dynamics 365 Support plan and multiple EA enrollments, then support is only covered under the enrollment the support plan is tied to. Please note that if you have multiple Dynamics 365 subscriptions under a single EA enrollment with a support plan, then all those subscriptions will have access to Technical Support.

Dynamics 365 Support for Premier

How do I submit a Dynamics 365 support request using my Premier contract?

Power Platform Admin center (PPAC) and the Lifecycle Services (LCS) are designed to recognize and entitle Premier and Unified Access IDs.

In PPAC: You can link your Premier contract to your Dynamics 365 account by entering your Premier Access ID and Contract ID information in the Power Platform Admin center, which you can do by selecting Help + Support and turning on the Premier support toggle in the new incident submission experience. This is a one-time process, and your Premier contract information will be saved with your Dynamics 365 account, being accessible from all subscriptions where you have Owner/Administrator privileges.

In LCS: You can link your Premier contract to your Dynamics 365 account by selecting a project within LCS. Select the Support option from the drop-down menu, and then select Manage Contracts. This is a one-time process, and your Premier contract information will be saved for use with any support incident you create in LCS.

Contact your Technical Account Manager (TAM) if you don’t have your access ID and contract ID information.

Although Premier customers can continue to use the Microsoft Premier Online portal or phone channels to submit a support request, using the Power Platform Admin center or Lifecycle Services has a number of significant advantages, including:

Self-help content to find answers to known issues quickly.
Faster resolution, thanks to a Dynamics 365–specific submission experience.
Ability to create Severity A/1 cases online.
Providing you with in-context help regarding the issue you’re facing.

How do I purchase a Premier support contract?

To purchase Premier support, you should contact your Microsoft Account Manager. If you are not sure who to contact, please submit a request through the Premier contact form.

What if I already have a Premier contract, and I want to learn more about how to get the most from it?

Contact your Technical Account Manager (TAM) to discuss options for best using your existing Premier support agreement or rightsizing your Premier agreement to better suit your Dynamics 365 needs. You can find your TAM’s name and contact information on the Microsoft Premier Online portal.

Can Partners use the Premier Support for Partner (PSfP) contract for Dynamics 365 Support?

Yes, Partners with Premier Support for Partners (PSfP) contracts are able to use their benefits to get Dynamics 365 Support for their internal needs, as well as to assist their customers, as long as the Partner has been delegated admin/owner access to their customer’s Dynamics 365 subscription. See the FAQ earlier in this section on how to submit a support request using your Premier contract.

Dynamics 365 Support for Partner

I have a Microsoft plan (such as MSDN, BizSpark or TechNet) that includes as a benefit a number of technical support requests. Can I use those for Dynamics 365 on-premises technical support?

Yes, if you are eligible for these benefits and have activated your support access on the Visual Studio subscription portal. If you have these benefits, then from New support request, select Add contract under the Support Plan – Add or purchase a support plan step, and enter your access ID and contract ID information to proceed.