Manage customer associations

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Appropriate roles: Billing admin | Global admin | Incentives admin

Partners can use the Claiming Partner of Record (CPOR) platform to associate themselves with end customers with whom they're influencing the:

  • Purchasing of Microsoft products
  • Use of Microsoft products

Partners use this association to:

  • Gain insight into customer performance.
  • Earn revenue association as a business influencer or usage/competency attainment.
  • Receive incentives payments through the Modern Work and Security Usage and Microsoft Online Service Advisor (OSA) engagements.

The CPOR platform supports Business Applications products and Modern Work and Security products.

CPOR shouldn't be confused with the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) customer associations and relationship management.

Access CPOR claims

Use the following steps to access CPOR claims.

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Incentives.
  2. Select Customer claims from the menu.

Disassociate with a customer

If you've made a CPOR association claim, and it has been approved, you're now associated with the customer. If you want to disassociate with the customer, use the following steps.

  1. Open the approved claim.
  2. On the claim page, select Disassociate customer.
  3. Enter a reason for disassociation.
  4. When you're finished entering the information, select Disassociate customer.

Disassociation with the customer is then complete, and the claim moves to Rejected final status.

How your CPOR association claim relates to incentives

If you've made a CPOR association claim, and it has been approved, you're now associated with the customer. However, that doesn't mean that the claim is approved for incentive earnings or payout.

Your incentive program guide describes the eligibility requirements for incentives to be paid based on approved claims.

If your CPOR association claim is approved and eligible for incentives, then you can validate the subscription or tenant ID in the earnings and payout reporting.

To find out more, see the detailed information at Incentives and investments (sign-in required).

Customer claims overview

The Customer claims page shows an all-up view of CPOR claims across all earning opportunities.

On the Customer claims page, you can:

  • Export claim data
  • Create new claims
  • Access individual claims
  • Filter claims using the search bar to easily find the desired claims
  • Sort claims by selecting the desired column headers
  • Associate a new customer from your claims page by selecting Add customer

Status of your CPOR association claim

You can check the status of your CPOR association claim at any time by using the Customer claims dashboard (sign-in required).

Here are the claim statuses and their meanings:

Claim status Appears when
Draft Your CPOR association claim has been created. Your claim remains in this state until you upload the proof of execution (PoE) document and submit the claim for approval.
Submitted You've successfully submitted your CPOR association claim, but Microsoft hasn't started the review process yet. Your claim can remain in the submitted state for up to five business days until Microsoft starts the approval process.
Under review Microsoft has started validating your PoE documentation. This review can take up to 14 business days. We might contact you to ask for more information during this time.
Rejected Your claim was rejected because PoE was insufficient, or you didn't respond to a request for more information within 14 business days.
Approved Your claim has been approved.
Partner action required Microsoft has reviewed your CPOR association claim PoE and needs more information about the products/workloads you've claimed. You have 14 business days to provide the requested information and resubmit your claim, or it will be rejected. For a list of reasons why more information might be needed, see Reasons why more information might be needed in the following section.
Dispute You can dispute a rejected claim. You're allowed to dispute a rejected claim only once.
Rejected final Your claim was rejected because PoE was insufficient post dispute.

Reasons why more information might be needed

  • Missing all PoE: PoE is missing file you uploaded was incorrect or didn't pertain to the CPOR association claim
  • Missing customer acknowledgment: Customer signature isn't on the PoE
  • Missing or old dates: Dates on PoE are missing or old in relation to the claim
  • Missing partner solution/service: The description of work you've completed is insufficient or not included in the document
  • Missing products: PoE doesn't include a product or workload for which a claim is being made

Dispute a rejection of a CPOR association claim

If you receive an email that says that your CPOR association claim was rejected, you're also told where you can view the reason for the rejection and how to dispute it.

You have 30 days to dispute a rejected CPOR association claim. If you want to dispute a rejected claim after 30 days, you must submit a new association with an updated proof of execution (PoE).

To dispute a rejected CPOR association claim:

  1. Sign in to Partner Center and select Incentives.
  2. Open the rejected claim.
  3. On the claim page, select Dispute.
  4. Enter a business justification or an updated PoE explaining why the rejection should be reconsidered.
  5. When you're done entering the information, select Dispute. Reviewers should contact you with results within five working days.

Reasons a CPOR association claim is rejected

  • Three common reasons that a CPOR association claim is rejected are:
    • Customer declined: After a CPOR association claim goes through the PoE approval process successfully, its status changes to Approved and the customer is given an opportunity to deny consent to the association. If the customer denies consent, the association is rejected.
    • Insufficient proof of execution: Proof of execution is required for every CPOR association. After your CPOR association claim is submitted, Microsoft reviewers take up to five days to review your PoE. They might ask for more information using the Comments section of your claim. If you don't submit sufficient information, your CPOR association claim is rejected.
    • Partner request: Partners can request to have their association rejected, which usually happens when a partner:
      • Created a CPOR association claim by mistake, using an incorrect Cloud Partner program
      • Has chosen an incorrect activity (for example, they chose Influenced Revenue recognition - Non-Incentivized(Revenue Association) rather than Build intent – Advisor(Pre-sales))
      • Isn't working with the customer any longer.
  • Other possible reasons for rejection are:
    • Missing customer consent on PoE
    • No partner response
    • Missing products
    • PoE unavailable

Edit your CPOR association claim

You can edit fields in your CPOR association claim. You might be asked to remove products/workloads if the reviewers determine that the submitted PoE is insufficient.

To edit your CPOR association claim, it must be in the Partner action required state.

Information that you can edit in your claim:

  • MPN
  • Products
  • Contact information
  • PoE and commentary

How to communicate with PoE reviewers

Reviewers might determine that more information is needed when they review your PoE. If so, they contact you through the Comments section of your claim. You can reply to them in the Comments section as well.

Next steps