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Pricing and payments for Microsoft commercial marketplace

Set pricing for your Microsoft direct or partner private offers using payment models and billing terms that best fit your buyer’s needs.

Written by Brian Palmer

When selecting a Microsoft commercial marketplace listing on your private offer form, you see a list of plans associated with the listing. After you select a plan, you’re prompted to set your custom pricing. Pricing for Microsoft private offers is composed of two pricing models and four payment models. When creating a private offer, you enter a custom offer duration in months and then select the payment model that applies to the contract.

Pricing models include flat rate (and sometimes flat rate with usage) and per user pricing. Note that a listing can only have one pricing model in all of the associated plans.

About pricing offers and public plans

The only pricing options that can be selected in a private offer are based on the available billing terms and payment models on the chosen public plan to be used as a template to customize.

A public plan is used as a template to customize pricing for your private offer. When creating a private offer, you enter an offer duration between 1 and 120 months and select a payment model. The payment models available depend on the offer duration you enter.

Pricing models

Flat rate pricing

This model lets buyers pay a flat rate based on the payment model and billing term selected upon accepting the offer.

Through flat rate pricing, you can:

  • Set a recurring payment amount that your buyer pays based on the payment model available for the selected billing term

  • Set a price that your buyer pays through custom payment schedule installments

Per user pricing

This model lets buyers pay based on the number of users, billing term, and payment option selected when creating the offer.

Through per user pricing, you can:

  • Set a price for each user the buyer will purchase based on the payment model associated with the billing term the buyer selects at the time of offer acceptance

Billing terms

When creating a private offer, enter the length of the subscription in the Offer duration (months) field. Enter a number between 1 and 120 to set the contract length for the offer.

The Payment model dropdown is disabled until you enter an offer duration. Once you enter a duration, you can select a payment model.

Payment models

A payment model determines how the buyer is billed during the contract period. The Payment model dropdown becomes available after you enter an offer duration.

For Microsoft commercial marketplace, payment model options include:

  • Payment schedule — Available when the offer duration is 2 months or more. Not available for per-user pricing plans.

  • One-time — Always available regardless of offer duration.

  • Per-month — Available when the offer duration is 2 months or more.

  • Per-year — Available when the offer duration is a multiple of 12 months (for example, 12, 24, or 36 months).

Currency

By default, all private offers are created in USD. If your buyer is in a foreign market, Microsoft will convert your USD ($) pricing to the local market currency.

To transact in a non-USD currency, select a different currency from the Currency dropdown when creating a private offer. The dropdown presents all currency options that are available based on the markets configured on the public plan for your listing.

Before you use foreign currencies for Microsoft private offers

The public plan on your Microsoft listing must have the target market enabled. Only markets configured on the public plan will have their associated currencies available for selection on the private offer form.

View markets

When you select a non-USD currency, you can view the markets that accept the selected currency and that are included in your public plan. Select View markets to see the full list. Pricing will be published to all of these markets for the selected currency.

All market pricing

When you select a non-USD currency, Microsoft requires pricing in the local currency for each market configured on your public plan. Your pricing is automatically converted to other currencies to meet Microsoft's requirements.

Note
Currency conversion rates are provided by independent third-party providers and may not match Microsoft's exchange rate. Tackle does not originate, control, or independently verify this information. Review and adjust prices as needed.

Select Review pricing to review and adjust the converted pricing for any available market.

Review pricing for all markets

The Review pricing sidebar lets you review the automatically converted pricing for each market currency. Each payment on the private offer appears in the sidebar with the converted price for the selected currency.

  • Select a currency from the Currency dropdown to view pricing for that market.

  • Pricing is converted based on Tackle's daily foreign exchange rate provided by independent third-party providers. Rates are fixed at the time of offer creation or last update and are not refreshed automatically.

  • To override a converted price, enter your preferred amount in the payment field. Your entered price replaces the auto-converted amount for that payment.

If you change the currency or regenerate your payment schedule on the offer form, any values you've entered in the Review pricing sidebar will be overwritten and can't be recovered.

Estimated USD on offer submission

When you submit a non-USD offer to the cloud, Tackle displays an estimated USD amount for the gross and net values. This estimate is based on Tackle's daily foreign exchange rate provided by independent third-party providers.

If you overrode any USD pricing in the Review pricing sidebar, the price you entered is used as the estimate for those payments instead of a conversion. The estimated USD gross and net amounts are calculated as the sum of all USD pricing shown in the Review pricing sidebar. The net amount factors in the marketplace fee deducted by Microsoft.

If you imported the offer from Microsoft Partner Center, the estimated USD shown is the USD pricing configured in Partner Center.

Payment Schedules

This specific model is available for flat-rate pricing models with any billing term greater than one (1) month and is useful for buyers who want to use a flexible billing payment schedule to pay over the course of their contract. Selecting a payment schedule includes setting a schedule of installments.

Note

Payment schedules are not supported for per-user pricing models.

Through a payment schedule, you can:

  • Create from 1 to 70 payments of any value over the course of the billing term selected.

  • An initial charge must be included that is sent when your buyer subscribes to the private offer. The initial charge can be $0.

Set a payment schedule for a Microsoft private offer

Set a payment schedule for a Microsoft private offer:

  1. Complete the sections in the form, including these specific fields to set up your schedule:

    • In Product and pricing, select the Microsoft listing and public plan you want to use.

    • Customize the plan name and plan description for your offer.

    • For Billing term, enter the offer duration for the length of the subscription.

      1. Payment schedules are only supported for terms greater than 1 month. ​

    • For Payment model, select Payment schedule.

    • For Payment schedule, select Add payments or Create payment schedule. If you're selecting to create a payment schedule, you can break down a total contract value (TCV) into many equal parts.

  2. When you're done setting up your schedule and completing the offer form, submit your offer for review.

Create a payment schedule for a Microsoft offer

  1. Select Create payment schedule.

  2. Enter the total contract value of this offer. The duration appears based on your Billing term selection.

  3. Set a payment frequency for your buyer:

    • Monthly - Recurring payments every month

    • Quarterly - Recurring payments every three months

    • Semi-annual - Recurring payments every six months

    • Annual - Recurring payments every 12 months

  4. ​Choose whether you want to include the initial charge as part of your payment schedule or if you want your payment schedule to be generated after the initial charge. You can also add a note to the customer.
    Tip: If you opt to include the initial charge, enter the initial charge amount.

  5. Enter the date of the first payment following the initial charge. This determines the date for every subsequent payment. For example, if your first payment is on the 15th, every recurring payment will be on the 15th.

    ​Note: If you select the 31st of a month, recurring payments will fall on the 30th when a month does not have a 31st. For recurring payments in the month of February, Tackle will make the payment on the 28th, unless it’s a leap year in which case Tackle will select the 29th. Here’s an example where the first payment is set on October 31st and goes through a month with only 30 days and February when it’s a leap year.

  6. When you’re done, click Save.
    Tip: To ensure your payment schedule is correct, you can preview the full schedule before saving it. Click Preview to view the schedule.

Renewal

Configure how the subscription will renew at the end of the contract term if your buyer enables renewal when subscribing to the private offer. This determines whether the subscription continues under the private offer terms or transitions to a public offer at renewal. Auto-renew is off by default when your buyer subscribes. However, they may enable it at any time.

Select one of the following:

  • Renew into private offer — The subscription renews to the private offer terms. Once it expires, renewals go to the public offer.

  • Renew into public offer — The subscription renews directly to the public offer.

Note

Renew into private offer is not available when Payment schedule is the selected payment model. When Payment schedule is selected, only Renew into public offer is available.

Renew into public offer

After selecting a renewal option, choose the public offer that the subscription renews into. The available options are the billing frequencies defined in the selected public plan.

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