Microsoft Billing - Frequently Asked Questions

South Africa, Sep 3, 2025

Frequently Asked Questions – Microsoft Billing

Microsoft provides many leading IT solutions for enterprise and small businesses. Many organisations build their services upon the solid foundation of Microsoft products, but often the billing for all the various solutions and products can become confusing.

We’ve compiled a list of the most common questions, misconceptions, and answers regarding Microsoft billing.

Why are my invoice totals more/less than what I’ve budgeted for?

Microsoft often bills on gross terms, meaning that they invoice the entire amount. Customers are often confused when they see multiple charges for what appears to be the same product/service.

For example, when a company changes the number of users on their Microsoft license-based services, then the billing will include the gross amount for each instance of the service reflected by the number of users.

So, if the company has 40 users on the 365 service, and halfway through the month adds 5 more users, then the Microsoft invoice will show one amount for 40 users in total, and another amount for 45 users in total.

A credit note is then issued to credit the remaining portion of the month for the 40 users, and the 45 users amount becomes the only amount reflected in the total of the invoice.

It is important to note that the 5 new users would be billed pro-rata for the remainder of the month.

Does Microsoft provide separate invoices for each service/solution?

Microsoft does not issue separate invoices for each line item/ solution the business consumes. Microsoft always issues consolidated invoices in gross terms.

How does the dollar exchange rate impact my billing?

Microsoft issues invoices in dollar terms to the managed services provider. The responsibility lies on the customer and their managed service provider to convert the dollar amounts into local currency equivalents where applicable.

In the case of managed services providers, Microsoft will charge the service provider in dollar terms, and the service provider in turn invoices the customer in local currency.

When does Logicalis usually bill for services/products?

Logicalis issues monthly invoices for services/products consumed in the previous month. Payment terms are 30 days from invoice unless otherwise agreed upon.

How do I address unexpected increases in Microsoft Azure costs?

In all cloud environments managing cloud spend is critical, even more so in complex environments. Microsoft Cost Management empowers finance and IT teams with daily forecasting and budget alerts, enabling proactive cost control and early intervention.

Forecasting leverages historical usage data and current consumption trends to estimate future costs. These forecasts are refreshed daily and incorporate service-specific patterns, seasonal fluctuations, and usage anomalies giving you a dynamic view of expected spend.

By configuring budgets with alert thresholds, Logicalis and your teams receive timely notifications when spending approaches or exceeds limits. This allows for early investigation, resource optimization, or escalation before costs impact your bottom line.

Pay-as-you-go costs

Many Azure services are charged in a Pay-As-You-Go model, meaning cloud costs are directly tied to actual usage, making transparency and monitoring essential for financial planning. Microsoft Azure services such as Standard SSDs and Bandwidth are billed based on consumption metrics that can fluctuate significantly.

For example:

Standard SSDs are not just billed for storage capacity; they also incur charges based on IOPS (input/output operations per second). High-performance workloads can drive up these metrics, leading to increased costs.
Bandwidth usage, especially outbound data transfers, is another variable cost. Large-scale data movement between regions or to external endpoints can result in significant charges if not monitored.

These usage-based charges can lead to unexpected spikes if workloads scale rapidly or remain active longer than planned. By combining forecasting tools with budget alerts, IT teams can detect anomalies early and take corrective action to stay within budget.

Topic

Cloud