Automating Microsoft 365 licence control for MSPs

These are the key points

• Licence management is about who has which licence. Licence control is about whether the purchase invoice matches the licences taken per customer.
• There are four concrete situations where Microsoft 365 licence control goes wrong: pro-rata errors during changes, auto-renew switched off, price increases not implemented and missed cancellations.
• As of 19 January 2026, auto-renew on Microsoft 365 CSP is switched off by default. Without action, you automatically enter the EST period with a monthly rate plus a three percent surcharge.
• As of 1 July 2026, most Microsoft 365 licences will rise by five to thirty percent. If that increase is not automatically carried through to your selling prices, your margin shrinks unnoticed.
• ResalePartners automates Microsoft 365 licence control through integrations with distributors such as Pax8, ALSO and Ingram Micro.

In this article, we cover the following topics:

• Licence management vs. licence control: two different questions
• Four Situations Where Microsoft 365 Licence Control Goes Wrong
• Why 2026 Is the Moment to Automate Licence Control
• How Automatic Microsoft 365 Licence Control Works
• Through which distributors do you connect Microsoft 365 to your purchasing control?
• Frequently asked questions

Licence management vs. licence control: two different questions

The terms look similar but address fundamentally different questions. Licence management answers the question: which user at which customer has which Microsoft 365 licence? That is the management side. You can see in the Microsoft Admin Center or via your distributor how many licences are active per tenant.

Licence control answers a different question: does the purchase invoice you receive from Microsoft, Pax8, ALSO or Ingram Micro match the licences you have purchased and recharged per customer? That is the purchasing side. And that is what remains structurally unmonitored if you have only arranged licence management but not licence control.

The gap between the two is exactly where margin leaks away. You know how many licences are active. But are there licences that have been cancelled yet are still being billed? Have changes been made that appear pro-rata on the invoice but that you have not been able to verify? Is the licence rate still correct after the July 2026 price changes? Licence control answers those questions. Licence management does not.

Four Situations Where Microsoft 365 Licence Control Goes Wrong

Based on MSP practice, there are four concrete situations that are structurally missed under manual control.

1. Pro-rata errors during licence changes

Within the NCE model, new licences added during the term are billed pro-rata straight away for the remaining period. That sounds straightforward, but in practice those pro-rata lines appear on invoice lines that differ from what you are used to. Manual control almost always misses them. Automatic control compares the expected pro-rata costs directly with the billed amounts and flags any deviations.

2. Auto-renew switched off: the EST surcharge you do not want

As of 19 January 2026, auto-renew on Microsoft 365 CSP is switched off by default. If a subscription expires and you have not made an active renewal choice, the Extended Service Term (EST) comes into effect. That means monthly billing at the monthly rate, which is up to twenty percent higher than the annual rate, plus a surcharge of three percent. For an MSP with dozens of customers and hundreds of licences, manually keeping track of all renewal dates is unmanageable. Automatic monitoring flags which subscriptions are about to expire and which renewal choice still needs to be made.

3. Price increase not carried through to the selling price

As of 1 July 2026, Microsoft is raising the prices of most Microsoft 365 licences. If that purchasing price increase is not automatically flagged and carried through to your selling rates, your margin shrinks with every renewal cycle. That is not a one-off problem but a structural margin leak that grows month after month.

4. Cancellation processed in the PSA, not at the supplier

A customer ends a Microsoft 365 user account. The IT manager processes it in the PSA. But has the licence also been reduced at the distributor? In the NCE model, scaling down mid-term is not possible with annual contracts: that licence runs until the end of the contract term. If that situation is not visible, you can keep recharging for a licence that the customer regards as inactive in the PSA. Licence control makes that clear before the customer invoice goes out.

Why 2026 Is the Moment to Automate Licence Control

Three developments coming together make 2026 the most urgent year for MSPs to automate Microsoft 365 licence control.

First, the auto-renew change. As of 19 January 2026, auto-renew on Microsoft 365 CSP is switched off by default. That means renewals no longer happen automatically and MSPs have to actively keep track of which subscriptions expire and when. Without automation, that is unmanageable with dozens of customers and hundreds of licences.

Second, the price increase as of 1 July 2026. Almost all business Microsoft 365 licences are becoming more expensive, with increases running to more than thirty percent for frontline subscriptions. If those purchasing price changes are not flagged automatically, your back office works with outdated margin calculations for months.

Third, the introduction of Microsoft 365 E7 (Frontier Suite) as of 1 May 2026. This new enterprise subscription via CSP brings new licence types and rate structures that do not always fit straight into existing selling-price models. Automatic detection of new licence types in the purchase invoice prevents a gap from opening up between purchasing and recharging.

How Automatic Microsoft 365 Licence Control Works

With InkoopControle from ResalePartners every incoming Microsoft 365 invoice is automatically compared with the known licence agreements per customer. This works on three levels.

First, the licence numbers are checked. Does the billed number of active licences per type match what is recorded per customer in the system? Have licences been added or removed that were processed pro-rata, and is the calculation correct? Second, the rates are checked. Does the purchasing rate per licence match the contract agreement or the current Microsoft rate? If a price change has taken place, it is flagged immediately so your selling rate can be adjusted in time. Third, renewal dates are monitored. Which licences are about to expire, has a renewal choice been made and is auto-renew set correctly? That prevents unexpected EST surcharges.

Would you also like to know how automated invoice processing lays the broader foundation on which licence control runs? And how you deviations in supplier invoices structurally detect, beyond Microsoft 365 as well?

Through which distributors do you connect Microsoft 365 to your purchasing control?

Most MSPs do not buy Microsoft 365 licences directly from Microsoft but via a distributor or indirectly via an aggregator. ResalePartners integrates with the leading distributors in the Dutch MSP market: Pax8, ALSO and Ingram Micro. Via Pax8, licence changes are detected automatically based on the Pax8 specifications and processed pro-rata into the correct customer invoice. Via ALSO and Ingram Micro the same principle applies. Based on the supplier invoice, quantities, licence types and rates are automatically compared with the purchasing entered per customer.

Do you work via DSD Europe or another distributor? In the demo you discuss which integrations are available for your specific situation. Would you also like to know how the broader picture of connecting 110+ suppliers and platforms works as a foundation for your MSP ecosystem?

Want to see how Microsoft 365 licence control works for your customer portfolio?

Book a free demo of InkoopControle and discover in 30 minutes what automatic Microsoft 365 licence control looks like for your specific situation. Bring a recent purchase invoice from Pax8, ALSO or another distributor. Then we will show you straight away how the control works.

View the full purchasing control for MSPs