Billing and Invoicing Logic

Below you will find a high level explanation of the logic that the NCE Azure Connector, CloudBlue Connect and CloudBlue Commerce execute to perform the import, rating and invoicing of monthly consumption.

1. The connector receives the list of Azure NCE Subscriptions that were previously ordered, either as new subscriptions or as imported subscriptions, which should be in Active status.

2. On the 9th/10th of the month, the connector will collect usage for such subscriptions. This is done by finding all the matching invoice lines for the particular Microsoft Subscription ID and matching that to Microsoft.

   • The data that the connector collects can be located in the Service Provider's monthly Reconciliation files, which can be found in the Microsoft Partner Center. To do this, complete the following steps:

     • Log in to Partner Center.

     • Navigate to Billing > Recurring and one-time purchases XYZ (where XYZ is the currency code).

       Note: If Microsoft invoices the provider in multiple currencies, there may be multiple menus, one for each currency code.

     • Scroll down to Billing History and download the “Daily rated usage reconciliation-XXXXXXXXX-closed” file. The data is always one month behind. For example, the file indicated for March should contain February data.

     • Match the Subscription ID from Connect with the “Entitlement ID” in the downloaded file.

   • The connector pulls all the lines by matching the subscription ID (called Entitlement ID in the file).

     • The connector converts to the end customer list price based on whether PEC was given or not, by using the following formula:

       Customer Price =  BillingPreTaxTotal / ((100 - PartnerEarnedCreditPercentage) / 100)

       This converts from the provider cost to end customer price, which aligns with the Price Rated nature of the product.

     • It will sum the usage by the “Meter Category” column, so that there will be 1 row per meter category per subscription.

     • It will check the currency of the CloudBlue Commerce Marketplace with the currency sent by Microsoft. It will perform any currency conversion either by using the manually configured exchange rate (through the usage_exchange_rate_list parameter in the Connect Distributor Portal), or if there is none manually configured, by using Microsoft’s Currency Exchange API.

     • It will create one usage file per marketplace per month. You will see multiple rows per subscription (called asset_search_value) in the usage file, for each Meter Category (called item_search_value) and you will also see if AOBO is on/off (called v.aobo).

       Note: Service providers can configure how they want the usage file to be accepted in the Connect Distributor Portal > Products > NCE Azure > Usage Rules > Default Action and/or Record Level Rules.

3. CloudBlue Commerce/VRD will perform the following actions:

   • Get the usage file and apply the rating, including any discounts which may be applied.

   • Create invoices for customers at the "Price Rated" End Customer List price.

   • Using the margin configuration, it will apply the appropriate markdowns for any resellers, if they exist. Markdown may vary based on the value of the AOBO attribute for the particular line.

     • Reseller invoices are generated using standard CloudBlue Commerce processes and included into the reseller's monthly consolidated invoice.

     • If the resellers monthly invoice date has not been reached yet, the pending lines will appear in the My Reseller Status menu of uninvoiced activity.