Published on 11/03/2025
This page contains information on how to schedule a change in the subscription in the Storefront.
Leader Cloud users can schedule a change in the number of licenses, the billing plan, and the billing term of NCE subscriptions via the Storefront, without going through any lengthy processes or workarounds, either when viewing the subscription, or through the list of subscriptions.
The option is not available if there is a pending request, for pay-per-use subscriptions, assets, or for subscriptions with a quantity limit of 1.
Applicable Scenarios while Creating Future Requests
Changes to the number of licenses, billing plan, and billing term are not applied immediately, but rather when the billing service runs at the end of the current billing period, and the corresponding Service Manager is updated.
Unavailable Actions with Pending Future Request
When a subscription has a pending future request, the following actions are not permitted and will either not be available or result in an error:
- Buy licenses
- Upgrade/downgrade
- Enable/disable auto-renewal
- Suspend
- Cancel
You can note, in the following screenshot, the error message in case one of the actions listed above is selected while a future request is pending:
“This action cannot be performed because a renewal change is already scheduled for the subscription. Please cancel the renewal change request and then try again.”
Change the Number of Licenses and the Billing Plan of a Subscription
To increase or decrease the number of licenses, change the billing plan, and change the billing term of a subscription at the end of the billing period via the Storefront, go to the subscription view page, click on the I want to… button, and then select the Manage Renewal option.
In the dialog box, specify the new number of licenses, the billing plan (when applicable), and the billing term (when applicable), and then click on Submit.
Of course, users can change either the Number of licenses, the Billing Plan (when applicable), or the billing term (when applicable), a combination of those, or all at once.
It is also possible to click on the three dots … button, located in the Subscriptions list view, under the Actions column, and then select the Manage Renewal option.
Cancel Existing Requests
You may check the status of the request under the Requests section. To change a request, under the Actions column, select the Cancel option to cancel and delete the request.
Prerequisites for future request
🔹Prerequisites for Changing the Billing Plan
The below must be in place for you to be able to update the billing plan of a subscription upon its renewal:
- The Auto-renew option is enabled.
- The Instance has billing plans enabled.
- The Account has billing plans enabled.
- The Microsoft Product SKU has different billing plans supported by Microsoft.
🔹 Prerequisites for Changing the Billing Term
All four aforementioned prerequisites for the Billing Plan apply for the Billing Term as well with the addition of the following prerequisite.
- The Product SKU must have different billing terms (billing frequencies) supported by Microsoft.
Possible Available Options for Changing the Billing Plan
Based on the Current Billing Plan, the options available in the Future Billing Plan drop-down menu depend on the prerequisites outlined above, and can be the following:
| Current Billing Plan → Future Billing Plan | Notes |
|---|---|
| Monthly → Monthly | The default option for the Monthly “Current Billing Plan.” |
| Monthly → Annual | |
| Monthly → One-time Payment | |
| Annual → Monthly | |
| Annual → Annual | The default option for the Annual “Current Billing Plan.” |
| Annual → One-time Payment | |
| One-time Payment → Monthly | |
| One-time Payment → Annual | |
| One-time Payment → One-time Payment | The default option for the One-time Payment “Current Billing Plan.” |
If the user chooses to keep the current Billing Plan unchanged, the default future Billing Plan option remains the same as the current Billing Plan. This means that the plan will persist as follows: Monthly will remain Monthly, Annual will remain Annual, and One-time Payment will remain One-time Payment.
⚠️ Billing Plan Restrictions During Scheduled Changes After Disabling Billing Plan’s Functionality
When Billing Plans are disabled for an account after the purchase of a subscription, the user cannot change the Billing Plan, only the Billing Term during a scheduled change. The renewal will retain the initial Billing Plan. For example, if a customer has an Annual Billing Term subscription with a Monthly Billing Plan and the Cloud Administrator disables the Billing Plans’ functionality from the customer’s account, then the Billing Term can be changed to Monthly or Triennial, but the Monthly Billing Plan will remain the same.
Possible Available Options for Changing the Billing Term
Based on the Current Billing Term, the options available in the Future Billing Term drop-down menu depend on the prerequisites outlined above, and can be the following:
| Current Billing Term → Future Billing Term | Notes |
|---|---|
| Monthly → Monthly | The default option for the Monthly “Current Billing Term.” |
| Monthly → Annual | |
| Monthly → Triennial | |
| Annual → Monthly | |
| Annual → Annual | The default option for the Annual “Current Billing Term.” |
| Annual → Triennial | |
| Triennial → Monthly | |
| Triennial → Annual | |
| Triennial → Triennial | The default option for the Triennial “Current Billing Term.” |
If the user chooses to keep the current Billing Term unchanged, the default future Billing Term option remains the same as the current Billing Term. This means that the term will persist as follows: Monthly will remain Monthly, Annual will remain Annual, and Triennial will remain Triennial. Lastly, if a product does not support a shorter or larger Billing Term, the option for a shorter or larger term will not be available in the respective “change to:” drop-down menu.
Possible Errors While Scheduling Subscription Changes with Future Requests
There may be cases where, during the scheduling of subscription changes toward a renewal, certain errors can appear. These can be the following:
- Billing plan does not match term: In the event that the scheduled billing frequency (plan) does not match the billing term (i.e., Annual term, 36-month billing frequency), the user will receive the following message;
- “The chosen billing frequency is not valid for the current subscription term.”
- Billing term & Billing plan combination is not valid: In the event that the scheduled billing term does not match the billing frequency (i.e., Annual term, 36-month billing frequency) OR vice versa, the user will receive the following message;
- “The selected combination of billing term & billing frequency is not valid.”
- Platform or External ID are not the same as when the scheduled change took place: Should the external (Microsoft) ID or platform ID of the subscription be different on revoke from when the scheduled change took place, the user will receive the following message;
- “Cannot revoke the change for this subscription.”
- Attempting to schedule a change for a subscription containing a discontinued product: If a user attempts to schedule a change for a subscription with a discontinued product, they will receive the following message;
- “An error occurred while communicating with Microsoft. Please contact your CSP administrator.”
- Communication error with Microsoft: In the event that there is a communication error with Microsoft, the user will receive the following message;
- “An error occurred while communicating with Microsoft. Please contact your CSP administrator.”
