Which Customers Actually Earn Your Microsoft Incentives? One Power BI Report Answers It
TL;DR
- Partner Center's incentives earnings export breaks monthly rebate deposits down to the customer, product, program, and earning type level.
- Exporting the full 36 months of earnings data makes growth-over-time trends visible instead of just the latest deposit.
- Six columns are enough for the whole report: earningsAmountUSD, earningDate, earningType, transactionAmountUSD, productName, and customerName.
- Blank programName values in the export can usually be identified from the engagementName column; Azure breadth motion incentives are a common culprit.
- Negative transaction values in the export come from decremented seat counts or cancellations made before earnings were fully realized.
Incentive rebates land in the bank every month, and most partners in the Microsoft program could not say which customers they came from. If you qualify for multiple programs, Indirect Reseller and Microsoft Commerce Incentives (MCI) for instance, the program-level picture is just as murky as the customer-level one.
The fix takes an afternoon: export the earnings data Partner Center already holds, clean it up, and put a simple Power BI report on top.
The report is simplistic by design and shows:
- Total incentive payouts on a per-customer basis
- Incentive earnings over time
- Incentives by earning type, meaning co-op funds versus rebates paid straight to your bank account
- Earnings by product
- Earnings by program name
How do you get the data out of Partner Center?
Required role: Incentives Admin.
- In Partner Center, go to the Incentives page (opens in new tab).
- Click View Earnings in the Total Earning box:
- Click Export Data at the top of the page:
- On the export page you can:
- Filter date ranges. Grabbing all 36 months is the move if you want growth over time, not just a snapshot.
- Filter other metadata, like program. You can, but pulling everything keeps your options open.
- Click Download Data when ready.
- The export takes a few minutes to prepare. When it is ready, click Download:
Worth knowing: there is also an API for pulling this export on a continual basis if you want to automate the refresh: Partner Center payouts API (opens in new tab).
What should you check before building the report?
The CSV has many columns, and only a few feed the report, but the rest are worth exploring for data points your organization cares about.
Two cleanup items to look for:
Blank programName values. We found many of these, and the engagementName column usually identifies what they are. In our data the blanks traced back to the Azure breadth motion incentive, so filling them in as Azure Consumption resolved it.
Negative transaction values. These come from decrementing seat counts or cancelling subscriptions in a period before earnings were fully realized. Expected, not a data error.
Which columns build the report?
Six columns carry the whole thing:
- earningsAmountUSD
- earningDate
- earningType
- transactionAmountUSD
- productName
- customerName
When you upload the sheet to Power BI, transform the data and remove the columns you do not need, participantID for instance. As noted above, review the remaining fields first; some may be worth keeping for your own reporting.
The full build on video
The complete Power BI setup is walked through here: watch the report build (opens in new tab). Questions about the report or the underlying data are best posted as comments on the video.
Frequently asked questions
What role do you need in Partner Center to export incentives data?
The Incentives Admin role. Without it, the Incentives page and its earnings export are not available to your account.
Can the export be automated instead of downloaded manually?
Yes. Microsoft publishes a Partner Center payouts API at learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/partner-center/partner-payouts that can pull the same export on a recurring basis.
Why do some rows in the export have negative amounts?
Negative transaction values come from decrementing seat counts or cancelling subscriptions in a period before the associated earnings were fully realized. They are corrections, not errors.
Know what every customer earns you, and what they cost you
Incentive revenue is one side of per-customer math; security exposure is the other. CloudCapsule scores every tenant against 250+ controls for about $1 per user a month.
See pricing
Written by
Nick Ross
CEO · Microsoft MVP · Founder, T-Minus 365
Nick is not just a CEO, he's a respected thought leader and influencer in the MSP space. Tens of thousands of MSPs learn through his YouTube channel, T-Minus365. Nick has been honored as a three-time Microsoft MVP for his educational content; his expertise and influence are the backbone of our mission, ensuring that you are in the best hands when it comes to security.
Nick joined Pax8 in 2017, where he would ultimately oversee product management for PSA and Microsoft integrations. Following his tenure at Pax8, Nick has continued to demonstrate his leadership prowess as an executive at various MSPs, culminating in his most recent role at Sourcepass.
Nick holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from Florida State University, as well as a Minor Degree in Entrepreneurship. In his free time, Nick is an avid hiker, reader, and fitness-junkie.
