One Customer, One Renewal Date: What NCE Coterminosity Actually Fixes
TL;DR
- Coterminosity, effective March 18, 2022, lets CSP partners align all of a customer's NCE subscriptions to a single renewal date regardless of term length.
- Charges for coterminous subscriptions are prorated against the first subscription's renewal date, and co-termination applies to add-ons as well as base products.
- Coterminosity cannot reset a renewal date when you add seats, adjust durations mid-term, or change end dates after it is enabled.
- Active NCE subscriptions cannot be made coterminous retroactively through a distributor; only net-new subscriptions are eligible once the distributor supports it.
- You cannot align end dates across different customer tenants, only within a single customer.
Picture a customer with six NCE subscriptions and six different renewal dates, each one set by whenever you happened to upgrade a legacy product or buy net new. Now multiply that by your whole customer list. That was the renewal future MSPs were staring at until Microsoft announced coterminosity (opens in new tab) for the New Commerce Experience, effective March 18, 2022. Here is what it changes for billing and management.
The mess it replaces
Before this policy, subscription renewals were shaping up to be a nightmare. Every subscription carried its own renewal date depending on when it entered NCE, which meant a single customer could accumulate many disparate renewal dates, including add-ons renewing on different days than the base plans they attach to. Managing those renewals, and modeling them in PSA tools, was going to be extremely complex.
How aligned renewals work
Coterminosity lets you align all of the subscriptions under a customer to a single renewal date, no matter the term. Microsoft's worked example makes the mechanics clear:
The points worth committing to memory:
- Charges are prorated against the first subscription's renewal. In the example above, Subscription B is prorated from July 17 to May 2.
- A customer can have more than one coterminous date if you want to mix it up. We cannot think of a reason you would, but the option exists.
- Co-termination applies to add-ons and base products alike.
- The granular detail lives in Microsoft's documentation: align subscription end dates (opens in new tab).
What coterminosity will not do
Five scenarios sit outside its reach:
- Adding a seat to an existing subscription. You cannot reset a renewal date by incrementing seats.
- Upgrading a seat to a new or existing subscription.
- Mid-term adjustments of subscription duration, such as moving from a 1-year to a 3-year term.
- Adjusting subscription end dates after coterminosity is turned on.
- Aligning end dates across different customer tenants. The alignment is per customer only.
Turning it on
How you adopt it depends on where you sit in the channel:
Direct bill (CSP tier 1): use the Partner Center documentation linked above to select coterminous dates through either the APIs or the user interface.
Indirect resellers: your distributor may not support the functionality yet. Two things to know while you wait: active NCE subscriptions cannot be retroactively set coterminous, and all net-new subscriptions become eligible once your distributor adds support. Expect the distributor either to handle the opt-in on their back end or to surface a coterminosity selection on the front end when you purchase the subscription.
Frequently asked questions
Can one customer have more than one coterminous date?
Yes. Microsoft allows multiple coterminous dates per customer if you want to group subscriptions into separate renewal cohorts, though for most MSPs a single date is the whole point.
Does adding seats to an existing subscription reset the renewal date?
No. Incrementing seats on an existing subscription is an unsupported scenario for coterminosity, so the renewal date stays where it was.
What if your distributor does not support coterminosity yet?
Wait for them to add it. Active NCE subscriptions cannot be retroactively set coterminous, but all net-new subscriptions become eligible once your distributor enables the functionality, either on their back end or as a front-end option at purchase.
Renewals on one date, posture on one screen
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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.
