Switch Your Microsoft 365 CSP Billing to IT Partner
A partner-of-record change: we move your Microsoft 365 subscriptions from your current CSP reseller to IT Partner under Microsoft's own documented transfer workflow. The switch is free for organizations moving their CSP billing to us. It is a billing-relationship change, not a migration — your tenant, data, users, and configuration are untouched, there is no downtime, subscriptions continue at Microsoft's published list prices, and your existing NCE term end dates carry over unchanged. You accept our reseller relationship in your own admin center; the transfer itself typically completes within two business days. Once billing is with us, unlimited break-fix support during business hours is included at no extra charge — 24/7 coverage is a separately priced support agreement, not the default.
What this engagement is
Changing your Microsoft CSP provider is one of the most misunderstood moves in Microsoft 365 — and one of the smallest. Nothing about your tenant migrates, because nothing needs to: Microsoft's CSP program is built so that the billing relationship and the tenant are separate things. What changes is who invoices you and who answers when you need help. What does not change is everything else — your data, your users, your configuration, your prices (Microsoft sets list prices and we sell at them; our margin comes from Microsoft, not from a markup on you), and the end dates of any NCE terms you have already committed to. The mechanics are Microsoft's, and they are documented: we send a reseller relationship request, someone with admin rights in your tenant accepts it, and Microsoft moves the subscriptions — typically completing within 72 hours, and in our experience usually within two business days. Your current partner does not need to cooperate and cannot block the move; the process is customer-approved by design. Where it is cleaner to align the switch with a renewal date, we schedule it that way and say so up front. We do this work without charging for it because it is how organizations become licensing clients: the switch itself is free when you are moving your CSP billing to us, and there is no obligation to buy anything beyond the subscriptions you already run. As a direct-bill CSP partner — Microsoft since 2006 — we invoice you directly, itemized by SKU so it reconciles against your admin center. Support afterwards is included rather than upsold: organizations that buy their Microsoft licensing through us get unlimited break-fix support during business hours at no extra charge — when a Microsoft 365 service, account, or mail flow stops working, you open a ticket and it is worked, with no support plan required. That support runs under our published SLA: first response within one business hour, with the monthly statistics — including the months we missed — published openly. Two boundaries, stated plainly: project work (migrations, implementations, new functionality) is quoted separately, and 24/7 coverage is a paid support agreement for customers who sign up for that SLA — everything else is business hours. Both the included-support policy and the SLA are published in our facts register. And because fair is fair in both directions: if you ever want to leave, we execute the outbound transfer under the same Microsoft workflow. We cannot and do not block it, there is no exit fee, and that commitment is written into our public facts register — not just this page.
Success criteria
What you receive
How the work unfolds
We confirm your subscriptions are NCE license-based and CSP-transferable, inventory SKUs and term end dates, and flag anything that deserves a scheduling decision — such as aligning the switch with a renewal.
You sign Microsoft's standard Customer Agreement (required of every CSP customer) and our short services agreement, then accept our reseller relationship request in your admin center.
We execute the transfer with Microsoft. Existing subscriptions and their term end dates carry over; Microsoft's documented flow completes transfers within 72 hours, typically faster.
You receive the SKU-by-SKU transfer confirmation, your renewal calendar, and support contacts. Billing from your old partner stops with their final invoice; ours starts itemized and at list.
Prerequisites
Who does what
IT Partner
- Run the pre-transfer check and put the findings in writing before you accept anything
- Send the reseller relationship request and guide the acceptance
- Execute the transfer with Microsoft and verify every subscription landed with its term intact
- Provide the SKU-by-SKU confirmation, renewal calendar, and support onboarding
Your team
- Accept the reseller relationship request in your admin center
- Sign the Microsoft Customer Agreement and our short services agreement
- Tell your current partner you are moving (a courtesy, not a requirement — the transfer does not need their cooperation)
- Add IT Partner as a vendor in your payables system
What's not included
Limitations & technical notes
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free? What's the catch?
The switch is free for organizations moving their CSP billing to us — that is the whole qualification, and the whole business model. We earn the standard margin Microsoft pays CSP partners on subscriptions you were already buying anyway; you pay Microsoft's published list prices either way, so the same spend simply starts including a responsive partner. There is no service contract to sign beyond the standard agreements, and no obligation to buy anything else. Break-fix support during business hours is included with the licensing too — unlimited, no support plan required; the only support that costs extra is 24/7 coverage under a separate agreement.
What support is included once our billing moves to IT Partner?
Unlimited break-fix support during business hours, at no extra charge, for as long as you buy your Microsoft licensing through us — no support plan to buy first. Break-fix means restoring what stops working: a Microsoft 365 service misbehaving, a compromised account, deleted data to recover, mail not flowing, or a case that needs escalating to Microsoft — the scope our Microsoft 365 Break-Fix Support page describes. It runs under our published SLA of first response within one business hour, with monthly statistics published openly. What it is not: project work — migrations, implementations, new functionality — which is quoted separately, and 24/7 coverage, which is a paid support agreement for customers who sign up for that SLA. Everything else is business hours only, and that policy is published in our facts register.
Will our users notice anything?
No. This is a change in the billing relationship, not a migration — no data moves, nothing is reconfigured, nobody's password resets, and there is no downtime. Microsoft documents the process as exactly that: the customer accepts a new partner relationship, and the subscriptions move their billing ownership. Your tenant is the same tenant on Friday that it was on Monday.
Will our prices change?
The switch itself changes nothing about pricing: we sell at Microsoft's published list prices — the same price as buying direct — and every price on this site states which monthly Microsoft price list it binds to, so you can check us in five minutes without calling anyone. If your current partner charges above list, you will see that in the pre-transfer comparison. If you want to pay less overall, the honest route is buying the right licenses, not a discount illusion — that is the License Audit.
What happens to the annual commitments we already have?
They come with you unchanged. NCE terms belong to Microsoft's program, not to any partner: an annual commitment made in March still ends the following March after you switch. We inventory every term and its end date in the pre-transfer check, and where it is cleaner to time the switch against a renewal, we schedule it that way and tell you why.
Can our current partner block or delay the transfer?
No. Microsoft's CSP transfer process is customer-approved by design — you accept the new relationship in your own admin center, and the transfer proceeds without requiring your old partner's cooperation or consent. Telling them is a professional courtesy we recommend, not a dependency. The same openness protects you with us: the program is built for customer mobility, in both directions.
What access does IT Partner get to our tenant?
By default, none — a billing relationship is not admin access. If you want us doing support or project work, you grant least-privilege GDAP: granular, time-bound roles that you approve, that appear in your audit log, and that you can revoke yourself in one click in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Our default access policy is published at /gdap-access, and standing global admin is something we never ask for.
What if we switch and later regret it?
Then you leave, and we help you do it. No lock-in works in both directions: you can move your subscriptions to another CSP partner — or back to Microsoft — at any time, and we execute the outbound transfer under Microsoft's own workflow. We cannot and do not block it, there is no termination fee, and the only thing we ask is payment of invoices you already approved. That commitment is published in our facts register, where it would be very expensive for us to break quietly.
How long does the whole thing take?
The transfer itself typically completes within two business days of your acceptance — Microsoft's documented flow finishes transfers within 72 hours. The realistic end-to-end calendar is set by the human steps: signatures on the two short agreements and your finance team adding us as a vendor. The acceptance click itself takes about two minutes.
We're on an Enterprise Agreement. Does this apply to us?
Not directly — EA and MCA-E are different Microsoft programs, and moving from them to CSP is a licensing decision with real trade-offs, not a two-day billing change. That path deserves proper advice: start with Microsoft licensing consulting and we will tell you honestly whether CSP is even the right answer for your size and mix.
What should we do right after switching?
Let the first invoice land and reconcile it against your admin center — it is itemized by SKU so that takes minutes. Then, when you are ready, run the Microsoft 365 License Audit: the switch moves your licensing exactly as it is, and in most tenants "as it is" includes subscriptions nobody has used in a year. Fixing that is where the real savings live — not in the switch, and we say so deliberately.