How to keep track of licence and warranty renewals as an MSP

An MSP keeps track of client licence and warranty renewals by holding every dated item for every client in one register, giving each a lead time counted back from the day a decision is needed, and opening the renewal on that day with the facts the account manager needs. An AI worker can keep the register and do the chasing. What to renew, change or cancel is agreed between your account manager and the client.

What starts a renewal?

Nothing does, which is the trouble. A renewal has no ticket and no user asking for it. A Microsoft 365 subscription comes to the end of its term, a domain or its SSL certificate nears expiry, a laptop's warranty runs out, a client's Cyber Essentials certificate reaches its twelfth month. Each date sits in a different place: Partner Center or your distributor's portal, the registrar, IT Glue, a spreadsheet.

Why are the Microsoft dates the expensive ones?

Microsoft's own partner documentation sets out the rule. On a new commerce subscription the number of licences can be reduced only within the first seven days of when they were added, whether at purchase, on renewal or midterm. After that, the count cannot come down until the next window at renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically by default, and once the seven days have passed the partner is billed for the full term, even if the customer stops paying for or using the subscription. A partner can also create a scheduled change before an upcoming renewal so that it renews with fewer licences.

So a client who lost five staff in the spring has two moments to stop paying for five seats: a change scheduled before the term ends, or the seven days after it renews. Miss both and the seats run for another term.

From the date to the renewed term: the steps

1. Build the register. One row per item: client, what it is, where it is held, the term end or expiry date, the quantity, the account manager who owns it. Today this is an account manager's spreadsheet, or several.

2. Set a lead time for each kind of item. Count back from the decision, not from the date. A licence renewal needs time for the client to confirm headcount and for you to schedule the change, so ask your distributor whether it sets an earlier cut-off. A warranty needs time to quote the extension or the replacement. A Cyber Essentials certificate must be renewed every 12 months to stay valid, and the client has work to do before the assessment.

3. Open the renewal. At the lead time, somebody gathers the facts: seats bought beside seats assigned, the device's age and its user, last year's price. Today that is the account manager, if the date was noticed.

4. Ask the client whether to renew as it is, reduce, upgrade or let it lapse.

5. Make the change. Your team schedules the change in Partner Center or the distributor's portal, renews the domain, extends the warranty or places the order.

6. Record it. The new date and quantity go back on the register and into your documentation, and the next reminder is set.

What you can do this week

• List every annual Microsoft term ending in the next 90 days, by client, with the seat count.

• Find the items with no date. Devices in your documentation with an empty warranty field, domains registered by a client's former web designer, certificates nobody recorded.

• Give every item one owner, and a second name for when the first is on holiday.

• Write the client message once. "Here is what you have, here is the date, tell us what has changed."

What an AI worker can do with the register

For renewals, it keeps the register. It can build it from your records and your documentation, where a tool such as IT Glue holds a warranty expiry date against each device and lists domains and expirations, and it can report every item it finds with no date or no owner. At the lead time it opens the renewal, puts the facts in front of the account manager, sends the client your approved request and reminds whoever has not answered. When the new term or certificate is confirmed it updates the record and sets the next date. The role is specified on our page for renewals and expiry tracking; where a renewal turns into a quote for new hardware or licences, the draft belongs to quote and proposal preparation.

What waits for a person, and why

The written request goes in your wording. Any conversation that follows it stays with the account manager, and so does the decision itself. The change in Partner Center or the distributor's portal is made by your team: it spends the client's money for a full term and cannot be undone after seven days. Any price, discount or margin is yours. An item that has already lapsed goes straight to its owner, as does a client who disputes what they hold.

What to have ready before starting

• Where each kind of date lives today, and who can read it.

• The lead time you want for each kind of item.

• The owner of each client, and who covers for them.

• The wording of the request to the client, approved by you.

• What to do about items already past their date.

Ticket triage, quotes and the time entries that never reach an invoice are on our page for MSPs and IT support firms, beside renewals, and the wider argument is in how to scale an MSP without hiring more staff.

An MSP's worker would watch every client's terms, domains, warranties and certificates and raise each one in time, with your account managers holding the client conversation and making the change. Has a renewal surprised you on the day it went through? Talk to our agent.