Unlock bigger deals with flexible billing and five-year terms in Microsoft Marketplace

Microsoft

Nov 12, 2025

Many partners are already leveraging flexible billing and multi-year terms to close larger, more strategic deals in the Microsoft Marketplace. These features have been available for some time, but they’re worth revisiting — especially as they enable more personalized, enterprise-grade transactions for both SaaS and Virtual Machine (VM) offers.

Why it matters

Flexible billing and extended terms aren’t just enhancements — they’re strategic tools that help partners:

Align with customer budgeting cycles
Support custom payment preferences
Simplify complex procurement processes
Enable predictable revenue streams

If you haven’t revisited your Marketplace offer recently, now is the time.

Flexible billing: More control, more opportunity

Traditionally, SaaS and VM offerings have been limited to monthly or annual upfront billing. Now, with flexible billing, you can set custom billing schedules with up to 70 installments over the duration of the contract.

Key Capabilities

Set specific charge dates and amounts
Add notes for context (visible to both customer and partner)
Support flat-rate SaaS and Professional Services plans
Available globally in all Marketplace-supported currencies

💡 Note: Seat-based SaaS pricing is not supported. Metered billing dimensions are still charged monthly.

Example Billing Schedule

Charge Date	Amount (USD)	Notes
Immediate	$0.00	No upfront fee
Jan 10, 2026	$5,000.00	First charge
Jul 05, 2026	$2,500.00	Mid-year
Mar 15, 2027	$8,000.00	Q1 Year 2
Sep 20, 2027	$4,000.00	Final charge
Total	$19,500.00

Longer terms: Up to five years

Previously, term lengths were restrictive:

SaaS: Max 3 years
VM: 1- or 3-year terms, upfront only

Now, both SaaS and VM offers support 1- to 5-year terms, combined with flexible billing. This opens the door to:

Multi-year contracts with predictable revenue
Enterprise-grade commitments
Simplified renewals and fewer procurement cycles

Real-world impact: Siemens

“Siemens was recently able to transact a 5-year contract with a quarterly payment schedule on the Microsoft Marketplace thanks to the new multiyear contract durations. The process to enable this 5-year contract within one offer with a very large customer was extremely easy, and it simplifies the complex billing schedule. Siemens is excited and will continue to transact complex deals through the Microsoft Marketplace.”
— Clare Dennis, Senior Manager, 3rd Party Marketplace Operations, Siemens

Best practices to keep in mind

Contract Duration: Must be 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years
Charge Dates: Must fall within the contract duration and are executed in UTC
Immediate Charges: Can be set to $0 to delay the first payment
Currency Support: Pricing can be defined in local currencies using export/import tools
Multiparty Offers: Channel partners can apply a uniform customer adjustment percentage
Modifications: Once accepted, flexible schedules are locked
Renewals: SaaS plans renew at public pricing unless auto-renew is disabled

Resources to Help You Get Started

Flexible billing schedule documentation
Video tutorials:
- Flexible billing for private offers - This video explains what flexible billing is, how the feature works, and covers details of capabilities and restrictions.
- Flexible billing for private offers - This demo video shows software development companies how to create a direct customer private offers with a flexible billing schedule.
- Flexible billing for private offers - This demo video shows how to create multi-party private offers with flexible billing.
- The flexible billing customer experience - This demo video shows the customer purchase experience for a Marketplace private offer which has a flexible billing setup. This video is valuable to software development companies and customers.