Subscription lifecycle states

Applies to: Partner Center | Partner Center for Microsoft Cloud for US Government

Appropriate roles: Admin agent | Billing admin | Global admin | Helpdesk agent | Sales agent

This document covers the subscription lifecycle states for licensed-based offers for new commerce and legacy.

New commerce

There are six states that a subscription can have in its lifecycle: Active, Canceled, Suspended, Expired, Disabled, and Deleted.

Active

In the Active state:

• The default (normal) state of a subscription.
• Partners can access and make changes to subscription properties.
• Customers can access and use services.
• Admins can also access services data and properties.
• Transacting partner continues to be billed.

Canceled

New commerce subscriptions can be canceled within 7 days, except where otherwise required by law, of purchase or renewal. After this window passes, subscriptions can no longer be canceled.

Suspended

Partners can suspend a subscription to temporarily make the services not usable to customers.

At the time that the subscription is suspended:

• If there are next charge instructions, or changes to the billing plan mid term, they're not removed.
• Any other scheduled changes are removed. If the subscription is reactivated, the partner can recreate the changes.

While the subscription is suspended:

• Customers can no longer access and use services.
• Admins can access services data and properties.
• The transacting partner continues to be billed.
• Partners can reactivate the subscription before the end of term.
• Partners can cancel the subscription if they're within the 7-day cancellation window, or reactivate the subscription.
• If the subscription is still suspended by the term's end, the subscription moves to the expired state.

Expired

30-day expired state follows the end of an Active subscription's term:

• If autorenew is turned off and the term ends, the previously active subscription expires.
• The subscription stays in this state for 30 days, and users can access files and services.
• After 30 days in the expired state, the subscription moves to a 90-day disabled state.
• Admins can also access data.
• Transacting partner won't be billed.
• Can't be reactivated.

Disabled

30-day disabled state follows the end of a Suspended subscription's term:

• Partners that suspend their subscription leading to the term end will find their suspended subscription moved to this 30-day disabled state.
• After 30 days in the disabled state, the subscription moves to a 90-day disabled state.
• Users can't access files and services, and only admins can access the data.
• Transacting partner won't be billed.
• Can't be reactivated.

90-day disabled state follows the 30-day Expired or a 30-day Disabled states:

• 90-day disabled state: Data is retained for 90 days after the end of the previous state.
• Users can't access files and services, and only admins can access the data.
• Transacting partner won't be billed.
• Can't be reactivated.

Deleted

After the subscription passes through the 90-day disabled state, it stays deleted, however:

• The subscription is nonrecoverable.

• If the partner cancels their subscription, the subscription will first go into the Suspended state for 7 days, and then to Deleted where data will be removed.

• After a subscription is canceled, there's a 7-day grace period in Suspended state where:

  • Customers can continue to access their data.
  • Partner administrators can back up data before it's removed.
  • If the partner purchases the same product/SKU equivalent to the one canceled, customer data and user license assignment settings are automatically restored.
  • If a new purchase is made with a lower number of licenses, customer data and user license assignment settings will still be retained, and the partner should manage these appropriately.
  • After the 7-day period, these actions are no longer allowed, and data will be removed.

• Transacting partner won't be billed.

• Can't be reactivated.

Legacy

There are three states that a legacy subscription can have in its lifecycle: Active, Suspended, and Deleted.

Active

In the Active state:

• The default (normal) state of a subscription.
• Partners can access and make changes to subscription properties.
• Customers can access and use services.
• Admins can also access services data and properties.
• Transacting partner continues to be billed.

Suspended

In the Suspended state:

• Partners suspend a subscription to temporarily make the services not usable to customers.
• Partners can reactivate the subscription before the end of term.
• If the subscription is still suspended by the term's end, the subscription is deleted.
• Partners can only reactivate the subscription.
• Customers can no longer access and use services.
• Admins can access services data and properties.
• Transacting partner won't be billed.

Deleted

After 90 days in the suspended state, the subscription will be deleted and is nonrecoverable.