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Microsoft Reconciliation Troubleshooting

Common issues that come up after the Microsoft Module is set up, and how to resolve them.

Table of Contents:

  1. A Subscription in Microsoft Isn't Showing in Gradient
  2. A Customer Shows as Ready But No Subscriptions Appear
  3. Microsoft Shows More Licences Than We're Billing For
  4. Unassigned Licences: What They Mean and How to Handle Them
  5. Distributor Cost Doesn't Match Microsoft's Cost
  6. PSA Cost and Distributor Cost Don't Match
  7. Mid-Term Changes Aren't Reflecting Yet
  8. Auto-Approved Items That Shouldn't Have Been
  9. GDAP Was Working but Suddenly Isn't
  10. When to Contact Support

First, make sure it's not a setup issue: If you're hitting problems during initial setup (consent prompts failing, GDAP relationships missing, wizard not completing), see Microsoft Permissions Troubleshooting (GDAP & Consent Setup) instead. This article covers issues that come up after the Module is up and running.

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A Subscription in Microsoft Isn't Showing in Gradient

Microsoft shows a subscription for a customer, but it doesn't appear in the Microsoft Reconciliation table. Check these in order:

  1. GDAP relationship is active. Go to Microsoft Integration > GDAP Review. If the customer shows as Missing, Pending, Expired, or Error, the subscription won't pull through. Address the GDAP issue first.
  2. Consent has been granted for that tenant. Even with an active GDAP relationship, the tenant needs to have gone through the consent step. In the GDAP Review tab, tenants that haven't consented will show a Consent action button.
  3. Pax8 has the customer linked. The Microsoft Module cross-references Pax8 data with Microsoft data. If a Pax8 company is unlinked or inactive, subscriptions may not match up. Check Pax8 for the customer's Active status and contact assignment (see Pax8 integration guide).
  4. Run a refresh. From the Microsoft Integration configuration screen, use the Refresh button in the GDAP Review section. A full sync may take a few minutes.
  5. The subscription was added very recently. Subscriptions added in the last few hours may not have surfaced through Microsoft's APIs yet. Check again in a few hours.

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A Customer Shows as Ready But No Subscriptions Appear

The customer has Active GDAP, consent is complete, and shows as Ready, but no Microsoft subscriptions are appearing.

Common causes:

  • The customer has no active Microsoft subscriptions. If they're a customer you manage for other services but they don't hold Microsoft licences, there's nothing to reconcile.
  • The subscriptions are in a different distributor. If the customer's Microsoft licences are purchased through a distributor other than the one connected to Gradient (e.g., via a different Pax8 tenant, or via TD Synnex), they won't show up.
  • The subscriptions are direct with Microsoft, not through a distributor. Tier 1 CSP subscriptions are not currently supported.
  • Sync lag. After initial setup, full data propagation can take some time. Give it an hour and refresh.

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Microsoft Shows More Licences Than We're Billing For

This is often a genuine revenue miss, not a bug. A few reasons this happens:

  • Licences were added for a customer but never added to their PSA agreement.
  • Licences were added on an emergency or temporary basis and never cleaned up.
  • A tech added licences through a Microsoft admin portal directly rather than through the provisioning workflow.

The Microsoft Module surfaces these as increase items in the To-Do queue. When you see them, your options are:

  1. Approve the change to push the new quantity to your PSA (the normal workflow).
  2. Investigate with the customer to confirm the additional licences are legitimate before approving.
  3. If the additional licences were a mistake, remove them from Microsoft before approving in Gradient.

This is exactly what the module is for. Surfacing undetected licence changes is one of the highest-value outputs of the Microsoft Module. Don't dismiss these without reviewing them, they almost always represent real revenue or a process improvement opportunity.

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Unassigned Licences: What They Mean and How to Handle Them

When you expand a row in the Microsoft Reconciliation table, the Subscription Details section may show both assigned and unassigned licence counts. This is Microsoft telling you how many licences the customer has purchased versus how many are actually assigned to users.

Example: a customer has 50 Business Premium licences purchased but only 42 are assigned to users. The unassigned count is 8.

You have choices about how to handle this:

  • Bill based on purchased licences (the default for most MSPs). The customer is paying Microsoft for 50 licences, so you bill for 50 regardless of assignment.
  • Bill based on assigned users (less common, but valid if your contract specifies it). You'd bill for 42 and leave the 8 unassigned as a margin opportunity.
  • Flag for customer conversation. Unassigned licences are often a sign of employee churn or an old provisioning that was never cleaned up. Tagging these accounts for a conversation with the customer can lead to either a licence reduction (lower cost for them, maintained margin for you) or a confirmation that the buffer is intentional.

Gradient doesn't force a choice here. The subscription details view gives you both numbers so you can apply your own policy.

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Distributor Cost Doesn't Match Microsoft's Cost

The Distributor Unit Cost column shows what your distributor (Pax8) reports as their cost to you. The Microsoft Product cost may differ from this because of:

  • Margin added by the distributor. Pax8 marks up Microsoft licences before selling to you.
  • Different term structures. The cost Microsoft publishes for a product may be for a different commitment term than what Pax8 is selling to you.
  • Volume or programme pricing. Special pricing programmes can create differences between the list price and what you actually pay.

This is usually expected behaviour, not an error. The number you care about for reconciliation is the distributor cost, because that's what you actually pay.

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PSA Cost and Distributor Cost Don't Match

If the PSA Unit Cost column shows a different number from Distributor Unit Cost, it means your PSA catalogue cost is out of date. This is normal, Microsoft prices change frequently, especially on annual commitment renewals.

To fix it:

  1. Navigate to Cost Reconciliation from the Reconcile module (not the Microsoft Module).
  2. Locate the Microsoft service and click the action button to push the new cost to your PSA catalogue.
  3. This updates the cost across all agreements using that service.

For more detail, see Cost Reconciliation.

 

Heads up on annual commitment price rises: Microsoft frequently raises prices on annual NCE renewals. If you don't catch and push these cost changes, your margin silently erodes over the renewal period. Make cost reconciliation a regular part of your monthly workflow.

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Mid-Term Changes Aren't Reflecting Yet

You made a change in Microsoft or your PSA but it's not showing in Gradient's Microsoft Reconciliation view. Microsoft's APIs sometimes have a propagation delay, especially for:

  • Licence quantity changes made within the last few hours.
  • New subscriptions added less than 24 hours ago.
  • GDAP relationship changes (these can take up to an hour to show their new state).

If the change doesn't appear after a reasonable delay, try:

  1. From Microsoft Integration > Authentication, click the Refresh button.
  2. From the PSA side, run a full PSA sync via Settings > Data Settings > PSA Configuration > Start Full Sync.
  3. If still missing after both refreshes, contact support@meetgradient.com.

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Auto-Approved Items That Shouldn't Have Been

If your billing configuration has auto-reconciliation enabled, Gradient will automatically approve certain types of changes without requiring review. If you see an item auto-approved that you didn't want approved:

  1. Go to Microsoft Integration > Billing Config and review your auto-approval rules.
  2. Tighten the rules (for example, set a lower quantity delta threshold, or require manual review for specific product types).
  3. For the item that was auto-approved: changes have been pushed to your PSA already. You'll need to either make a corrective change in your PSA directly, or let the next reconciliation cycle catch any further drift.

Auto-approval is a choice. The Microsoft Module can handle any item fully manually if that's your preference. Auto-approval is designed for partners who want to reduce repetitive work on safe, predictable changes, but the bar should be set based on your risk tolerance.

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GDAP Was Working but Suddenly Isn't

GDAP relationships can expire. When they do, the affected customer moves from Ready to Expired status and their subscriptions stop updating.

Common causes:

  • GDAP relationship duration expired. GDAP relationships have a configured duration (typically up to 2 years). When they hit the end date, they become inactive until renewed.
  • The customer revoked the relationship. Customers can remove GDAP delegation at any time from their tenant admin portal.
  • The linked security group membership changed. If your partner account was removed from the security group tied to the GDAP relationship, access drops.

To fix it, either:

  1. Renew the GDAP relationship in Microsoft Partner Center (Customers > [Customer] > Admin relationships).
  2. Create a new GDAP relationship if the old one can't be renewed.
  3. After renewal, run the consent flow again for that tenant in Gradient's Microsoft Integration setup.

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When to Contact Support

Open a ticket with support@meetgradient.com if:

  • You've worked through the relevant troubleshooting section and the issue persists.
  • Subscriptions appear in Microsoft and Pax8 directly but never surface in Gradient even after refresh and sync.
  • You see cost or quantity data that looks systematically wrong across multiple customers.
  • You receive error messages in the Microsoft Integration screens that aren't covered in the documentation.

When opening a ticket, please include:

  • The specific customer or subscription affected (tenant ID if possible).
  • Screenshots of the Microsoft Integration status screen and the relevant reconciliation row.
  • What you've tried so far.

Still stuck? Reach out at support@meetgradient.com and we'll get you sorted. 🦩