The annual true up is a contractual reconciliation you control, not an audit you submit to. Buyers who understand the distinction file accurate counts and protect the baseline that carries into renewal. The true up is yours to frame.
The annual true up is one of the most misunderstood events in the Enterprise Agreement lifecycle. Treated as routine paperwork it quietly inflates your baseline. Treated as an audit it surrenders control you actually hold. Treated correctly it is a contractual reconciliation you frame on your own reconstructed data. These are the questions buyers ask us most about it.
A true up is the annual reconciliation under an Enterprise Agreement where you account and pay for licenses added during the year above your committed baseline. It is a contractual process, scheduled and predictable, and it is one you control the timing and framing of. See Enterprise Agreement true up.
A true up is a routine contractual reconciliation you initiate and report. An audit is a formal compliance review initiated by Microsoft, often through a third party, comparing deployment against entitlement to find a shortfall. The two are frequently confused to the buyer's disadvantage, because a true up handled as if it were an audit surrenders control you actually hold. See true up versus audit.
Not at the annual true up itself, which only accounts for additions. Reductions happen at defined points, typically the agreement anniversary or renewal, through a true down. The ability to true down is limited and must be planned for, because most agreements make it far easier to add than to remove. See true down options.
Under a standard Enterprise Agreement the true up is reported annually ahead of the agreement anniversary. The reporting window and the order date are contractual, which means the timing is knowable far in advance and should be planned around rather than reacted to. See our true up preparation guidance.
The price you pay for additions is governed by the pricing locked in your agreement, but the framing and the count are very much within your control. A true up filed on Microsoft's interpretation of your deployment, without your own reconciled position, often overstates what you owe. The negotiation is in the reconciliation, not only at renewal. See true up negotiation.
Under reporting creates compliance exposure that can surface later in an audit, often with less favorable framing than if you had reconciled accurately at the time. The aim is not to over report out of caution or under report out of optimism, but to file an accurate position you can defend, built from your own data rather than a vendor estimate.
With the same rigor, yes. The true up is a smaller annual event, but it sets the baseline that carries into the renewal. Shelfware accounted as if it were active, or an inflated user count accepted without challenge, becomes the starting position Microsoft anchors the next renewal against. Clean true ups make for cleaner renewals.
Yes. We reconstruct the effective license position, reconcile it against your committed baseline, and frame the report so the count reflects genuine consumption rather than a vendor reading of your environment. This is buyer side work only. Reach the practice through contact.
The true up you file becomes the baseline Microsoft anchors your next renewal against. An accurate count today is a stronger negotiation tomorrow.
We reconstruct the effective license position, reconcile it against your committed baseline, and frame the true up on genuine consumption rather than a vendor reading of your estate.