Introduction
Microsoft 365 or Office 365 products come with yearly subscriptions. On completion of each year, users need to extend the subscription for next year. Usually, Microsoft offers a subscription using providing a license key when you purchase the subscription through an authorized Microsoft distributor or reseller. Similarly, Microsoft Partner Network extends the Office 365 subscription by applying a license key in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
Table of Contents
- Redeem Product Key
- How is the end date calculated?
- Calculation
- Use the Licenses page to assign licenses to users
- Conclusion
In this blog, we are providing the steps with details of extending an Office 365 subscription for a year by applying a license key in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
Knowing your Office 365 subscription expiration date
A Microsoft 365 administrator should know the date of expiry of the subscription so that he can get the license key before the due date and can extend the end date before expiration. As a Global administrator, he can view the details of a particular subscription under Billing → Your products → Product Name. The below screenshot shows these details for an Office 365 E3 subscription.
In this screenshot, you can see three boxed items under the “Subscription and payment settings”, providing the most important details of this subscription. The “Recurring billing” shows the expiration date of the subscription, and you must extend or renew the subscription before that date. The “Subscription status” shows as Active. This informs the current subscription is active, and is ready to renew the subscription, The “Extend end date” tab is the starting wizard to apply the license key.
Extend end date – In this wizard, you can use a prepaid product key or another payment method to extend the end date. You can add up to 12 months to the expiration date.
Redeem Product Key
The value of the product key is applied to the subscription to calculate a new expiration date. You can purchase a product key from your partner or reseller and redeem it here.
Use another payment method, like a credit card
If you need to use another payment method, like a credit card, a new subscription for Office 365 E3 is created for the new licenses. The original subscription remains active until the expiry date. A new subscription is activated with new purchase date. Usually, the Redeem product key method is the recommended method for extending a subscription.
On clicking the “Extend end date” button, you will get a new wizard as shown below. In our blog, we are showing the procedure for creating a new subscription by redeeming a product key obtained from the Microsoft partner portal.
Click the Redeem product key to proceed to the next step.
In the next screen, you will be asked to enter the 25 character product key. As said earlier this 25 character product key, will be provided from the Microsoft Distributor or Reseller when you purchase the Office 365 renewal subscription. This page says “Enter your product key to find out the new expiration date. The maximum amount of time that can be added is 12 months. If the value on a product key will add more than that, new licenses are added to the subscription”. Follow the steps to extend the current subscription date, and verify the extended expiration date in Billing → Your products → Office 365 E3 subscription.
Adding a new subscription to your existing active Office 365 E3 subscription
Alternative to extending the expiration date method, one can also choose a new subscription and assign those licenses to the existing subscription. For this method, choose the “Use another payment method”. In this method, an administrator should provide the details of the location where the subscription is used and other information such as the Organization’s GSTIN and PAN numbers. This method completes in three steps and the administrator should check out the subscription by paying through credit card or by any other payment method.
In our below example, we are adding licenses for Windows 10 / 11 Enterprise E5 25 licenses in our existing Windows 10 / 11 Enterprise E5 25 licenses subscription. The same steps are to be followed for all Microsoft 365 products. The below screenshot shows the active subscription’s expiry date and the current status as active shown in the red boxes. The add licenses box allows you to add new licenses by redeeming the product key.
Click the “Add licenses” button, and this will open a new wizard, choose the “Redeem product key” to add licenses to this subscription & click the “Redeem product key” link. Here enter the 25 Characters product key you bought. Then click “Validate” to verify your product key is ready to use, as shown below in the picture.
After validating the key, you will get a similar message “This product key is worth 25 licenses for 365 days” as shown in the below screenshot.
Click Next to proceed. And the page will show the details after Redeeming the license. The product keys being redeemed will change the number of licenses and the end date for this subscription.
How is the end date calculated?
Starting from the redeem date, each license on the product key adds 12 months of service to the subscription. Service time is averaged and applied equally to current and new licenses to calculate an end date for all licenses on the subscription. The calculation is provided below.
Calculation
[A (initial licenses) x B (time remaining on subscription) + C (new licenses) x (12 months)] ÷ total number of licenses = new time remaining
The new remaining time is applied to all licenses to calculate a new end date.
Click the Redeem button to finish the action.
Now, you can see 50 licenses of Windows 10/11 Enterprise E5 in the existing subscription and the expiration date also changed, and it is ready to assign to any users.
Use the Licenses page to assign licenses to users
When you use the Licenses page to assign licenses, you assign licenses for a specific product to up to 20 users. On the Licenses page, you see a list of all the products that you have subscriptions for. You also see the total number of licenses for each product, how many licenses are assigned, and how many are available.
In the admin center, go to the Billing > Licenses page.
Select a product. ( In our example, Office 365 E3 )
- On the product details page, select Assign licenses
- In the Assign licenses to users pane, begin typing a name, and then choose it from the results to add it to the list. You can add up to 20 users at a time
- Select Turn apps and services on or off to assign or remove access to specific items
- When you’re finished, select Assign, then select Close
If there’s a conflict, a message displays, tells you what the problem is, and tells you how to fix it. For example, if you selected licenses that contain conflicting services, the error message says to review the services included with each license and try again.
Conclusion
In this blog, we demonstrated the steps involved in adding new licenses to the existing subscription and in another way of adding a new subscription by redefining the product key license. It is very easy to extend or create a new subscription with a moderate knowledge of any administrator. Before beginning to apply the product key some considerations must meet. The user who is applying for the license must be a Global, License, or User admin to assign licenses. An administrator can assign Microsoft 365 licenses to user accounts using PowerShell also. To use group-based licensing, administrators should understand the concepts of assigning licenses to users by group membership in Azure Active Directory. So the administrator should be able to know Azure Active Directory principles and working knowledge.
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