Release Notes
Monthly updates on features and improvements
Upcoming release 2021 Version: TBD
New Features
1. Usage+ Quota Improvements
Stamp filter and pagination added in the usage and quota overview grid
Monthly summary now gives an aggregated report of all the subscriptions in a stamp.
Trend report includes aggregated view of all subscription in a stamp and includes new filters that toggles between days and months.
2.Tool Command for Subscription mapper
The Billing resource provider syncs all the subscriptions across stamps and creates new Cloud Assert Billing subscriptions or maps it against subscriptions of the users in the stamp where the billing resource provider is deployed by default.
If the operator prefers, each subscriptions can be manually mapped from the admin extensions. (Mapping Subscriptions)
New billing tool command has been introduced that will enable the operators to automatically map all subscriptions of each users in stamps in which the billing resource provider is not installed against subscriptions of the same users in the stamp in which the billing resource provider is installed.
3. Tool command for collecting usage status
New billing tool command is introduced to monitor the health of Billing background process.
4. Tool for collecting logs
Collecting all necessary logs during troubleshooting is made easier by the newly introduced billing tool command.
5. Updating the Billing Resource provider displays summary report
The scripts used for updating the Billing resource provider will now give a complete summary of what is updated and it's progress status.
Bug Fixes :
[Admin/Tenant] Usage + Quota – Downloading the monthly summary as a csv did not honor the selected filters.
In the Admin extension User Credits page the remaining user credits values are displayed incorrectly.
Overview page in the Tenant extension are loading with internal server error.
Cost displayed in the "cost by metered resource" donut of Usage History page is formatted to International Numeric values (K,M,B)
In Tenant Overview and Usage History page the currency code filter data is fetched from pricing profile of selected subscriptions.
In the Tenant extension Overview and Usage History pages, the Subscription Id and Names are not sortable.
In Cloud Assert Cost management database, when there is a difference in table structure between staging and actual tables, the cost management service will recreate the staging table to fit with the actual table.
March 2021 Version: 1.2103.3.0
New Features
Quota Consumption reports across stamps
Admin and Tenants will be able to view quota consumption for tenant subscriptions across stamps.
The end users can view different reports on what resources are created and what quota allocated to their subscriptions remain.
The user has to delegate access for each subscription across stamps from the 'Manage Subscription' menu to view the quota usage.
The operator can view the quota consumption for all the subscriptions of the users from the Billing admin extension.
General
The Admin Dashboard charts are replaced with a single 'Monthly Summary' chart.
The 'Billing Accounts' menu in the admin portal is removed.
Enhancements
Usage Cost Reports across stamps for Tenants
Tenants will now be able to view usage costs across multiple stamps that honor Azure Stack RBAC.
The operators no longer have to map the subscriptions and Billing accounts of the end-user manually from the admin extension for the user to view the costs of subscriptions across stamps.
A new menu 'Manage Subscriptions' is introduced in the tenant Billing extension.
By delegating access for the subscriptions across stamps under the 'Manage Subscriptions' menu, the users can now view their costs incurred for the subscription across stamps.
January 2021
6 Month history chart in HYBR Billing
Performance Improvement for Azure Stack Billing Usage Reports
Bug Fixes
December 2020
Support to override base Metered Resource Price in the child profile
Ability to apply mark up in the child profile
Ability to apply discount percentage in the child profile
Ability to override unit price in the child profile
API support for posting external usage data into the billing system
Bug fixes and Performance improvement
November 2020
CSP
Support for configuring meter pricing for software subscription
Support to convert trial subscription to paid
Support for individual Mark UP for Azure Reserved Instance and Software Subscription
Bug fixes and Performance improvement
Installer Improvement
October 2020
Billing Accounts
Ability to add user roles for billing accounts
In the tenant portal, usage costs can be viewed by users who have access to the billing account.
Support for Monthly Fixed Cost irrespective of the number of days in a month
Performance improvements for Microsoft CSP workflows
September 2020
Configure additional email recipients for Tenant Invoices
Tenant user can view subscription usage and costs that are managed by them
The tax settings are now moved from Invoice settings to General Settings
August 2020
Invoice
Ability to generate invoices in multiple languages
Support for a customized invoice through HTML templates
Report APIs
Cost Report and Subscription APIs for external system integration
Support for operators to reset cost from UI and tool
Improvements
Rate of exchange
July 2020
Multi Stamp Management
Ability to map subscriptions across different Azure Stack stamps with billing subscription.
Aggregated dashboard for subscriptions across stamps.
Monitoring usage, costs, and invoicing subscriptions across stamps.
Exchange Rates: Ability to define prices in one currency and charge customers in multiple currencies through exchange rates. This feature is particularly useful for Microsoft Cloud Solution Providers as the price list from the Partner center is not available in all currencies.
Support for usage collection and billing for VCenter Snapshot disks in addition to other VM metrics
Performance Improvement fixes for Pricing Profiles
Bug fixes and Improvements
Support for pagination in Pricing Profile Meters
Fix for cloned meters not being visible in UI
Deployment
Support for deploying Billing resource provider in a multi-tenant enabled environment.
Support for deploying in a completely disconnected environment
June 2020
CSP
Improvements to CSP Office 365 License data collection
Improvements to reseller price calculations for Office 365 Licenses
Azure Stack Hub
Improvements to Usage Data collection in Multi-Stamp environments
The ability for admin to copy email notifications to other users
Email notification settings for billing subscription changes
Bug fixes and improvements
May 2020
Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP):
Ongoing cost reports and forecast is now supported for Office 365 Licenses, Azure Usage, Software Subscriptions & Reserved Instances.
Office 365 cost split-ups based on license count in a billing cycle
More control on customer invoices: Admin would now be able to mandate approvals before the invoice is available for the customer. This makes it easier for admin to review and make any changes if required.
Resource Level cost in Admin and Tenant Reports for Azure Stack Hub
Bug fixes and improvements
April 2020
Support for Azure Stack Hub Version 2002
Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP):
Azure Plan: Ability to charge Reserved Instances and Software Subscriptions (Visual Studio, Microsoft SQL, etc.,)
Licenses: Improvements to recurring cost calculation for licenses
Invoice:
New default layout for invoice: Going forward the improved invoice is the default option for the customers, this includes costs grouped by resource provider, invoice summary page and other improvements. If customer needs to see old invoice IsV2InvoiceEnabled in AppSettings should be set to false
Azure Subscription Id and other external Ids from the source to be shown in customer invoices
Ability to display usage history with costs for pre-existing data: This is controlled through IgnoreSubscriptionCreatedTimeInHistory in AppSettings; default value is false.
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