Check who can use your Azure commitments
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Unused benefit can persist or reach unintended owners, so check scope and utilization before widening an Azure commitment. Propose broader sharing only when eligible consumers are outside the current scope and the billing owner approves it. This checklist covers EA and MCA; other agreements need their own billing-context guidance.
What you need first
- Tool
- Azure portal is Azure's web management interface. Start at All services > Reservations for reservations. For savings plans in EA or MCA, open Cost Management + Billing, then choose Billing scopes or Billing profiles.
- Access
- For reservations, an EA Enterprise Administrator (read only) or MCA billing profile reader can view relevant reservations. Savings plan permission is separate from subscription permission, so ask a billing administrator for read-only results when needed.
- If you do not use that tool
- Send an authorized billing colleague the commitment name and its EA enrollment or MCA billing profile. Request current scope, intended subscriptions, the utilization value, and any time range or unit actually shown, plus confirmation of billing-context membership without changing settings.
Why this is worth a look
A narrow scope can exclude matching resources that could use the benefit, while a wider scope can apply it beyond intended owners. Scope determines where the benefit applies, but only eligible resources can use it. Savings plans commit spend per hour, and that hourly commitment cannot be changed after purchase. Reservation savings require sustained use, so broader scope alone does not show better value.
Run this check
CHECKLISTUse these steps in the Azure portal, or send them to an authorized billing colleague. Review one EA or MCA commitment at a time and stop before changing settings.
Execution surface: Azure portal. Read details only; do not save changes.
Access: EA Enterprise Administrator (read only) or MCA billing profile reader can view relevant reservations. Ask a billing administrator for savings plan results; subscription access alone may not provide them.
Scope: one active commitment and its intended consuming subscriptions within the applicable EA enrollment or MCA billing profile.
Time window and units: this is a point-in-time observation. Record the utilization value and any displayed time range or unit. Do not compare unlike periods or units when they are shown.
[ ] Open All services > Reservations, select the reservation, and record its current scope and Utilization (%).
[ ] For a savings plan, ask the billing administrator to open Cost Management + Billing, choose Billing scopes (EA) or Billing profiles (MCA), then Products + services > Savings plans. Select the plan and record its current scope and any displayed utilization value, time range, or unit.
[ ] List the subscriptions and resource groups that should receive the benefit. Ask engineering owners to confirm that resources match the reservation or are savings plan-eligible.
[ ] Compare intended consumers with the current scope. Resource-group or subscription scope limits benefits to that selected area. For management-group scope, confirm membership in both the management group and the commitment's billing context.
[ ] For wider sharing, confirm the billing boundary with the billing owner. Reservation shared scope covers matching resources in eligible subscriptions in its billing context. Savings plan shared scope covers eligible subscriptions in the EA enrollment or MCA billing profile, including Microsoft Entra tenants in that context.
[ ] Record one recommendation: keep the scope, investigate eligibility, or propose wider scope. Include excluded eligible consumers, the utilization value and any displayed time range or unit, and the financial owner's approval requirement. Stop before making changes.How to confirm it
- 01
Set the review boundary
Choose one active EA or MCA reservation or savings plan. Identify its enrollment or billing profile and the financial owner who should decide whether other teams can consume its benefit.
- 02
Collect scope and utilization
Run the read-only portal checklist or send it to an authorized billing colleague. Record each utilization figure and any displayed time range or unit. Do not infer unused benefit from the scope name alone.
- 03
Check excluded consumers
Ask engineering owners to identify matching resources outside the current scope. Verify billing-context membership before proposing broader sharing. Management-group membership alone is not enough.
- 04
Choose whether to widen scope
Keep the current scope if its limits are intentional. Propose broader scope to the billing owner only when eligible consumers are excluded and sharing fits ownership rules. Investigate eligibility first if broader scope adds no confirmed eligible usage.
Before making changes
Assume this is a point-in-time review of an active EA or MCA commitment, not a quantified savings calculation. Rescoping a savings plan does not change its term or hourly commitment. If all subscriptions leave a management group, Azure automatically changes the reservation or savings plan scope to Shared, so recheck scope after such moves.