How to Audit Your Own Usage Before a True Up

By the time the true up window opens, the team that has audited its own usage is in a different position from the one that has not. One submits a count it can defend line by line. The other submits whatever the convenient data happens to say. If your true up is coming and you want the number to reflect reality, the work is a self audit done before you report. Here is how to run one.

Why self audit beats self reporting

Self reporting means counting what is assigned and passing it along. Self audit means proving what is actually used, reconciling it against your entitlements, and applying every right before you arrive at a figure. The difference is decisive at true up time because the count you build from real usage is almost always lower than the count assembled from default data, and it is backed by evidence you can show. That evidence is what lets you hold the line if the figure is questioned.

Pull usage from the sources that count

The first step is to gather usage from the same places Microsoft can see, not just your internal asset register. Microsoft draws on its own data from Azure, Microsoft 365, and management tooling, so a self audit that ignores those sources will miss what the vendor sees. Pull active usage telemetry for each licensed product, the current assignment list, and your agreement and purchase records. Those three together let you compare entitled, assigned, and actually used.

Clean the count before you net it

A self audit is also a cleanup. Before you settle on a number, remove the noise that inflates it.

• Strip stale assignments for people who have left, so the count reflects real users only.
• Right size tiers, moving any user sitting on a higher edition than they use down to the edition that matches actual capability.
• Remove duplicates where a user is counted through both a suite and a standalone product.
• Reverse temporary peaks, counting the steady state rather than a short lived spike.
• Apply your rights and benefits, so offsets you already hold reduce the figure before you report it.

Keep the evidence, because it does double duty

A self audit produces more than a number. It produces a documented position: the usage data, the reconciliation, the rights applied, and the corrections made. Keep that file. It supports this year's true up, and if the estate ever attracts a formal audit, you already hold the evidence an auditor would ask for. A clean, evidenced true up also reduces the divergence between your view and Microsoft's view that can itself draw audit attention.

Let us run the self audit with you

A self audit is precise work, and the value is in getting every line right before you submit. We rebuild your usage from the data Microsoft can see, clean and net the count, and hand you a true up position backed by evidence. Our guarantee stands behind the engagement: we reduce your exposure, or we reimburse our service fee. If your true up window is open, the time to do this is now.

When the numbers start to look serious, our EA true up defense team verifies the numbers before they become contractual.