A buyer side field guide to surviving a SPLA audit, written for the operations, compliance, and finance leaders at hosting providers, managed service providers, and ISVs. It covers the 36 month lookback, the SPUR, monthly SAL reporting, and how to separate the non negotiable back fee from the negotiable penalty uplift.
Six to ten pages of substance, no filler, built from the 2026 SPLA audit landscape.
SPLA is Microsoft's monthly licensing program for hosters and outsourcers that deliver Microsoft software to external customers. It is pay as you consume, and compliance is verified for every monthly reporting cycle across a 36 month lookback. A Big Four firm conducts the audit under the MBSA audit clause with broad authority to request deployment records, server configuration data, customer contracts, and usage logs. This guide shows you how to be ready and how to defend when the letter arrives.
For background, read the first 48 hours of a SPLA audit and SPLA reporting discipline as audit defense.
The uplift is the part you can move. The table below is indicative and shows how a settlement splits.
| Component | Basis | Negotiable |
|---|---|---|
| Back fees | Price file rate across under reported months | No |
| Penalty uplift | 25 to 125 percent of back fees by severity and duration | Yes |
| Verification costs | Auditor time, where the clause applies | Sometimes |
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