I recently set up a brand-new Microsoft 365 account for an experiment: what is the experience of a Technology Startup that wants to use M365 and Azure look like?

Everything seemed to go smoothly during the signup process — name, address, subscription preferences — until I logged into the billing section and was hit with a surprise: my account has not one but two billing accounts. Both accounts bear the same name as my business entity, yet they seem to exist independently within the Microsoft portal.

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At first glance, this configuration left me scratching my head. I’ve seen dual billing accounts during transitional periods, like when older Microsoft Online Subscription Agreements (MOSA) coexist with newer Microsoft Customer Agreements (MCA). But that explanation doesn’t apply here — this is a fresh signup. I’m not migrating, consolidating, or juggling services from different agreements. This was supposed to be clean and simple.

So I decided to lookup what these agreements actually were and I found an answer on none other than Microsoft Answers.

Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement (MOSA): MOSA is an older agreement that applied to customers who purchased commercial cloud services prior to the introduction of the MCA. It is still in effect for those customers, but Microsoft is encouraging them to transition to the MCA.

Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA): The MCA is a newer, simplified, and more comprehensive agreement that consolidates the terms and conditions for Microsoft’s commercial cloud services into one agreement. It is designed to be more flexible and easier to understand than previous agreements. The MCA applies to all customers who purchase commercial cloud services directly from Microsoft, including Microsoft 365 and Office 365.

So here I am, looking at two billing accounts that are functionally indistinguishable, both created under the same name. The obvious questions spring to mind:

What am I supposed to do with this?

Is this normal?

Do I even need to fix it?