The Microsoft renames that changed the product, not just the name
Microsoft has renamed most of its licences at least once since 2020. Nearly all of it is cosmetic. Twice, it vacated a name and gave it to a cheaper, different product, which is why some invoice lines have been priced wrong for years.
If you resell Microsoft 365 and your invoice line items were typed by a human at some point before 2023, at least one of them is almost certainly describing a product that no longer exists under that name. Most of the time that costs nothing. Twice, it costs real money in both directions, and one of those directions is a refund rather than lost margin.
The direction of the error is always the same, which makes it easy to check. Microsoft's reconciliation file always carries the current name. Your invoice carries whatever was typed the day the client was set up. So the old name is on your side of the comparison, never on Microsoft's.
Drop in the Partner Center reconciliation CSV and an invoice export. Nothing uploads, there is no account, and the answer is either zero or it is money you have been paying every month.
Run the free check or try it on sample data1. Business Premium, where the name crossed over
On 21 April 2020 Microsoft renamed its consumer and small-business plans onto the Microsoft 365 brand. Four SMB plans changed name at once, and two of the changes crossed over the same word.
| Before 21 April 2020 | Called this today | |
|---|---|---|
| Office 365 Business Premium | Microsoft 365 Business Standard | the cheaper one |
| Microsoft 365 Business | Microsoft 365 Business Premium | the dearer one |
| Office 365 Business Essentials | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | |
| Office 365 Business | Microsoft 365 Apps for business | |
| Office 365 ProPlus | Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise |
Read the first two rows together, because that is the whole problem. Before April 2020 the phrase "Business Premium" pointed at the cheaper plan. After April 2020 it points at the dearer one. The word did not move up or down a tier, it moved sideways onto a different product.
Two more traps: F1 reissued, and one line becoming three
Three weeks earlier, on 1 April 2020, the same thing happened to the frontline worker plans, and this one is harder to spot because the name did not disappear. It was reused.
| If the line is dated | "Microsoft 365 F1" means |
|---|---|
| before 1 April 2020 | what is now Microsoft 365 F3 |
| on or after 1 April 2020 | a new, separate, cheaper F1 launched the same day |
The existing F1 plans, both Microsoft 365 F1 and Office 365 F1, were renamed to F3. A brand new Microsoft 365 F1 was introduced on the same date as a different and lower-priced offering. So unlike every other rename here, "F1" is not a stale name you can safely translate. It is a live name that meant something else before that date.
3. A third case that is not a rename: one line becomes three
Microsoft 365 Business Voice was retired in June 2022 and folded into the enterprise voice line-up. There is no single successor SKU. Rebuilding the same capability now takes three separate items:
- Teams Phone Standard, for the phone system itself
- A Teams Calling Plan, for calls to the outside world
- Audio Conferencing, for dial-in meetings
This is worth knowing because it is the one case where a reconciliation genuinely should not balance line for line. One invoice line legitimately corresponds to three recon lines, and any tool that insists on a one-to-one match will flag it forever.
4. The cosmetic renames, with dates
These changed the name only. Capabilities, entitlements and licensing stayed as they were. They matter for matching, not for pricing.
| Old name | Current name | When |
|---|---|---|
| Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection Plan 1 | Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 | Sept 2020 |
| Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection Plan 2 | Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 | Sept 2020 |
| Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection | Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | Sept 2020 |
| Azure Advanced Threat Protection | Microsoft Defender for Identity | Sept 2020 |
| Azure AD Premium P1 | Microsoft Entra ID P1 | Oct 2023 |
| Azure AD Premium P2 | Microsoft Entra ID P2 | Oct 2023 |
| Microsoft Endpoint Manager | Microsoft Intune | Ignite 2022 |
The four September 2020 changes were announced together at Ignite as one rebrand of the security portfolio under the Defender name. The Entra change was announced on 15 August 2023, but the service plan display names, which is what actually shows up in a reconciliation file, changed on 1 October 2023. If you are comparing files either side of that date, that is the one to watch.
5. How to tell which name you are looking at
- Take the name from the recon file, never from the invoice. Microsoft's export is regenerated monthly, so it is always current. Your invoice line is a historical artefact.
- Check the date the client was onboarded, not the date on the invoice. The name was typed once, at setup, and copied forward every month since.
- For anything containing "Premium" or "F1", check the price rather than the name. Those are the two where the name is genuinely ambiguous and the rate is the only disambiguator.
- Fix the invoice line text once you know. Otherwise you rediscover this next year, and so does whoever inherits the client.
What is not on this page, and why
Microsoft Cloud App Security was also renamed to Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, but we could not source a reliable date for that one, so it is left out rather than guessed at. Same for the Visio, Project and Power Platform renames, and for the enterprise Office 365 E1, E3 and E5 line. If you know the dates from a primary source, they belong here.
Everything above is a name mapping, not licensing advice. Entitlements change independently of names, and the authority on what a given subscription includes is the Microsoft 365 admin centre and your Partner Center price list, not this page.
Common questions
What is Office 365 Business Premium called now?
Microsoft 365 Business Standard, as of 21 April 2020. The trap is that a different plan, Microsoft 365 Business, became Microsoft 365 Business Premium on the same date. So before April 2020 the phrase Business Premium meant the cheaper plan, and after it means the dearer one. An invoice line still carrying the old name describes what is now Business Standard.
Is Microsoft 365 F1 the same as it was before 2020?
No. On 1 April 2020 the existing Microsoft 365 F1 and Office 365 F1 plans were renamed to F3, and a new, separate, lower-priced Microsoft 365 F1 was launched the same day. F1 is therefore a live name that meant a different product before that date, which is why matching F1 to F1 between two files can report agreement while the lines describe different products.
When did Azure AD Premium become Microsoft Entra ID?
The name change was announced on 15 August 2023, but the service plan display names, which is what appears in a reconciliation file, changed on 1 October 2023. Azure AD Premium P1 and P2 became Microsoft Entra ID P1 and P2. Capabilities, licensing, sign-in URLs and APIs were unchanged.
What replaced Microsoft 365 Business Voice?
Nothing, as a single SKU. Business Voice was retired in June 2022 and folded into the enterprise voice line-up. Rebuilding the same capability takes three items: Teams Phone Standard for the phone system, a Teams Calling Plan for external calls, and Audio Conferencing for dial-in meetings. This is the one case where one invoice line legitimately maps to three reconciliation lines.
Which Microsoft renames actually affect what I bill?
Only two. The Business Premium crossover of 21 April 2020 and the F1 to F3 reissue of 1 April 2020, because in both cases a name was moved onto a different product at a different price. Every other rename since 2020, including the Defender security rebrand and the Azure AD to Entra ID change, was cosmetic and changed no entitlement or price.
Two files, two minutes, no account, nothing uploaded. If the number comes back zero you have lost two minutes. If it does not, it has been costing you that every month.
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