Set up Communications Credits for your organization (direct purchase)

You will need to set up Communications Credits if you would like to use toll-free numbers Microsoft Voice. Also, we recommend that you set up Communications Credits for your Calling Plans (Domestic, International, Teams with calling plan, etc) and Audio Conferencing users who need the ability to dial out to any destination. Many countries/regions are included, but some destinations may not be included in your Calling Plan or Audio Conferencing subscriptions. If you don't set up Communications Credits billing and assign a Communications Credits license to your users and you run out minutes for your organization (depending on your Calling Plan or Audio Conferencing plan in your country/region), those users won't be able to make calls or dial out from Audio Conferencing meetings. You can get more information, including recommended funding amounts, by reading What are Communications Credits?

Communication credits can be purchased web-direct (on office.com), and here is the trick if you are a CSP customer and do not want to go with Azure telco pay-as-you-go.

Essentially, you will have to purchase a qualify Microsoft 365 offer directly from Microsoft and subsequently purchase communications credits and immediately cancel the Microsoft 365 offer you just purchased. Here are the steps

1. Log in to Microsoft Admin Center 
2. Go to Billing > Purchase services
3. Search for either Office 365 E5 (for commercial customer), Office 365 A5 (for EDU) or Office 365
4. Look for the month-to-month offer which should be Office 365 E5 (Month to Month) Office 365 E5 (Month to Month) for commercial customer 
5. Purchase 1 seat only with a 1-month term
6. Go back to Billing > Purchase services
7. Search on Communications credits
   
8. Hit Details to add to cart
   
   
9. Hit Buy and you will see this.
   
   
10. You can increase the Add Funds as you wish
11. Hit Place order
12. Assign communication credits to users and resources as you wish ( go to https://admin.microsoft.com/#/users )
13. Cancel your Office 365 E5 subscription.
    • Go to https://admin.microsoft.com/#/subscriptions 
    • Click on the Office 365 E5 subscription you just created (or A5 or GCC, depending on)
    • Hit Cancel subscription and follow the instructions.

Additional info on auto recharge and usage

1. On the Communications Credits subscription page you can:

   • Add funds Enter the amount that you want to add to your account. If you don't enable auto-recharge, once these funds are depleted, calling capabilities that are enabled using Communications Credits will be disrupted (such as inbound toll-free service). To avoid having to manually replenish your Communications Credits balance each time your balance reaches 0 (zero), we recommend you enable the auto-recharge feature.

   • Auto-recharge Enabling auto-recharge will automatically refill your account when the balance falls below the threshold that you set.

     It's recommended that you use the Auto-recharge setting to avoid any disruption of service should your Communications Credits balance reach 0 (zero). You will be sent an email when recharge transactions succeed, when recharge transactions fail (such as an expired credit card), and when your Communications Credits balance reaches 0 (zero).

   • Recharge amount Enter the amount in the Recharge with box that you want added to your account once it reaches the trigger amount below.

   • Trigger amount Enter the amount in When the balance falls below box that will be used to ' trigger ' the auto-recharge. Once your balance falls below this amount, the recharge amount will be added automatically to your account.

      Note

     Funds will be applied only to Communications Credits at Microsoft published rates when the services are used. Any funds not used within 12 months of the purchase date will expire and be forfeited.

     Monthly billing for Communication Credits will only be applied if the alloted fund has been used, to learn how to check your monthly usage, read Skype for Business PSTN usage report

2. Enter your payment information and click Place order.

   Each organization will have a different usage of Calling Plan volume and rates to consider. You will need to get this type of usage data from your current service provider. Organizations already using Skype for Business Online already as their service provider can get usage data by reviewing it in the Skype for Business admin center > Reports > PSTN usage details report.

When you are setting up Communications Credits, you will need to investigate call usage for your organization to determine the amounts you need. You can get call usage information by reviewing the PSTN usage details report. This report lets you export the call data records to Excel if you need to store the data or create custom reports. To learn how to see usage, read Skype for Business PSTN usage report.