Cloud Marketplace Purchase Orders: Who Sets the PO

A cloud marketplace purchase order is the buyer’s own PO number attached to marketplace charges, so their accounts payable team can match the invoice. The buyer attaches it; the seller supplies what they need to do it.

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The terms are agreed, the offer is out, and the buyer’s accounts payable team won’t pay an invoice without a PO number. On a direct deal you would print the PO on your own invoice. On a marketplace the invoice comes from the cloud provider, so the PO reaches it only through the buyer’s billing settings, none of which are in your console.

Each cloud puts the PO somewhere different, and Microsoft’s version, announced to partners on September 1, 2026, is still rolling out.

Can a cloud marketplace purchase carry a PO number?

Yes, on AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud, but only the buyer can put it there. AWS attaches a PO to each charge at acceptance, Microsoft maps charges to POs in the Azure portal, and Google sets one PO number on an invoiced Cloud Billing account.

	AWS Marketplace	Microsoft Marketplace	Google Cloud Marketplace
Status	Available	Rolling out; GA “expected soon”	Available on invoiced accounts
Where	The offer acceptance page	Azure portal: billing profile > Purchase orders	Cloud Billing account > Payment status
Who	Whoever accepts the offer	Billing administrator (MCA-E) or enterprise administrator (EA)	Billing Account Administrator
Granularity	One PO for all charges, or one per charge	All Marketplace, one publisher, or one product	One number per billing account
After purchase	Future charges only	Forward; reapplying reaches back three months	Subsequent invoices; past ones regenerated
At renewal	Auto-renewal carries the PO over	Any charge matching an active mapping is allocated	Stays on the account until changed
What AP sees	The PO on the AWS invoice for that charge	Supplemental documents grouped by PO	The PO in the account’s invoice headers

Where does the PO go on AWS Marketplace?

On AWS, the PO is a field in the acceptance flow covered in what buyers see when you send a private offer. Under Purchase order (PO) number, the buyer chooses Add a purchase order and enters up to 200 characters. When an offer produces several invoices, they can use one PO for all charges, separate POs for fixed and usage charges, or one per charge. A blanket-usage PO is a standing PO for Marketplace charges, set up in the AWS Billing console; a different PO entered at purchase keeps that charge off it.

Three rules decide the timing:

• Before the charge is invoiced. After purchase, the buyer can change the PO for each charge under Charge summary on Subscription details, for future charges only. An invoice that already exists needs AWS Support.
• Auto-renewal carries it over. The current PO carries over to the renewal’s invoices; to change it, the buyer updates the current charges before the renewal.
• Some organizations require one. Administrators in the buyer’s AWS management account can make the PO field mandatory for private offers, public offers or both. The person accepting then cannot subscribe without a value, so the PO must exist before your offer expires.

If an entered PO is missing from the invoice, AWS’s troubleshooting page has AP check three things: whether it was added on the subscribing account, a suspended PO on the payer account, and a tax registration number tying the PO to another AWS billing entity. Free and BYOL products take no PO.

How does Microsoft Marketplace handle purchase orders?

Purchase order mapping is Microsoft’s way of allocating Marketplace charges to a buyer’s POs in the Azure portal, and whether your buyer has it depends on a rollout. Microsoft announced it to partners on September 1, 2026. Its customer documentation, last updated August 6, 2026, says Microsoft is “gradually rolling out” the capability and that “general availability is expected soon.”

Where it is available, the buyer’s billing administrator (Microsoft Customer Agreement) or enterprise administrator (Enterprise Agreement) opens Cost Management + Billing, selects the billing profile, and under Invoice management selects Purchase orders. They create the PO, then map charges to it; a PO allocates nothing until a mapping does. A publisher mapping needs your publisher ID; a product mapping needs your publisher ID and offer ID. The most specific mapping wins, and if a partner resold your product, the buyer still enters your IDs rather than the reseller’s name.

Mappings apply to future charges; Reapply mappings re-evaluates invoiced charges from the last three months. On an Enterprise Agreement that can rebill and void the earlier invoice; on a Microsoft Customer Agreement only the supplemental documents change. Those documents, switched on under Invoice preferences, group billed charges by PO, and they don’t replace the invoice, change the amount due or extend the due date.

Until mapping reaches the buyer, a Microsoft Customer Agreement billing profile can carry one PO number of its own (Properties > Update PO number), which Microsoft says appears in the profile’s invoices from the next invoice. It covers the billing profile, not one product.

Where does the PO go on Google Cloud Marketplace?

On Google Cloud, the PO number belongs to the Cloud Billing account, not the purchase. Google describes it as an identifier in the header of the account’s invoices. The buyer’s Billing Account Administrator sets it on the Payment status page with Set purchase order number, within two limits:

• Invoiced accounts only. A self-serve account that pays automatically can’t take one.
• Forward only. It applies to subsequent invoices. Past invoices are regenerated one at a time, with a 48-hour wait before the same invoice can be revised again.

Marketplace charges go to a Cloud Billing account, and you build a Google Cloud private offer against the customer’s Cloud Billing account ID. Confirm that account is the invoiced one AP pays before you publish: moving an active direct order to another billing account is an entitlement transfer that Google says is not guaranteed and can take a week or more.

Google’s PO page doesn’t address Marketplace charges specifically. Where Google splits invoicing, for agency-model transactions with a buyer payment profile in the UK, Germany, France or ten other listed countries (most recently Australia, from August 1, 2026), Marketplace purchases arrive on a separate document that AP may need to pay to a different entity. Have the buyer check the first document carrying your charges rather than assume the PO is on it.

What should you send the buyer’s AP team?

Send the identifiers each cloud’s billing setting needs, plus dates that leave time to raise the PO; the configuration is theirs. Include it with the offer:

	You send	Their billing team does
AWS	The AWS account ID the offer targets, the payment schedule, and whether usage charges sit alongside fixed ones	Enters the PO at acceptance, or before each charge is invoiced
Microsoft	Your publisher ID and offer ID, which sit in your listing URL as publisherID.offerID	Maps a PO to your product if Purchase orders is available; otherwise, on an MCA, sets the billing profile PO number
Google Cloud	The Cloud Billing account ID the offer is built against	Confirms it is invoiced and sets the PO number before your first invoice
Every cloud	The offer expiry and first invoice dates	Raises the PO in time, and before acceptance where their AWS organization requires one

The person who raises the PO is often not the one who accepts. In Suger, Notify Contacts (under More actions on the offer) emails the offer link and current status to contacts you add, provided Enable Email Notification is on and the Notify offer contacts row is saved switched on.

Frequently asked questions

Can the seller add a PO number to a marketplace invoice?

No. On AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud the PO is set in the buyer’s account, by whoever accepts the offer or by a billing administrator. The seller supplies the inputs: the account the offer targets, the payment schedule, and on Microsoft the publisher ID and offer ID.

Can a buyer add a PO after accepting an AWS private offer?

Yes, for future charges, from the Subscription details page. Charges that have already been invoiced are not updated retroactively; changing those needs AWS Support.

Is Microsoft Marketplace purchase order mapping generally available?

Not as of September 19, 2026. Microsoft says the capability is gradually rolling out and that general availability is expected soon. It announced purchase order mapping to partners on September 1, 2026.

Does a Google Cloud PO number appear on Marketplace charges?

Google documents the PO number as a setting on an invoiced Cloud Billing account that appears in the header of its invoices. Its PO page does not address Marketplace charges specifically, so have the buyer check the first invoice carrying your charges.

What happens to an AWS PO when the contract auto-renews?

It carries over to invoices generated by the renewal. To use a new PO for the renewal term, the buyer updates the PO on the current charges before the renewal.

Takeaways

• The PO is the buyer’s setting; your job is identifiers and time.
• AWS: per charge at acceptance; future charges only afterwards.
• Microsoft: mapping by publisher and offer ID, once the rollout reaches the buyer.
• Google Cloud: one number per invoiced billing account. Don’t promise it on a separate Marketplace document.
• Set the offer expiry after the buyer can realistically raise the PO.

The rest of the buyer’s side, from billing accounts to internal approval, is in how enterprise buyers buy through a marketplace. Procurement teams that want the request, approval, accepted offer and resulting invoices in one place can use Suger Buyer Service for AWS Marketplace procurement.