Cost import troubleshooting - MCA

Overview

This article addresses cost data import issues that occur specifically on direct Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) subscriptions in Cost Analyzer.

Business value

Resolving MCA-specific cost import errors quickly keeps your cost data current, so your budgets, reports, and optimization recommendations stay accurate.

How it works

On direct MCA subscriptions, access to cost data is governed by a billing profile-level cost management policy. If an account admin has turned off this policy for non-owner users, Cost Analyzer's import process is blocked from reading cost data for that subscription, even though the connection itself is valid.

Troubleshooting

1. Cost views are disabled for subscription users because the cost policy is turned off by your account admin
   Cause: An account admin has disabled access to cost analysis data at the billing profile level. Cost Analyzer's import shows this exact error when it attempts to read cost data for the subscription.
   Fix: Confirm the issue by opening the Azure subscription's Cost Analysis blade directly. Billing profile owners can still see data there; a normal user typically cannot. If confirmed, go to the billing profile and enable users to access cost management views. Follow the steps in Microsoft's documentation: Enable MCA access to costs.

   

2. Cost import fails immediately after adding an MCA subscription
   Cause: The service principal does not have the required billing role. On MCA subscriptions, reading cost data requires the Billing account reader, Billing profile reader, or Invoice section reader role in addition to the Azure subscription-level Reader role.
   Fix: In the Azure Portal, navigate to Cost Management + Billing > your billing account > Access control (IAM). Assign the appropriate billing reader role to the service principal used by Turbo360. Then re-trigger the cost import from Cost Analyzer.

3. Cost data imports successfully but shows no line items for certain months
   Cause: MCA billing periods may not align to calendar months. If the billing profile's invoice period boundary falls mid-month, Cost Analyzer may receive an empty dataset for a partial period until Microsoft finalises the invoice.
   Fix: Wait for Microsoft to finalise the billing period. Cost data for finalised periods imports automatically on the next scheduled import cycle. If the gap persists beyond the invoice finalisation date, re-trigger the import manually from Cost Analyzer.

4. Import completes but cost data is missing for specific subscriptions under the MCA billing account
   Cause: The service principal has billing reader access at the billing account level but the subscription sits under an invoice section the principal cannot access.
   Fix: In the Azure Portal, navigate to Cost Management + Billing > your billing account > Invoice sections. Assign the Invoice section reader role to the Turbo360 service principal for the affected invoice section. Re-trigger the import.

5. MCA subscription cost data imports correctly in Azure Portal but not in Cost Analyzer
   Cause: The service principal credentials may be expired or invalid since the subscription was connected.
   Fix: Navigate to Getting Started > Service principal setup in Turbo360 and verify the credentials for the affected subscription. If the secret has expired, generate a new secret in Azure Active Directory and update the connection in Turbo360. Re-trigger the import.

Related articles

• Cost import troubleshooting – CSP subscriptions
• Getting started FAQs