Provision and Manage a Monthly Subscription

Put a CSE product on monthly billing, and change it afterwards

  • Last validated: Oct 16, 2026
  • 10 minutes to read

Overview

A monthly subscription bills for CSE based on usage rather than on capacity purchased up front. A product can be provisioned as monthly from the outset, or an existing trial or annual license can be converted to monthly.

For how usage is measured and billed, see How Monthly Billing Works.

Who can use monthly billing

Monthly billing is available only to organizations enrolled in the SonicWall service provider program. Enrollment has two stages: the organization must first be a partner, and must then join the service provider program, which is a separate program within the partner program.

End-user organizations cannot provision monthly subscriptions.

Provisioning a monthly subscription from the outset

There are two entry points, and they produce the same result.

During product registration. In the Create Tenant wizard, skip the annual activation key and complete the Monthly Subscription step: select the product under Choose Product, set the license, set the data center location, then select Save and Exit.

From the Monthly Subscription screen. In the left pane, select Monthly Subscription, then select the provision option. Choose the tenant and the product.

Converting a trial or annual license to monthly

Monthly billing is a toggle that can be enabled on any product carrying a term license, including a free trial and an annual license, at any time.

  1. In the scope selector, select the tenant that holds the CSE product.
  2. Open the product inventory, and select the CSE serial number.
  3. On the product page, enable the monthly subscription toggle.
  4. Review the annual license details shown, including the current expiration date.
  5. Select the services to place on monthly billing.
  6. Acknowledge the confirmation that remaining value will be lost.
  7. Select Confirm.

Converting overwrites the existing license and discards its remaining value. The confirmation dialog states this. A product with months of paid term left does not carry that term into monthly billing, and it is not credited. Because monthly billing charges by the month regardless, there is no advantage to converting early.

Convert a few days to two weeks before the current term expires. Converting earlier than that discards term the customer has already paid for.

Confirming a conversion

Two signals confirm that a conversion completed:

  • The product’s expiration date moves to a date far in the future, because monthly subscriptions do not expire on a term.
  • The services appear in the Monthly Subscription view.

The Monthly Subscription view lists subscriptions, not products. A CSE product carrying both SPA and SIA appears as two lines there, while the product view shows a single line. This is the expected difference between the two views.

Changing a monthly subscription

Monthly subscriptions are not a commitment, and every attribute can be changed at any time. In the left pane, select Monthly Subscription. On the subscription row, select the three-dot menu at the far right, then select Edit:

  • Change the expiration date for a service.
  • Change the tier of a service, for example from Advanced to Basic.
  • Set a service to None, which removes it.
  • Set a service to expire on a specific date, including the current date.

This is the practical difference from annual licensing. Changing an annual license requires purchasing an activation key, applying it, and accepting the resulting proration. Changing a monthly subscription requires none of that.

Removing monthly billing

In the left pane, select Monthly Subscription, then select Remove MSP on the subscription row. Remove MSP acts on one subscription at a time, so a product with both SPA and SIA needs it on both rows to remove monthly billing from the product.

Removing monthly billing expires the licenses immediately. The product is left without active licensing until an activation key is applied or a new subscription is provisioned.

Deleting a product

Unified Management permits deleting a registered product outright.

Do not delete a CSE product. Deletion is permanent and destroys the registration. To stop billing for a service, set it to expire or set it to None instead.

Was this page helpful?