Overview

This document describes the additions to the Umbrella AWS onboarding flow to support Billing Transfer accounts. Billing Transfer enables AWS Partners to receive transferred bills from their customers' accounts through a designated Bill Transfer Account (PMA) - the Partner Management Account registered in AWS Partner Central.

AWS Billing Transfer

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The onboarding flow supports two account roles within the Billing Transfer model:

Bill-Transfer (PMA): The partner's billing management account that receives transferred bills from Bill Source accounts. Channel program benefits and discounts are applied to invoices delivered to this account.

Bill-Source: The customer's management account that generates a consolidated bill and agrees to transfer it to the Bill Transfer Account (PMA).

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Best Practice Onboarding via the Bill Transfer Account (PMA) is the recommended approach. It preserves the existing experience for both the MSP and the customer: cost visibility, recommendations, and billing workflows continue to work as they did before the transfer, with no disruption to either party.

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Attention, once the billing transfer initiation is approved:

Effective Date-The billing transfer for this account will take effect starting from the next billing month.

Historical Data Unavailability- Historical data for this account will no longer be accessible under the new billing transfer or source accounts.

Onboarding Account Detailes

Account Mode 🆕

🔹 Regular Account

Standard AWS account onboarding without billing transfer. All existing fields and flows remain unchanged.

🔹 Billing Transfer

Enables the billing transfer flow. Reveals the Account Role selection below with two options: Bill Transfer Account (PMA) and Bill Source Account.

Account Roles 🆕

🔹 Bill Transfer Account (PMA)

✅
The Recommended Option.

An AWS account registered in Partner Central as the partner's billing management account. When activated, channel program benefits and discounts are applied to all invoices delivered to this account. The Bill Transfer (PMA) account receives transferred bills from Bill Source accounts.

🔹 Bill Source Account

The customer's management account that transfers its bill to the PMA.

An account that generates a consolidated bill and agrees to transfer its bill to a Bill Transfer (PMA) account. In partner contexts, this is the Customer's management account.

The standard Automatically / Manually selection is shown as before, with the existing checkbox for connecting linked accounts.

Dictionary: AWS Billing Transfer Terminology

A complete glossary of terms used across the AWS Billing Transfer ecosystem.

Core Account Roles

#	Term	Definition	Context
1	Management Account	The account that created and owns an AWS Organization. It has full administrative control over the organization.	All scenarios
2	Payer Account	The account that generates, manages, and pays for a consolidated bill.	All scenarios
3	Bill-Transfer Account	A management account designated to manage and pay for the consolidated bill of another management account. In partner contexts, this is typically the Partner's PMA.	Partner (PMA)
4	Bill-Source Account	An account that generates a consolidated bill and agrees to transfer its bill to a bill-transfer account. In partner contexts, this is the Customer's management account.	Customer
5	Bill Receiver	In a two-level transfer, the top-level account that receives and pays for bills from both the intermediary bill-transfer account and the original bill-source accounts.	Distributor

Billing Transfer Concepts

#	Term	Definition	Context
6	Billing Transfer	The active arrangement between two management accounts where the bill-transfer account manages and pays for the bill-source account's consolidated bill.	All scenarios
7	Billing Transfer Invitation	A unidirectional request sent by the bill-transfer account to the bill-source account, asking to assume billing responsibility. Includes a start date and pricing configuration.	Bill-Transfer Account
8	One-Level Transfer	A direct billing transfer between a bill-source account and a bill-transfer account.	Standard setup
9	Two-Level Transfer	A chained billing transfer where a bill-transfer account further transfers its own bill (and its bill-source bills) to another external bill-transfer account (bill receiver). Used in distributor scenarios.	Distributor
10	Inbound Billing	Billing transfers where your account manages and pays for another organization's consolidated bill (you are the bill-transfer account).	Bill-Transfer Account
11	Outbound Billing	Billing transfers where an external account manages and pays for your consolidated bill (you are the bill-source account).	Bill-Source Account

Partner Central & Channel

#	Term	Definition	Context
12	PMA (Program Management Account)	An AWS account registered in Partner Central as the partner's billing management account. When activated, channel program benefits and discounts are applied to all invoices delivered to this account. The PMA serves as the bill-transfer account.	Partner
13	Channel Handshake	A mutual consent mechanism in Partner Central used for PMA activation, service period establishment, and service period termination.	Partner Central
14	Service Period	The agreed billing transfer commitment period between a partner and customer, managed through Partner Central channel handshakes.	Partner Central

Billing Conductor & Pricing

#	Term	Definition	Context
15	Billing Conductor	AWS custom billing service that enables creation of pro forma cost data (showback/chargeback rates). Used by the bill-transfer account to control what cost data the bill-source account can see.	Bill-Transfer Account
16	Pro Forma Cost Data	A second version of cost data generated by Billing Conductor configuration, representing costs at partner-configured rates (markups/discounts) rather than actual AWS rates.	Customer-facing
17	Billing Group	A grouping of accounts within Billing Conductor. After billing transfer, bill-source accounts and member accounts view costs at the bill-transfer account's configured rates.	Billing Conductor
18	Pricing Rules	Billing Conductor rules (global, billing-entity, service, or SKU-specific) applied on top of public on-demand AWS rates to determine what the end customer sees.	Billing Conductor
19	Custom Line Items	Fee or credit adjustments in Billing Conductor that can be applied per billing group. Can be flat or percentage-based, one-time or recurring.	Billing Conductor

Views & Reporting

#	Term	Definition	Context
20	Billing View	An AWS resource representing a specific perspective of cost management data. Billing views can be toggled in the Billing and Cost Management console.	All scenarios
21	My View (Partner View)	The billing transfer view shows the actual billing data that the bill-transfer account is financially responsible for (actual AWS rates). The partner's true cost perspective. May include support costs (to be confirmed).	Bill-Transfer Account
22	Showback/Chargeback View (Customer View)	The billing transfer view shows billing data configured through Billing Conductor - the rates the partner wants the customer to see (markups, custom pricing).	Customer-facing
23	Primary Billing View	The bill-transfer account's own organization's cost data (its own accounts), separate from billing transfer views.	Bill-Transfer Account