Skyline Media Group has deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot across three business units: Editorial, Marketing, and Sales. The CFO needs a monthly breakdown of Copilot license costs and AI service consumption allocated by business unit to support internal cost chargebacks. How should the Microsoft 365 administrator provide this visibility?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation and Infographic
The Microsoft 365 admin center is your billing and cost command center for M365 services — combine the billing section for cost data with the Copilot usage reports to see who's using what. Organize license assignments by group per business unit and you've got your chargeback data without calling anyone.
Full explanation below image
Full Explanation
Microsoft 365 administrator can manage and monitor AI service costs through the Microsoft 365 admin center's billing and cost management features combined with Copilot usage reports. By organizing Copilot license assignments through groups that map to business units (Editorial, Marketing, Sales), administrators can track assigned licenses per business unit from the billing section and correlate that with per-workload usage data from the Copilot usage reports. This provides the cost allocation data needed for internal chargebacks.
Option A is incorrect because manually exporting Entra ID users and counting licenses by department attribute is an error-prone, time-consuming process that would need to be repeated monthly. It also doesn't capture AI service consumption metrics beyond basic license count — the CFO's requirement includes consumption data, not just seat count.
Option B is incorrect because Azure Cost Management is designed for Azure resource consumption (compute, storage, PaaS services) billed through Azure subscriptions. Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing is a Microsoft 365 commercial service billed through the Microsoft 365 billing platform, not Azure subscriptions. Azure Cost Management does not surface M365 Copilot costs.
Option D is incorrect because waiting for Microsoft's account team to generate custom reports introduces lag time and dependency on external parties. This is a self-service capability built into the Microsoft 365 admin center — there is no need to engage Microsoft for standard billing and usage reporting.
Exam tip: Know the distinction between Azure Cost Management (Azure subscription costs) and Microsoft 365 admin center billing (M365 service costs including Copilot). This distinction is commonly tested. Also know that Copilot usage reports provide workload-level breakdown to support consumption-based cost allocation.