Microsoft licensing can be a terrible tangled web of authorization numbers, license numbers,  user cals and software.

When a company has been flagged to be audited by Microsoft it seems to be a daunting task to verify all your licensing is in place and up to date.   Digitally saving all of your documents is one of the best ways to take care of your licensing.  That way you are not doing the paper shuffle when audit time is near.  If good records are kept then you can present the auditor one report with all the information they are going to need instead of bringing them a ton of paper files.

Best Practices for knowing you are in compliance with Microsoft Licensing.

Use one and only one email address for all of your Microsoft orders.  That way all of your documentation is going to only one place

Designate one person to be your internal Microsoft Auditor that will verify processes are being followed and that your licensing is up to date

Always date and store the electronic licenses in one place.  Name the file something you will recognize as a particular license and the number of licenses included

                For example –  2010.02.25 – Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (1) – “License number”

Keep a database of all of your authorization numbers with corresponding license numbers and keys in one place

When in doubt, the person who is the authorized agent for your company can call Microsoft and request a full detailed list of all authorization numbers and license numbers for your company.  You can then request re-prints of each license document that you are missing.

The idea is to centralize all of your documentation and keep it safe, secure and all in one place.