What AISP Tells an MSP
All-in seat price takes everything a client pays you each month for recurring services and divides it by the users you support. Help desk, security stack, backup, licensing margin and vCIO time all fold into one per-user number. That makes clients on very different bundles comparable, which a list of line items never does. The KPI page for All-In Seat Price covers the calculation and how to track it over time.
AISP is a reading of your pricing, not a price list. For how per-user, per-device and tiered models are built in the first place, see how MSPs price their services.
How to Calculate It Consistently
- Take each client's recurring monthly revenue from managed services. Leave out one-time project fees and hardware sales.
- Count supported users the same way for every client, usually named users with an account you manage.
- Divide revenue by users per client, then average across clients or divide total recurring revenue by total users.
The seat definition is where AISP goes wrong. If one client is counted by devices and another by people, the average means nothing. Shared mailboxes, service accounts and part-time staff need a written rule too.
Keep the same rule over time as well. If you switch from counting licensed mailboxes to counting people halfway through a year, the trend line will move for reasons that have nothing to do with price. When you do have to change the definition, restate the earlier months so the comparison still holds.
What a Low or High Client Tells You
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Client well below your average | Underpriced, or missing services the rest of the base pays for |
| Client well above your average | Heavy security or compliance scope, or a small seat count |
| Average falling over time | Discounted renewals or services added without a price change |
| Average rising with flat margin | Vendor costs rising as fast as your price |
A low AISP client is not automatically a bad client. Compare it with that client's margin in the client margin calculator before you act. If the gap is real, the fix is usually a renewal conversation, and raising prices without losing clients walks through that.
Where AISP Fits With Other Numbers
AISP explains revenue per user, not profit. Read it beside gross margin so rising licensing costs do not hide behind a healthy looking seat price, and beside MRR to see whether growth comes from more seats or higher price per seat.
It is also a useful sales check. Before you quote a new client, compare the proposed price per user with your current average. A quote far below it means you are either winning on discount or leaving services out, and both are easier to fix before the agreement is signed than at the first renewal. The renewal cost worksheet helps when that renewal comes.
Common Questions
Should Microsoft 365 licensing be in AISP?
Include it if you resell it on the agreement, and track the licensing share separately. Otherwise a price rise from Microsoft looks like pricing power you do not have.
What about clients billed per device?
Convert them to users with the same rule you use elsewhere, or report them separately. Never average device pricing and user pricing together.
How often should I recalculate AISP?
Monthly, from the same billing export. Seat counts drift as clients hire and leave, so an annual figure is usually stale.