## TL;DR
Find who counts as billable and deactivate the ones you do not need before the true-up date. Atlassian bills on unique billable users, and the count drifts upward silently.

## Error
```text
Atlassian license overage: true-up bill for 47 users above the plan (billing surprise)
```

## Steps
1. Export the billable user list from Atlassian Access billing. Expected: the counted users in hand.
2. Identify waste: deprovisioned users never suspended, duplicate accounts, service accounts with product access, and external collaborators who should be limited differently. Expected: reclaim candidates listed.
3. Suspend or remove product access for the waste. Expected: the billable count drops.
4. Set a recurring review (and a billing alert if available) so the count cannot drift again unnoticed. Expected: no future surprise.

## When to use
- A true-up bill exceeds expectations
- The billable user count keeps growing
- Offboarding does not reduce the Atlassian count

## When not to use
- The count is correct and you simply need more seats (buy them)
- The issue is a suspension failure (fix the sync)
- You dispute the bill (contact Atlassian with the export)

## Tool compatibility
Atlassian Access billing.

### Variant phrasings
### overage from Jira-only users counted org-wide
Billable status is per product access. Remove access to products they do not use.

### true-up right after a company event
Migrations and acquisitions spike counts. Audit immediately after.

## Why it happens
Billable counts include anyone with product access, not just active humans. Stale access accumulates because deprovisioning often skips the Atlassian step.

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_HYh4CWSFDgMGJAP9UC6G_Q