Understand Device Exceptions
A device Apple Business Manager and your MDM disagree about — where the disagreement changes what a Client is billed. Four kinds, and only two of them need chasing.
Before you start
Two systems know about a Client’s Macs: Apple Business Manager knows what the Client owns, and your MDM knows what it manages. You bill from the second one.
A Device Exception is a device the two disagree about, in a way that affects money.
The comparison is per Client, not per Link — a fleet can span several policies, and asking one at a time makes each report the other’s devices as missing.
The four kinds
| Kind | What it means | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Unenrolled | Apple says the Client owns it. No MDM reports it, and it has not been released. | Underbilling. Chase it. |
| Drifted | An MDM owns it, but under a service this Org never mapped. It left a scope you bill from. | Underbilling. Chase it. |
| Awaiting | Assigned to a service you did map, and not reporting yet. | Nothing. It is a queue. |
| Released | Apple says it left the Client’s organization, and a Link is still counting it. | Overbilling. |
Awaiting and Drifted were one kind until a real fleet was compared. Seven findings, five of them Macs ordered and not yet deployed — assigned in Apple to the very policy the Link maps to. Calling those “drifted” claimed a device had left a scope it was on its way into, and it made five rows that need nothing look like five that need chasing.
What Pippin does about them
Only Unenrolled and Drifted raise a notice ahead of invoicing, because only those two mean money is not being collected. Awaiting asks for nothing, and a notice that fires about a queue is a notice people learn to ignore. Released is overbilling, which is a conversation with the Client and is already on their page for whoever looks.
Steps
- Open the Client. Device Exceptions appear on their page.
- Read the kind. It names the action.
- Dismiss one you have decided about. Dismissed rows are hidden by default and counted, never dropped — a decision you cannot review is one you cannot undo.
Good to know
No comparison is not the same as no exceptions. If a Link is unmapped, or an MDM returned nothing, Pippin says the comparison could not be trusted rather than showing you a clean list. An empty list means the two systems agree.
A new device gets a grace period before it is judged, measured from the day Apple says it joined the organization. A Mac unboxed this morning is not a finding.