Moves, adds, changes and disconnects (MACD) are the routine changes made to a business’s phone, communications and IT services as people join, leave and move around. A move relocates a user, phone or device; an add sets up a new one; a change modifies features or settings; a disconnect removes a user, line or service. Some providers and IT teams say “deletes” for the D; the meaning is the same. The term is most common in telecom, hosted PBX and UCaaS contracts, where how MACD work is handled and billed affects both service and cost.
At a glance
- MACD covers day-to-day service changes, not new projects or outages.
- The older term MAC leaves out disconnects; IMAC is a variant that adds installs.
- On cloud platforms, administrators can often make many changes themselves through a portal.
- Contracts may include MACD requests, cap them or charge per change, depending on the provider.
- Disconnects are where money leaks: services nobody cancels keep billing.
What problem it solves
Every organization changes constantly. People are hired, leave, switch departments, move desks, open new offices and need new features. Each of those events touches the phone system, user accounts and often carrier services. Without a defined process, changes get lost in email, take days, or are done inconsistently, and nobody can say what changed or when.
MACD gives that stream of small requests a name, a process and a price. Buyers can set expectations for how fast changes happen, who is allowed to request them, what is included in the monthly fee and what costs extra. It also keeps cost control in view: a disconnect that isn’t processed can leave a charge running for months.
How it works
Move. A user or device is relocated: a desk phone moves to another office, an extension follows a person to a new department, or a site’s services move to a new address. On cloud systems this may just mean updating a profile and an emergency address; on older systems it can mean a technician visit.
Add. A new user, phone, extension, direct inward dialing (DID) number, license or circuit is set up.
Change. Something existing is modified: call routing, voicemail, feature packages, a hunt group, a license tier or permissions.
Disconnect. A user, number, license, device or service is removed and, critically, removed from billing.
Requesting and doing the work. Requests usually come through the help desk or a provider’s portal. Routine items may be self-service; others need a ticket or a formal service order, particularly for carrier circuits and numbers. Good practice includes an approved list of who can request changes, standard turnaround times and a record of each change.
Billing. Contracts handle MACD in different ways: included and unlimited, a monthly allowance, a per-change fee, or hourly labor for anything needing a technician. Since many communications services use per-user licensing, adds and disconnects directly change the monthly bill, and telecom expense management (TEM) programs often reconcile MACD activity against invoices to catch charges that should have stopped.
When it matters for buyers
- When choosing a phone or UCaaS provider. How changes are made, how fast and at what cost can matter as much as the per-seat price.
- When opening or closing a site. A new office brings a burst of moves and adds; a closure needs complete disconnects.
- When headcount changes quickly. Hiring waves and layoffs both generate high MACD volume.
- When invoices don’t match headcount. Missing disconnects are a common reason.
- When outsourcing IT or telecom management. Managed contracts often define a MACD allowance and turnaround times.
Our unified communications as a service overview covers what to compare in cloud phone contracts, including how changes are handled.
Questions to ask vendors
- Which changes can our administrators make themselves, and which need your team?
- How many MACD requests are included each month, and what does each additional one cost?
- What are your turnaround times for each type of change?
- Do physical moves or new circuits require a technician visit, and how is that billed?
- How do you confirm that disconnected users, numbers and services stop billing?
- Who on our side is authorized to request changes, and how is that enforced?
- Can we get a report of all changes made each month?
How it differs from a service order
A service order is the formal request to a carrier or provider to install, change or disconnect a specific service, usually with contract terms, dates and pricing attached. MACD is the broader category of routine changes. Many MACD requests, such as changing a user’s voicemail settings, don’t need a service order at all, while some, such as adding a circuit or porting numbers, do. Think of MACD as the everyday stream of changes and the service order as the paperwork used when a change reaches the carrier.