Stay compliant with user licensing requirements

This article provides an overview of how you can stay compliant with the user licensing requirements for finance and operations apps. These apps include Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and Dynamics 365 Commerce.

The security roles that you assign to enabled users determine the licensing requirements for users. Security roles are built based on a hierarchy of the following elements:

• Subroles
• Duties
• Privileges
• Directly referenced securable objects

For more information, see Role-based security.

You determine the licensing requirements for users at the organization or tenant level. This article focuses on the requirements for a single environment. If you have multiple environments, you must analyze the requirements across all of them.

You assign a licensing requirement to every securable object or resource that's included in a user role.

The rest of this article describes the different tools that you can use to ensure that the actual licensing complies with the expected licensing requirements. The first thing to verify is that the user roles have the expected licensing requirements and are assigned to the appropriate users.

For more information about security role to duty and privilege mapping that aligns to Microsoft’s licensing policy and to understand the licenses you need, see User Security Governance.

Available and assigned licenses

You can view available and assigned licenses under Licenses in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

License requirement per role

The Assign roles to user dialog box, which you open from System Administration > Security > Users, helps you understand the impact on user licensing when you assign roles. It also provides an overview of the licensing requirements for each role. You can use the dialog box itself or export data to Excel for further analysis. Custom roles can require licenses for more than one application.

If a role has unexpected licensing requirements, use the User Security Governance workspace to understand what security roles and respective permissions drive the requirements.

Licensing requirements by using User Security Governance

Use the User license summary page in the User security governance workspace to understand how security roles and respective permissions define the license requirements across your Dynamics 365 finance and operations environment.

To access the User License Summary page, follow these steps.

1. Sign in to finance and operations apps.
2. Go to System administration > Security > Security Governance > License usage summary.

The User security governance license usage summary page provides a layered view of:

• How system permissions are exercised
• How responsibilities map to different role types

These details give you deeper visibility into user access patterns and ensure that roles align with intended responsibilities.

Users per role

Use the System Administration > Security > Assign users to role page to view all users who are assigned a specific role.

Enabled users

For internal security and to help avoid licensing requirements for users who leave or aren't actively using the finance and operations apps, disable those users on the Users page.

Audit and monitor

Regularly audit your current security settings and monitor the system after an update to ensure compliance with the licensing requirements.

Related information

For information about how to buy and license finance and operations apps, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide.

For information about how to assign licenses to users in the Microsoft 365 admin center, see Assign licenses to users.

More user licenses are required when multiple implementation projects exist for the same tenant. For more information, see Multiple Lifecycle Services projects and production environments on one Microsoft Entra tenant.