You’re probably paying for licenses you don’t need

If you have Dynamics 365, there’s an 80% chance you’re overpaying on licenses. That’s not an exaggeration — it’s what we see in nearly every company we audit.

The most common reasons:

Everyone got Sales Enterprise when half the team only needs Professional
There are active users who left the company months ago
Licenses were bought “just in case” and nobody uses them
The original partner recommended the most expensive plan because they earn higher commissions

This guide teaches you how to run the audit yourself, for free. What many consultancies charge as a “licensing assessment” — here it is, step by step.

Step 1: Take inventory of who has what

Log into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and go to Billing > Licenses. You’ll see:

How many licenses of each type you’re paying for
How many are assigned
How many are unassigned (paying for nothing)

First quick win: if you have unassigned licenses, you’re already wasting money. Every unassigned Sales Enterprise license is €95/month in the bin.

Export the user list with their licenses. You need a spreadsheet with these columns:

User	Current license	Department	Role
Ana Garcia	Sales Enterprise	Sales	Rep
Peter Lopez	Sales Enterprise	Leadership	Sales Director
Laura Ruiz	Sales Enterprise	Admin	Assistant

Step 2: Classify each user by what they actually do

Not every user needs the same level of access. Classify each person into one of these categories:

Category A — Full users

They create records, manage opportunities, run workflows, build custom reports. They need a full license (Professional or Enterprise).

Category B — Light users

They only view data, approve requests, or update a few fields. Team Members at €8/month is enough.

Category C — Inactive users

They haven’t logged in for the past 30 days. Candidates for license removal.

How to tell who is who

In Dynamics 365, go to Settings > Auditing or use the Power Platform Admin Center to check each user’s activity. Look for:

Last login date
Number of records created/modified in the last 30 days
Features they actually use

If someone hasn’t logged in for 30 days, they don’t need that active license.

Step 3: Decide Professional vs. Enterprise

This is the decision that saves the most money. The difference between Sales Professional (€60) and Sales Enterprise (€95) is €35/user/month — for 20 users that’s €8,400 per year.

They need Enterprise if they:

Create complex custom workflows
Use sales goals and territories
Need highly customized forms and views
Require API access for advanced integrations
Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration

Professional is enough if they:

Manage contacts, accounts, and opportunities
Use the standard sales pipeline
View pre-built dashboards and reports
Send emails and log activities
Use the mobile app to check data in the field

The reality: in most sales teams, 70% of users work perfectly fine with Professional.

Step 4: Review additional apps

Microsoft has a little-known rule: the second Dynamics 365 app is discounted. If you already pay for Sales, adding Customer Service costs less than list price.

Check if you’re paying full price for apps that should have “attach pricing” discounts.

Also check for duplicate capabilities:

Are you paying for Power BI Pro separately when your Enterprise license already includes reporting?
Do you have Power Automate Premium when the basic flows included in your license would be enough?

Step 5: Calculate the savings

Use this formula for each user:

Annual savings = (Current license - Needed license) × 12

Example for a 25-user company:

Change	Users	Savings/user/month	Annual savings
Enterprise → Professional	12	€35	€5,040
Enterprise → Team Members	4	€87	€4,176
Unused licenses → Remove	3	€95	€3,420
Total			€12,636/year

That’s over €12,000 per year you could be saving. And this is a moderate case.

Step 6: Implement the changes

Unused licenses

Remove them immediately from the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. The change applies in the next billing cycle.

Downgrades (Enterprise → Professional)

You can do this mid-contract, but check the terms of your agreement. Some Enterprise Agreements allow quarterly changes, others only annual.

Before downgrading, verify the user won’t lose data or features they actively use. Professional has some customization limitations that Enterprise doesn’t.

Switching to Team Members

Keep in mind that Team Members cannot create opportunities, cases, or core records. They can only:

Read all data
Edit limited fields on assigned records
Approve workflows
Update personal information

If that covers what the user needs, make the switch.

The nuclear option: remove everything and wait for complaints

If the analysis gets too complicated — too many users, too many roles, nobody knows who uses what — there’s a radical alternative that works surprisingly well:

Save a snapshot of the current state. Export which user has which license. This is your backup.
Remove all licenses. Yes, all of them.
Wait.

The people who actually need the system will complain. The ones who don’t won’t even notice.

As complaints come in, reassign licenses one by one. And this time, assign exactly what each person needs, not what they had before out of inertia.

Is it aggressive? Yes. Does it work? Better than any desk audit. Because it’s not based on what people say they use — it’s based on what they actually need to do their job.

Pro tip: do it on a Friday afternoon. By Monday you’ll have a crystal-clear picture of who needs what.

Quarterly audit checklist

Run this every 3 months so unused licenses don’t pile up:

Check for users with no activity in the last 30 days
Look for unassigned licenses
Verify nobody has Enterprise but only uses Professional features
Cross-reference employee joins/leaves with active licenses
Check for new Microsoft discounts or promotions that apply

When you do need outside help

This guide covers 80% of cases. But there are situations where an independent expert is worth it:

You have 100+ users mixing CRM and ERP
You’re on a complex Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft
You need to combine Dynamics 365 with Power Platform and aren’t sure which licenses overlap
Your current partner also sells the licenses and you want a conflict-free opinion

Want us to review your licenses together? Get in touch and we’ll run a quick audit at no cost. If we find savings, great. If not, at least you’ll know you’re set.