Automatically assign Microsoft 365 licenses via a security group
Marcel van Beek
3 min. read
Manually assigning licenses to new employees is time-consuming and prone to errors. With group-based licensing in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), you automatically assign Microsoft 365 licenses as soon as someone joins a security group. This guide explains how to set it up.
1. Preparation
Prepare licenses
Ensure the necessary (and sufficient) product licenses (for example, Microsoft 365 Business Premium or E3) are available in your tenant.Administrator rights
You need the role of User administrator or License administrator.
2. Create a security group
If you do not yet have an Entra group for all your employees:
In the Entra admin centre, go to Groups → New group.
Choose Security as the type.
Select: Assigned to manually add members
Save the group and add any members.
3. Link the license to the group
Go to MS365 Admin: https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?referrer=entra#/licenses
Select the product, for example, Microsoft 365 Business Standard.
Choose 'Groups' and select the newly created group
Click on Assignment options to turn parts on or off (for example, Teams yes, Yammer no).
Save
4. Automatic assignment
From now on, all members of this security group will receive the selected license. New users receive their license as soon as they join; processing usually takes a few minutes.
With this approach, you automate the entire process of license assignment in Microsoft 365. New employees immediately receive the right tools, without manual actions or error-prone checklists.
Automatically assign licenses to new employees via Joinly
With Joinly, Microsoft 365 licenses are fully automated. As soon as a new employee is listed in your HR system, Joinly initiates the entire process:
The user is created in Microsoft Entra ID
The appropriate security groups are assigned
Licenses for Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, and other apps are activated immediately
No separate scripts, no manual checks. Joinly links HR and IT, so every employee has access to the right tools from day one, and you don't waste time on manual license management.
