How to add an admin to your Microsoft 365 tenant

You need to be signed in as a Global Administrator already. If you bought the Microsoft 365 subscription for the business, that is you. If someone else set it up (a previous IT company, a staff member who has left), you may need to get that access back first, which is a different job. If you are stuck at that point, call us and we will work out the recovery path with you.

Microsoft's own one-minute video covers the same thing with their screens: Assign admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Our steps below create a brand-new account rather than promoting an existing one, which keeps your own logins untouched.

1. 1Sign in to the admin centre. Go to admin.microsoft.com and sign in with your Global Administrator account. If the top of the page says Simplified view, select Add user and skip to step 3. If it says Dashboard view, carry on.

   

   

2. 2Open Active users. In the left menu choose Users, then Active users, then the Add a user button above the list.
3. 3Set up the basics. First name WaTo, last name Consulting. Username wato. In the Domains drop-down pick the one ending in .onmicrosoft.com, not your business domain. Under Password settings untick Automatically create a password and type a temporary one of your own. Leave Require this user to change their password when they first sign in ticked. Select Next.

   

4. 4Assign product licenses. Choose Create user without product license (not recommended). Ignore the warning: an administrator account does not need email or Office apps, and this way it does not use a paid seat. Select Next.

   

5. 5Optional settings: give the role. Expand Roles. Change from User (no admin center access) to Admin center access, then tick Global Administrator. If you cannot see it in the short list, select Show all by category. Select Next.

   

6. 6Review and finish. Check the summary shows no licence and the Global Administrator role, then select Finish adding. You do not need to print or email the credentials from this screen.

   

7. 7Send us the details, split in two. Email the full username (wato@yourbusiness.onmicrosoft.com). Text or phone the temporary password. We will sign in, set our own password, turn on multi-factor authentication and confirm back to you.

Screens are from Microsoft’s own admin centre walkthrough videos and documentation, with the fields filled in to match this guide (the sample tenant is Microsoft’s Fourth Coffee). Microsoft moves things occasionally, so if a label differs slightly, the current Microsoft page has the latest screens.

First sign-in: we change the temporary password to one only we hold and register multi-factor authentication on it. The account is used only while we are working in your tenant, never for email or day-to-day sign-ins. If we later only need to do routine tasks, we can swap Global Administrator for a narrower role such as User Administrator or Exchange Administrator and tell you we have done it.

If you ever want it gone: Users, Active users, select WaTo Consulting, then Block sign-in (reversible) or Delete user. Nothing else in your tenant depends on it.

You can promote an existing unlicensed account instead of creating one. In Active users select the account, then under Roles choose Manage roles, pick Admin center access, tick Global Administrator and Save changes. We would still ask you to reset its password so we are not sharing one that someone else knows.