Microsoft 365 admin explained, and when to hand it over
Every Microsoft 365 business has an admin centre, and most owners have never opened it. This page explains what it is, who should have access, how to sign in and what to do when the wrong person holds the keys. If you would rather not run it yourself, we can do it for you.
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The short answer
The Microsoft 365 admin centre is at admin.microsoft.com. Only people with an admin role can use it. There people add users, assign licences, reset passwords and change security settings. The Global Administrator role can do everything, so a business should give it to very few people and use narrower roles for other jobs. WaTo Consulting helps Adelaide businesses set up admin access properly, recover it when it is lost and run the admin day to day.
What the admin centre is
The Microsoft 365 admin centre is the control panel for your business's Microsoft 365 account, called a tenant. Staff use Outlook, Teams and OneDrive. Admins use the admin centre to decide who exists in the tenant, which licences they have and what they can do. You reach it at admin.microsoft.com by signing in with an account that has an admin role. A normal staff login opens nothing there. Microsoft also gives every tenant a built-in address ending in .onmicrosoft.com, and admin accounts are often created on it.
Admin jobs people ask us about
Signing in
Go to admin.microsoft.com and sign in with your admin account. If you get an error or a blank page, you are probably signed in with a staff account that has no admin role.
Global Administrator vs other roles
Global Administrator can change anything in the tenant. Microsoft also has narrower roles, such as User Administrator or Helpdesk Administrator, that cover only part of the job. Use the narrowest role that does the work.
Adding an admin
In Users, Active users, you can create an account or open an existing one and assign a role. Our add an admin guide shows the screens.
Removing an admin
When someone leaves, or a provider's contract ends, their admin role should be removed straight away. It is one of the most commonly missed steps.
Locked out
Forgotten password, lost phone or a former provider holding the only login. The route back depends on what is still working. See locked out of Microsoft 365 admin.
Day-to-day admin
Starters, leavers, licences, shared mailboxes and permissions. These are routine, and they are easy to get wrong without practice.
Who should be an admin
- Two named people the business trusts, usually the owner and one other, who can each use the Global Administrator role.
- Your IT provider, through their own named account, so changes are logged against them and you can remove them later.
- Staff who only need one task, such as resetting passwords, with a narrow role instead of full admin.
- Nobody who has left, and no shared admin login that several people know the password to.
When you hand admin to WaTo
- We check what you have. We find out which tenant is yours, who holds admin roles and who bills you for the licences.
- We set up access properly. We ask for our own named admin account, never your login. You keep your own admin access.
- We tidy the roles. Old admins are removed, the roles are narrowed where possible, and multi-factor authentication is turned on for every admin account.
- We take the routine work. You ask for a new starter, a leaver or a licence change and we make the change in the admin centre.
- You can end it any time. Remove our account and we no longer have access. The tenant stays in your name throughout.
Why WaTo for Microsoft 365 admin
- We deal with the tenant in your name. We do not move it into ours or make you dependent on us to get in.
- Every change we make is logged against our own account.
- We can work through lost admin access, using the routes in our admin access guide.
- Ongoing work sits under Microsoft 365 management, which is ad hoc or part of a plan.
- Adelaide-based since 2001, with someone to ring who answers questions in plain words.
Microsoft 365 admin questions
What is the Microsoft 365 admin centre and where do I find it?
It is the web portal where a business manages its Microsoft 365 account. The address is admin.microsoft.com. You need an account with an admin role to use it, such as Global Administrator.
What is admin.onmicrosoft.com?
Every Microsoft 365 tenant has a built-in address that ends in .onmicrosoft.com, such as yourbusiness.onmicrosoft.com. Admin accounts are often created on it, for example admin@yourbusiness.onmicrosoft.com. It is your tenant's own address, not a separate site you sign up to. Open SharePoint in a browser and the start of its address tells you your tenant name.
Who has admin on our Microsoft 365?
If you can sign in as an admin, open the admin centre and go to Roles, then Role assignments. It lists who holds each role. If nobody can sign in, our guide on getting admin access back covers how to find out.
Is Office 365 admin the same as Microsoft 365 admin?
Close enough for most purposes. Microsoft renamed Office 365 plans to Microsoft 365, and the admin centre is the same one. Older notes that say Office 365 admin portal usually point to admin.microsoft.com today.
How many Global Administrators should we have?
Few, but more than one. A single admin is a risk if that person leaves or loses their phone. Giving the role to two trusted people is a common approach, with narrower roles for everyone else who needs some admin rights.
Do we have to give WaTo our own login?
No, and we ask you not to. We ask for a separate named account, which keeps a clear record of what we changed. You can remove it whenever you like. Our add an admin guide walks through creating it.
What does it cost to have WaTo do our Microsoft 365 admin?
One-off jobs are billed by the hour: remote help is $115 an hour and booked on-site work is $180 an hour. If you have regular changes, we can include the admin in a plan. We give an estimate before starting.
Our old IT provider still has admin. What now?
Ask them in writing for a Global Administrator account in your business's name, then remove their roles. If they will not help, there are other routes through Microsoft. We can handle the conversation as part of changing provider.
Guides on this topic
- How to add an admin to your Microsoft 365 tenant
- Locked out of the Microsoft 365 admin centre? How to get back in
- Microsoft 365 security baseline for small businesses
- What to do in Microsoft 365 when someone leaves
Not sure who holds the keys to your Microsoft 365?
Call (08) 7123 0805 or book a call. We will work out who has admin, tidy it up and take the routine jobs off you.
Mon to Fri, 8:30am to 5pm
