If your Microsoft Entra renewal is coming up, the first question is not “what should we buy?” It is “what are we already paying for but not using?” Microsoft’s license usage insights page shows tenant-wide usage for key Entra features, and access reviews help you remove access that no longer has a business need. Together, those two tools give small businesses and IT teams a practical cleanup process before renewals. Microsoft documents license usage insights for Entra ID P1, P2, and related products, and access reviews for recurring access attestation and cleanup.
Start with usage, not assumptions
Microsoft says the License Usage page in the Microsoft Entra admin center shows how many Microsoft Entra ID P1, P2, and Suite licenses you own, plus usage of key features mapped to each tier. The page is designed to help you optimize Microsoft Entra licenses by comparing entitlements with actual feature usage, and it shows last month’s usage data, which may take up to three days to update. Microsoft also notes that entitlement totals can change from month to month based on renewals, non-renewals, or additional purchases. That documentation matters because it means the report is a decision aid, not a final invoice reconciliation.
A useful starting workflow is simple:
- Check the license usage page for the license tier you are reviewing.
- Compare used versus not used entitlements.
- Look for usage spikes that exceed licensed counts.
- Separate active users from guest users where possible.
- Note which feature is being used as the hero metric for that tier.
Microsoft says the key metric for Microsoft Entra ID P1 is Conditional Access users, and for Microsoft Entra ID P2 it is Risk-based Conditional Access users. That means the report is focused on a representative feature, not every possible capability. If your tenant uses other Entra features that are important to your business but not reflected in the hero metric, treat the report as one input among several. That is especially important if you are trying to decide whether a subscription tier is fully justified or whether some access can be removed before renewal.
Turn “unused” into an owner-led cleanup list
License reporting alone does not remove anything. The practical step is to assign owners and create a short cleanup list from the report. Use business owners, application owners, or group owners to answer three questions for each item:
- Does this person still need access?
- Is the access tied to a current job role, app, or project?
- Should the license be removed, moved to a different group, or kept temporarily?
Microsoft’s access review guidance says reviewers can be the users themselves or decision makers, and when a review ends, you can apply changes and remove access from users who no longer need it. Microsoft also says access reviews can be used for groups and applications, and can recur weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. That makes access reviews a good fit for renewal-season cleanup, especially when access is tied to groups or apps instead of handled one record at a time.
For teams managing Office or other app licenses through groups, Microsoft’s group-based licensing guidance recommends periodic access reviews so only authorized users stay in the group, and it describes annual review cycles as a supported pattern. That tutorial is not a policy mandate, but it is a workable model for a yearly cleanup cycle.
A practical owner checklist for each flagged group or app:
- Verify the owner still manages the resource.
- Check whether the group still matches the business purpose.
- Confirm whether any guests are still needed.
- Remove people whose need has ended.
- Record the reason for keeping any exceptions.
Use access reviews to make cleanup repeatable
Microsoft says access reviews can be created in Identity Governance, enterprise apps, PIM, or entitlement management depending on what you are reviewing. For groups or apps, a reviewer can be the user, a group owner, or another specified decision maker. Reviewers get email with a link to the access panel, and Microsoft can send reminders; by default, it sends one halfway to the end date if people have not responded. After review, you stop the review and apply the changes. Microsoft’s overview also notes that access reviews require Microsoft Entra ID Governance or Microsoft Entra Suite subscriptions for the organization’s users, while some capabilities may work with Microsoft Entra ID P2. That license distinction matters because the cleanup process itself may require a higher-tier entitlement than the license you are trying to optimize.
A simple monthly or quarterly process works well:
- Week 1: Export or note the groups, apps, and license tiers with weak usage signals.
- Week 2: Send access reviews to owners or users.
- Week 3: Follow up on nonresponses and disputed cases.
- Week 4: Remove access that was denied, unused, or no longer justified.
- Before renewal: Recheck the license usage page and confirm the trend.
For small businesses, this process is often enough. For schools and IT teams with shared services, you may need extra verification so one department does not remove access that another department still needs. In that case, ask the owner to confirm both the business purpose and the funding source before deleting access. That avoids cleaning up a license only to recreate it a week later.
Verify the cleanup actually worked
A cleanup process is only useful if you can prove it changed something. Verification should happen after each review cycle and again before renewal. Use these checks:
- Reopen the license usage page and confirm used entitlements dropped or stabilized.
- Check that removed users no longer appear in the group or app assignment.
- Confirm that any recurring review is still scheduled.
- Review guest and active-user trends separately if guests are a large part of consumption.
- Keep a short log of decisions, especially exceptions.
Microsoft notes that usage data may take up to three days to update, so do not expect instant movement on the dashboard. That delay means you should measure trends, not just same-day counts. If the cleanup is working, the next month’s report should show lower usage or fewer overages, and the six-month pattern should make it easier to plan future renewals.
If you already manage license assignment through groups, the best improvement is to tie three things together: a named owner, a recurring access review, and a renewal date. That turns software licensing from a one-time procurement event into an ongoing business process. For a broader process approach, see how to build a simple software license review process and use Entra workflows and access reviews together. If your team is already mapping approvals and exceptions, start with identity workflows in BPMN so the review path is clear before you automate it.
The main tradeoff is effort versus control. Manual reviews take staff time, but they create visibility into who still needs access and help avoid paying for stale assignments. The Microsoft documentation supports a straightforward pattern: inspect usage, review access, remove what is no longer needed, and repeat on a schedule. That is usually enough to tighten Entra license utilization before renewal without building a heavy governance program first.