Solution brief
Microsoft 365 Licence Waste Solution Brief
Two pages on this decision: what to measure, who has to sign it off, and what should be true before you commit. Free, and written to be forwarded.
Get the solution briefSolutions / Licences and offboarding
Automate Microsoft 365 offboarding and connect it to licence reclaim.
More licences than people? Find them before your renewal locks them in.
Leavers keep their licences, add-ons stay assigned, and at renewal nobody can prove which seats are waste. EtherInsights closes every leaver the same way, then shows the seats to cut before the renewal, because 7 days after it the count locks for the rest of the term.
14-day free trial on your own tenantRead-only by default
- 8 steps
- Every leaver closed, checked and filed: sessions, password, sign-in, MFA, meetings, licences, groups, admin roles
- Add-ons too
- Visio, Project, Defender for Office 365 and Teams Phone bought outside the suite
- 7 days
- After a renewal to cut seats, then locked for the term. Each seat priced at its own plan rate
More licences than people, and a renewal on the way.
Offboarding varies by who handles it, so licences outlive the job. On annual plans you have 7 days after renewal to cut seats, then the count is locked for the rest of the term.
What is happening
Seats keep billing after people go.
Leaver accounts, add-on licences and shared mailboxes keep their licences until someone notices at renewal.
Why it gets missed
Assigned looks the same as used.
The admin centre shows who has a licence, not who still uses it, so waste and risk hide in plain sight.
What good looks like
Every leaver closed, checked and filed.
Sessions revoked, licences and roles removed and each step logged, in the same order for every leaver. The seat counts as saved when it is reassigned or cut at renewal.
They left. Their licence stayed.
Unused licences and a renewal warning, then one offboarding run: sign-in blocked, licences and admin roles removed, every step on record.
Watch with chapters and transcript
Read the transcript
- Seven days can decide what you pay until the next renewal.
- With Microsoft's new commerce subscriptions, that's the window to reduce licence numbers after renewal.
- EtherInsights shows unused licences and warns you from thirty days before a renewal date you have set,
- so your team can decide in time.
- Assigned is not the same as used.
- A leaver's licence can stay assigned long after they go.
- When someone leaves, it also brings offboarding into one workflow:
- block sign-in, remove licences and admin roles, and keep a record of the steps.
- Every step is on record, and a licence the leaver held directly is removed.
- Get ready before renewal.
- Try EtherInsights free for fourteen days on your own tenant.
- Seven days can decide what you pay
- Unused licences and the renewal warning
- Assigned is not the same as used
- Offboarding: block sign-in, remove licences, keep a record
- Get ready before renewal
See licence and offboarding control.
A focused walkthrough of licence waste, lifecycle evidence, and offboarding control in EtherInsights.
Every leaver closed, checked and filed.
Every step is logged as it runs, and every check says what it could not read, so the evidence is filed when the leaver is done.
Seats to cut before renewal
Allocation matched to real use. Add your renewal dates and EtherInsights warns you 30 days ahead, with the seats to cut.
Offboarding that runs the same way every time
Confirm once and EtherInsights runs it through Microsoft Graph under your admin’s delegated sign-in: revoke sessions, remove licences, add-ons and roles.
A saving that counts
The seat counts as saved when it is reassigned or cut at renewal, priced at its own plan rate.
Nothing fails silently
If a step cannot finish or a check cannot read something, the record says so, in plain words.
Start here
Find the licences you are paying for and nobody is using.
See this working on your own tenant.
Four things you can check on your own tenant.
Seats nobody uses. Changes nobody noticed. AI nobody approved. EtherInsights finds all three across your Microsoft estate, gives each one an owner, and keeps the proof. From £0.79 a user a month.
Seats, changes and AI, one price.
Seats nobody uses, changes nobody noticed and AI nobody approved, found in one platform. The waste becomes one annual figure your finance lead can read, with a date to beat: your renewal.
£0.79 per licensed user per month, whole platform
Try it on your own tenant today.
Your tenant, your number, 14 days. Connect read-only and see real findings in the first session.
14-day free trial on your own tenant. Cancel inside the trial.
An owner on every finding.
Each finding says what to cut, who owns it and what it is worth. The savings report tracks what was actually cut.
A savings report with an owner, an action and a value on every line
Nothing fails silently.
Every leaver closed, checked and filed. Every check says what it couldn't read: anything unread shows as "Not read", never as zero. Read-only by default, and changes are opt-in, run under your own admin's delegated sign-in.
ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 42001
A UK software company for the Microsoft estate. Listed by Microsoft as a Windows 365 partner, on Microsoft Marketplace, and certified to ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 42001.
About EfficientEther
Find the seats you pay for and nobody uses, before your renewal.
Offboarding is opt-in and runs under your admin’s delegated sign-in. The rest of EtherInsights stays read-only.
£0.79per licensed user / month
Whole platform, one price. You pay for licensed users only. A licensed user is an account that is switched on and holds any Microsoft licence, such as E3. Volume and MSP pricing on request.
Take it to the people who decide.
Free documents for this decision, written to be forwarded.
Questions people ask first.
Microsoft facts on this page are checked against Microsoft Learn. Glossary of terms
Start by comparing assigned licences with user activity, inactive accounts, last sign-in, role changes, and renewal pressure. EtherInsights brings those signals together so IT can identify reclaim candidates and review the evidence before making changes.
Guides and analysis on this topic
Read the blog
Microsoft 365 · 20 Jul 2026
Microsoft 365 Offboarding Checklist: Stop Paying for Leavers
A step-by-step Microsoft 365 offboarding checklist: block sign-in, revoke sessions, convert the mailbox to shared, hand over OneDrive, and remove the licence.
Read article
Microsoft 365 · 6 Sept 2026
Automate Microsoft 365 Offboarding with Entra Lifecycle Workflows
Automate Microsoft 365 offboarding with Entra ID Lifecycle Workflows: leaver templates, tasks, scheduling and the licence you actually need.
Read article
Microsoft 365 · 3 Sept 2026
How to Find Inactive Microsoft 365 Users and the Licences They Hold
Find inactive Microsoft 365 users with Entra sign-in activity and a Get-MgUser PowerShell script, then decide which licences to reclaim, downgrade or keep.
Read articleSee it on your own tenant this week.
Start on your own, see it with a practitioner, or ask the question procurement will ask. Every path has a person behind it and a published price.
- TodayConnect read-only in about seven minutes. Nothing in your tenant changes.
- First sessionFindings appear as the scan runs, each with a monthly figure and an owner.
- Day 14Keep the plan or cancel.
See what your Microsoft estate is wasting.
Connect your own tenant with read-only consent. Licence, Azure and Cloud PC findings appear in the first session.
- 14-day free trial on your own tenant
- Read-only by default, actions opt-in
- ISO 27001, 9001 and 42001
Next: sign in with Microsoft and approve read-only access. About seven minutes to connect.
Prefer to see it first? Watch the 90 second tour