When you create a new Microsoft tenant, you become the first user of that tenant. Tenant is Microsoft’s term for your company’s account. As the first user, you're automatically assigned the Global Administrator role (the most privileged user assignment). All the instructions in this course must be completed by a Global Administrator. By default, you're also listed as the technical contact for the tenant. Each person on your team needs a user account before they can sign in and access your tenant. This step not only allows your employees have access to the benefits of the E3 license, but also serves as a complete list of people that have access to your system, a CMMC requirement.

Ensure your directory has at least two accounts with Global Administrator privileges assigned to them. This will help in the case that one Global Administrator is locked out.  We will work though how to add the second Global Administrator and other users below.

  1. Log into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

  2. In the Navigation Menu, select Billing then Your Products.

  3. Select the tenant with the custom domain that you added in the previous lesson.

  4. Select Buy licenses.

    Note: Purchase enough licenses for each of the employees you want to add to your tenant. If you purchase these licenses on a different day from your M365 E3 subscription, the billing will renew separately on the dates purchased.  

Note: this video shows multiple ways to add users to your tenant. We recommend the first method covered in the video-adding multiple users directly into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

  1. In the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, open the Navigation Pane.

  2. Select Users then Active users.

  1. Select Add multiple users.

  1. Enter the first name, last name and username of all employees.

    Note: It is critical that every person with access to your system has a unique login credential and is included in this list.

  1. Select Next.

  2. Verify that your location says United States.

  3. Under Assign Licenses, check the box next to Microsoft E3 license.

    Note: you will see the number of licenses that you added at the beginning of this lesson available.

  4. Select Next.

  5. Select Add users.