Licence rules for groups and people

5 steps 5 min Updated 4 November 2026

By default the Entra sync gives every student one licence and every member of staff another — see Microsoft 365 licences. Licence rules are the advanced option for when that's not enough: give a group a different licence (for example Microsoft 365 A3 for faculty for your senior leadership team, or A3 for Year 11), or choose a licence for one person. The Who gets which licence page shows everyone, what they'll get, why, and how the last sync went for them.

Before you start

Licence assignment should already be set up — Microsoft 365 licences — with your licences loaded (Check licences now).
You need a school admin with sync settings permission, with the school selected in the switcher. Licence rules and Who gets which licence work for one school at a time: in MAT overview, switch to a school first.

Steps

Step 1: Turn on licence rules

In the sidebar, go to Entra sync → Settings → Licences, and under Advanced turn on Use licence rules for groups and people, then select Save settings. The Licence rules list appears in the panel below the form. (This switch is per school; it isn't on the Apply across MAT screen.)

Turning this off later keeps your rules and personal choices but ignores them — only the students and staff choices are used again, so anyone a rule or personal choice gave a different licence is moved back to the students or staff licence on the next sync. You're asked to confirm first.

Step 2: Add a rule

Under Licence rules, choose a group (type to search), choose the licence its members should get, and select Add rule.

People in groups nested inside that group count too — a rule for Year 11 covers the members of 11A, 11B and so on if they sit under Year 11.
A rule can license anyone in the group, including governors and observers, who otherwise get no licence.
Choose No licence from Realsmart to leave a group alone — for example a group of leavers. It never takes a licence away.

Each change saves straight away and takes effect on the next Entra sync.

Step 3: Put the rules in order

Rules are checked from the top down, and the first rule whose group includes a person decides their licence. If someone is in both Senior leadership and Teaching staff, whichever rule is higher wins. New rules go to the bottom — use the up and down arrows at the end of a row to move one. To change a rule's licence, pick another one in its Get box; to remove a rule, select the bin icon at the end of its row and confirm.

Decides for shows how many people each rule actually decides, after personal choices and the rules above it. The last line, Everyone else, is the students and staff licence for anyone no rule includes.

Step 4: Check who gets which licence

Select Who gets which licence (beside the rules, or in the Licences panel; it has no sidebar item). For everyone at the school it shows, 50 people to a page:

Next sync — the licence they'll have from Realsmart after the next Entra sync, with Changes if that's different from now.
Why — a licence chosen for them, a rule (naming the group), the students / staff licence, or that nothing is chosen for them.
Last sync — Licensed, Waiting for a free licence, Couldn't be licensed (with the reason), Not licensed by Realsmart, No Microsoft account yet or Not checked yet (and Suspended or left for people who are no longer active).

The counts at the top show how many will have each licence, how many change on the next sync, and how many are waiting or couldn't be licensed — select Show them to filter to those people. You can also filter by name, account type, licence, result and reason, and include suspended and left people. Select a name to open their profile on the Cloud tab.

Step 5: Choose a licence for one person

With licence rules on, the last column, Licence for this person, sets a licence for just that person. It comes before every rule:

Follow the rules — the default: rules, then the students / staff licence.
A licence — they get this licence whatever group they're in.
No licence from Realsmart — Realsmart leaves them as they are. It never takes a licence away.

It saves as soon as you choose, and takes effect on the next Entra sync.

Good to know

Changing, removing or reordering a rule, or turning rules off, can move people to a different licence on the next sync — removing a rule sends its people to the next matching rule or the students / staff licence; turning rules off sends everyone back to the students / staff licence (you're asked to confirm, with a count). Microsoft swaps licences in one step, so email and files are kept. Who gets which licence marks everyone affected with Changes before the sync runs.
No licence from Realsmart never takes a licence away — for a group or for one person, it leaves them exactly as they are.
A licence your tenant doesn't have (expired, or never bought) is flagged in red on the rule or the person. Those people are left as they are — they are not moved to the next rule — until you choose another licence.
A rule for a deleted group does nothing: it shows Group deleted — this rule does nothing. Remove it or leave it.
Short of licences? Staff are licensed before students, and anyone who doesn't get one shows as Waiting for a free licence.
Next sync is worked out from your settings as they are now; Last sync is what happened on the last Entra sync. After you change a rule, Changes marks who will be affected.

Result

Groups and individual people get the Microsoft 365 licence you chose for them on the next Entra sync, and Who gets which licence shows exactly who has what, why, and who is still waiting.

Did this work for you?

If a step looked different on your site, tell us and we'll update the screenshots.