Microsoft software usage reports provide businesses with important activity information. Leveraging these features lets you easily track user activity across all your Microsoft 365 applications and services, including:

• Number of daily active users per service;
• Number of daily activities per service;
• Number of active/inactive users per service in the past 7, 30, 90, or 180 days;
• Last activity date for each active user per service;
• Microsoft 365 usage analytics (must first be enabled in your dashboard);
• and much more

In this article, we walk you through the simple process of accessing and exporting your usage reports.

Understanding Assigned Licenses

When you purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription, the number of licenses should reflect the number of employees who intend to use the apps and services. A user account will then be generated and assigned to each individual comprising the license total.

It’s important to keep track of your Office 365 licenses. In the event of an audit, you can be fined for using 5% more than your Microsoft license rights. You’ll also be charged for over-usage as well as the audit itself.

Luckily, the number of assigned licenses can easily be increased or decreased, and even reassigned, as your operational needs change. Regular reporting helps you decide which accounts should be deprovisioned, as well as which should be upgraded.

NOTE: Upon closing a user account, Microsoft will delete their usage data within 30 days.

Who Has Access to the Usage Report Page?

Not just anyone can view your organization’s Microsoft 365 licensing usage. The permissions are restricted to a handful of administrative roles, including:

• Global admins
• Exchange admins
• SharePoint admins
• Skype for Business admins
• Global reader
• Reports reader
• Teams service admin
• Teams communications admin
• And other admins

Learn more about our services here:

• Device Acquisition
• Microsoft License Management
• Remote Employee Device Deployment

How to View and Export Microsoft 365 License Usage Reports in 5 Easy Steps

1. Sign in to your Microsoft 365 admin homepage. Once your dashboard appears, scroll through the options in the left-hand pane. 

Click on the Reports tab; if you don’t see the Reports tab, click Show All.

From the Reports sub-menu, select Usage.

NOTE: If you’ve never used this feature before, you’ll be prompted to enable it. The data migration process takes approximately 24 hours to complete. 

2. Scroll down to Active users - Microsoft 365 Services.
   
   Click View more.
   
   When the page loads, you’ll notice the date range in the right-hand corner is automatically set to Past 30 days. You can change it to 7, 90, or 180 days.

NOTE: Data won’t immediately exist for all reporting periods. The reports become available within 48 hours.

1. Beneath the Export heading, you’ll see the list of active users arranged in a standard relational table. The first column displays the ID for all Office 365 users. 
   

The subsequent columns are titled Last activity date for X, where X represents each individual Microsoft service or application. 

If a user has accessed any of these services within the specified timeframe, a date stamp will appear in the corresponding row showing the most recent activity.

2. To change the contents of the table, scroll horizontally to the last field and select the Choose columns tab. 

You can now use the checkboxes to indicate which fields you want to include, such as:

• Product assigned
• Deleted date
• License assigned date for Microsoft Teams
• License assigned date for Yammer
• License assigned date for SharePoint
• License assigned date for Skype for Business
• License assigned date for OneDrive
• and more
  

Click Save.

3. To export the data, simply click Export in the top left-hand corner of the table. The report will be downloaded to your local drive as an Excel-compatible .csv file.

Why Are Usage Reports So Important for Microsoft License Optimization?

Staying on top of your Microsoft licensing isn’t complicated, but it is time-consuming. Nevertheless, the continual monitoring of your Microsoft 365 activity is key to improving operational decision-making, increasing ROI, and reducing costs. 

A software license manager can seamlessly take care of this process from start to finish, providing you with license reports on all Office 365 users and Office 365 services. At Quadbridge, we offer businesses like yours sophisticated tools to automate license audits and reporting.

QBx Portal - Your Trusted Office 365 License Reporting and Management Tool

For all your Office 365 reporting, trust QBx Portal. QBx Portal is an effective Microsoft software asset management tool. It will help you to:

• Stay on top of your Office 365 license assignment history
• Manage user accounts
• Produce and export custom reports
• Maintain regulatory compliance
  

Contact us today to take control of your Microsoft 365 software licensing.