Microsoft 365 Tenant Audit: Scope, Findings & Deliverables
A Microsoft 365 tenant audit is an independent review of your environment's configuration, security posture, governance and licensing. The term is used inconsistently in the market - some providers offer a 30-minute review as an 'audit'. This guide defines what a thorough audit should cover, what you should receive as a deliverable, and what separates a meaningful assessment from a surface-level sales exercise.
What a proper tenant audit covers
A comprehensive Microsoft 365 tenant audit spans seven configuration domains. Any review that covers fewer than five of these is partial and should be described accordingly.
- Identity and access: Entra ID configuration, MFA enforcement status, Conditional Access policies, admin account count and hygiene, break-glass account configuration, Privileged Identity Management
- Security posture: Microsoft Secure Score baseline, Defender for Microsoft 365 configuration, Safe Links and Safe Attachments policies, anti-phishing configuration, DKIM and DMARC
- Device management: Intune enrolment status, device compliance policies, Conditional Access device requirements, Defender for Endpoint onboarding
- Collaboration governance: SharePoint and OneDrive external sharing settings, Teams creation policy, guest access configuration, external user inventory, ownerless site identification
- Data and information protection: sensitivity label deployment, DLP policy coverage, Microsoft Purview audit status, retention policy configuration
- Licensing: licence assignment vs active use, unused or over-assigned licences, licence tier alignment with actual feature usage
- Operational assurance: Secure Score trend, Message Centre review process, admin access review frequency, documentation and change management
What findings you should receive
A tenant audit should produce specific, actionable findings - not generic advice. Each finding should include:
- What was found: the specific configuration gap or risk, described in enough detail to understand the current state
- Why it matters: the business risk or security impact if the finding is not addressed
- Priority: a rating that reflects the combination of security impact and implementation complexity - not just severity
- Recommended action: what to do, not just that something needs to change
- Effort estimate: whether this is a 30-minute change or a multi-day project
- Microsoft documentation reference: where to go for technical implementation guidance
What the deliverable should look like
- A written report - not a slideshow or verbal debrief. The report should be usable as a reference document after the review session
- An executive summary suitable for a non-technical business owner or board member, covering the most significant findings
- A prioritised findings list grouped by domain, with each finding described to the standard above
- A Secure Score baseline reading taken at the time of the assessment, as a measurable starting point
- A follow-up review session to walk through findings with your team, answer questions and clarify implementation priorities
Red flags in a poor-quality audit
- The output is a Secure Score screenshot with a list of Microsoft's own recommended actions - this is the Secure Score improvement plan, not an independent assessment
- All findings point to purchasing additional services or upgrading to a higher licence tier with the same provider
- No written report is provided - findings delivered only in a meeting or slide deck
- The assessment was completed in less than half a day for a tenant with more than 20 users
- Licensing review is absent or consists only of confirming that licences are assigned
- Collaboration governance - SharePoint, Teams, external sharing - is not covered
- No follow-up session is included - you receive the report and nothing else
Audit vs implementation: what comes next
A tenant audit produces a findings report and remediation recommendations. It does not make changes to your environment. The audit and the implementation are separate engagements.
Most organisations prioritise findings into three categories after an audit: quick wins (configuration changes that can be made in hours with low disruption), planned remediation (work that requires coordination, testing and user communication, such as Conditional Access rollout or Intune deployment), and longer-term governance (structural changes like sensitivity label taxonomy, data ownership assignment and ongoing review processes).
Not all findings need to be addressed immediately. The audit gives you the information to make that prioritisation decision yourself, based on your risk tolerance and available resource - not based on what a provider with a commercial interest recommends.
The value of an independent tenant audit is not the list of things to fix. It is the confidence that comes from knowing the actual state of your environment - not the state you assumed it was in.
Accuracy
Last reviewed: 9 October 2026 · Microsoft product capabilities, licensing and configuration options change regularly. Verify current details at learn.microsoft.com.
Next step
Microsoft 365 Security & Governance Baseline
An independent, comprehensive Microsoft 365 tenant audit covering all seven configuration domains. Written findings report, executive summary, prioritised remediation recommendations and review session. From $2,500.
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