Managing Admin Access in Your Club's Microsoft 365

How to invite the District IT team to help with your club's Microsoft 365, and how to add your own members as admins.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for clubs that have their own Microsoft 365 tenant (separate from the District's). It covers two things:

  1. How to give the District IT team temporary admin access so they can help you
  2. How to add your own club members as admins
Before you start: You need to be signed in with an account that already has the Global Administrator role in your club's Microsoft 365 tenant. If you are not sure whether you have this, check with whoever originally set up your club's Microsoft 365.

Giving the District IT team admin access

Since the District IT team uses a different Microsoft 365 tenant to your club, you need to invite them as a guest user first, then assign an admin role to that guest account.

Step 1: Invite as a guest user

  1. Sign in at admin.microsoft.com with your club admin account.
  2. In the left menu, go to Users → Guest users.
  3. Click Add a guest user.
  4. Enter the District IT team member's email address (e.g. keiran.rodgers@rotary9660.org.au).
  5. Add a personal message if you like, then click Send invitation.
  6. The IT team member will receive an email invitation and needs to accept it before the next step.

Step 2: Assign an admin role

  1. Once the invitation has been accepted, go back to Users → Guest users in the admin centre.
  2. Click on the guest account.
  3. Go to the Roles tab and click Manage roles.
  4. Select Global Administrator (this gives full access to help with your environment).
  5. Click Save changes.
Remove access when done. Once the District IT team has finished helping, you can revoke access at any time by going back to the guest account and removing the admin role, or by deleting the guest account entirely.

Good to know

  • The guest account does not use one of your licences.
  • The guest user signs in with their own credentials and switches to your tenant from within the Microsoft 365 admin centre.
  • You retain full control and can remove the guest account at any time.

Adding your own members as admins

For ongoing management, it is a good idea to have at least two people in your club with admin access.

  1. Sign in at admin.microsoft.com.
  2. In the left menu, go to Users → Active users.
  3. Click on the member you want to make an admin.
  4. Go to the Roles tab and click Manage roles.
  5. Select Admin center access, then tick the role you want to assign (see below).
  6. Click Save changes.

Once a role is assigned, the member will see the Admin app appear in their Microsoft 365 app launcher (the waffle menu at the top left of any Microsoft 365 page) next time they sign in.

Which admin role should you assign?

Microsoft 365 has many admin roles. For most clubs, only a few are relevant:

Role What it can do
Global Administrator Full access to everything. Can manage users, billing, all settings, and all other admin roles. Limit this to 2 or 3 people.
User Administrator Can add, remove, and edit user accounts and reset passwords. Good for whoever handles member onboarding and offboarding.
Teams Administrator Can manage Microsoft Teams settings, policies, and meeting configurations.
SharePoint Administrator Can manage SharePoint sites and OneDrive storage settings.
Exchange Administrator Can manage mailboxes, mail flow rules, and email settings.
Billing Administrator Can manage subscriptions, payments, and invoices. Cannot change users or other settings.
Recommended setup for clubs: 2 Global Administrators (e.g. the president or secretary plus one tech-savvy member) for redundancy, and optionally a User Administrator for whoever handles adding and removing members. Avoid giving Global Administrator to everyone, as it includes the ability to delete the entire tenant.

Need help?

If you are not sure which role to assign, or if you run into any issues, email the District IT team at support@rotary9660.org.au and we will walk you through it.