title: Reclaim licenses as part of an access review category: License Management tags: license reclaim, certification, remediation priority: Normal
Reclaim licenses as part of an access review
The safest way to recover unused Microsoft 365 / Entra seats is to route them through an access review, so a manager or owner confirms the reclaim before the license is removed. This guide shows how to turn idle-seat findings into a certification campaign with a full attestation trail.
Why reclaim through a certification
Stripping a license directly is fast, but it leaves no reviewer sign-off. Routing the reclaim through a certification gives you:
- A human confirmation before anything changes — the backstop against a false positive
- A write-back that removes the license from the source directory only on approval
- A full attestation trail showing who approved the reclaim and when
- The same governed workflow you already use for access reviews
Prerequisites
- License-waste monitoring has flagged idle seats (see Reclaim unused Microsoft 365 and Entra licenses)
- Reviewers (managers or license owners) are identifiable from your synced directory
- The Entra connector has write-back permission to remove license assignments
- The Admin or License Manager role in your workspace
Step 1: Select the idle seats to reclaim
- Go to License Management and open the Recoverable spend view
- Drill into a SKU to list the accounts holding an idle seat
- Select the seats you want to review — for example everything idle for 90+ days, or every disabled account still holding a license
Step 2: Route them into a review
- With the seats selected, choose Reclaim as certification
- Name the campaign (for example "Q1 M365 license reclaim")
- Confirm the scope — the selected idle seats become the review items
Each item carries the context a reviewer needs: the person, the account, the license, the last sign-in date, and the account status. The reviewer is not guessing — they can see exactly why the seat was flagged.
Step 3: Assign reviewers
| Reviewer strategy | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Manager | Each user's manager confirms whether the seat is still needed | Broad, per-person reclaims |
| License owner | A designated owner reviews all seats for a SKU | Central IT-driven cleanup |
| Specific user | One admin reviews the whole batch | Small, already-vetted lists |
A fallback reviewer catches any items where no manager can be resolved.
Step 4: Reviewers decide
For each seat, the reviewer chooses one of:
| Decision | Result |
|---|---|
| Revoke (reclaim) | The license assignment is removed via write-back at close; the seat returns to your Microsoft pool |
| Keep | The seat is retained; the decision and any justification are recorded |
| Delegate | The item is reassigned to someone better placed to decide |
Revoke here means "remove the license," not "delete the account." The person and their account remain; only the paid seat is reclaimed.
Step 5: Close and write back
When the campaign closes:
- Approved reclaims are written back through the Entra connector, removing those license assignments
- The recovered seats appear in your available pool after the next sync
- The attestation trail records every decision — who reviewed, what they chose, and when
Step 6: Verify the recovery
- Re-open the recoverable-spend view; the reclaimed seats drop out of the idle count
- Check the audit report for the campaign to confirm the write-backs completed
- Export the attestation history if you need evidence for an auditor
Good practice
- Batch by risk. Put your clear-cut reclaims (disabled accounts, 90+ days idle) in one fast campaign and borderline cases in another with a longer review window.
- Keep the review window short for obvious waste. Disabled accounts holding licenses rarely need weeks of deliberation.
- Use manager routing for anything customer-facing. A manager will know if an idle account belongs to someone on leave.
Troubleshooting
Approved reclaims did not remove the license — Confirm the connector has write-back permission for license assignments and that the write-back completed without error in the audit report.
A reviewer cannot tell why a seat was flagged — The item shows last sign-in and account status; if these look wrong, run a fresh sync so the activity data is current before the campaign starts.