Microsoft Entra Access Reviews: A Practical First Review
A contractor’s project ends. An employee moves from operations to sales. A partner no longer needs access to a shared workspace. The work changes; the permissions need someone to follow through.
October is Cyber Security Awareness Month in Canada. Alongside conversations about phishing and stronger sign-in habits, it is a useful time for Canadian businesses to ask a quieter question: who still needs the access they already have?
A Microsoft Entra access review can help answer that question. The useful outcome is a documented decision, an appropriate change and confirmation that the change worked. Here is how to make a first review manageable.
Understand what you are reviewing
Microsoft Entra access reviews support periodic checks of group memberships, enterprise application access and role assignments. They give reviewers a structured way to decide whether a person should retain access to a particular resource.
This is different from reviewing Conditional Access policies, which govern the conditions under which people can sign in. You may need both activities, but they answer different questions: does this person still belong, and under what conditions should access be allowed?
Start with one clearly defined resource. A group used for a completed project is easier to understand than an instruction to “review everyone’s access.” Write down what the group provides before asking anyone to approve its members.
Choose a reviewer who knows the work
The person who understands the business purpose should help decide whether access is still needed. IT can organise the review and implement changes; a project or department lead can explain what each person still needs to do.
For a first review, give that lead three questions:
What current task requires this access?
Who is responsible for confirming that task is still active?
When should we reconsider the decision?
A fictional example: a Canadian consultancy has finished a client engagement, but an external specialist still needs two weeks to complete the handover. The project lead records that reason and a follow-up date. Another contractor’s work is finished, so their access is marked for removal. These are separate decisions, even though both accounts belong to the same project.
Set a deadline the reviewer can meet. Agree who will follow up if a decision is missing, and explain how someone can report an access problem after changes are made.
Check licensing before planning automation
Do not assume every Microsoft 365 subscription includes the access-review features you want. Microsoft’s guidance identifies Microsoft Entra ID Governance and Microsoft Entra Suite, with some capabilities available through Microsoft Entra ID P2. Requirements vary by capability and by the people being reviewed or reviewing access; guest governance also has a distinct billing model.
Ask your IT owner to check the proposed scope against current licensing before configuring the review. You can still begin the business conversation with a carefully controlled access list while assessing the appropriate tooling.
Decide what silence means
A review needs a plan for unanswered questions. Microsoft Entra lets administrators configure what happens when reviewers do not respond, including leaving access unchanged, removing access, approving access or taking system recommendations.
Combined with automatic application of results, those settings can remove access when a reviewer misses the deadline. Understand that behaviour before the review starts.
For an initial pilot, Microsoft recommends starting with results that are not automatically applied. Use that breathing room to resolve unclear decisions and check the impact of proposed removals. Explain the selected settings to the reviewer in plain language rather than relying on a notification email to carry the whole process.
Verify the change, not just the decision
A reviewer’s denial and an implemented removal are separate stages. If automatic application is disabled, an administrator must apply the completed review’s results.
Some access paths require additional work. For example, results cannot directly change membership of a group managed in an on-premises directory. Nested group membership can also leave access in place. Your IT owner needs to identify how access is actually granted before declaring the task complete.
Keep a short completion record: the resource, decision, reason, person who made the change, verification date and any unresolved access path. Record how an incorrect removal would be restored. For the consultancy example, checking that one assignment disappeared is only useful if the specialist does not retain the same access through another route.
Protect emergency recovery access during cleanup
Emergency access accounts deserve a separate, deliberate check. Their lack of routine use is intentional; an inactivity rule should not become a reason to remove your recovery route.
Microsoft recommends at least two cloud-only emergency access accounts, protected with strong phishing-resistant authentication and monitored for use. Its guidance calls for validation at least every 90 days and after relevant changes. Emergency accounts must remain usable when normal administration fails, including through carefully managed exclusions from Conditional Access policies that block or restrict sign-in.
Have your administrator validate the recovery process separately from the first group review. Confirm who is authorised to use it and where the procedure is stored. Treat any proposed change to these accounts as a recovery-design decision.
Leave the first review with a next date
Choose the next review date before closing the first one. Base the interval on how the resource is used and how often its membership changes. Add a reminder after project completion, staff departures or a change in responsibility, so your review supports everyday access management.
You do not need a large programme to begin. One well-understood group, a business reviewer, checked settings and verified follow-through give your team a practical foundation.
LOZES supports businesses across Canada with Microsoft cloud and identity security. If unclear ownership, stale access or recovery readiness is on your list, share your priorities through the enquiry form below. It is an initial enquiry to help frame the conversation.
