Microsoft released a new licensing guide for the Dynamics 365 business application suite with a number of updates.
On October 1st 2019, Microsoft released a new licensing guide for the Dynamics 365 business application suite with a number of updates. This licensing update only applies to the cloud version of D365FO and does not apply to on-premise installs.
New Licensing Model (as of Oct 1st 2019)
The Operations level license is now split into separate modules:
- Finance
- Supply Chain Management
- Retail
- Talent
The Activity level license has now been renamed to Operations – Activity.
Old Licensing Model (prior to Oct 1st 2019)
And for comparison, here is the old licensing model.
License Types on Entry Points
The ViewUserLicense and MaintainUserLicense parameters on entry points are still there and the UserLicenseType enum is unchanged.
As in earlier versions of licensing, entry point access drives the license requirement and it only takes one access at a higher level to force that user to require a higher license.
Out of Box Role License Requirements
In the licensing guide, there is a section that shows the license for each out of box role. It spanned across multiple pages and was difficult to search. So I created my own in Excel, you can download it here.
Base vs. Attach Licenses
When licensing for a user there are two categories of license: Base and Attach.
And they have the following characteristics:
Base
- Must be the first license assigned to a user
- Must be the highest priced license
- Every user must be assigned a ‘base’ license to access the application
Attach
- Added on to a ‘base’ license
- A user can have as many ‘attach’ licenses as needed
Below is a chart showing the allowable combinations of base/attach licenses. If ‘NA’ is present, that means that for a user to have that combination of licenses, both licenses would be considered a ‘base’ license.
What About Admin Rights?
Slightly buried in the licensing guide is this:
Admin rights apply across Finance, Supply Chain Management, and Retail applications. For example, if you have a Finance license, you have the admin rights for Finance, as well as Supply Chain Management, and Retail applications.
Pricing
Finance – $180/month base, $30/month attach
Supply Chain Management – $180/month base, $30/month attach
Retail – $170/month base, $30/month attach
Talent – $40/month base or attach
User License Enforcement
Currently a user who is not assigned the correct license, will just receive a warning when logging into D365FO. Going forward, it would make sense for Microsoft to do actual license enforcement since they have all of the necessary telemetry data to do this and block users from logging in if they are not assigned the correct license.
Future Roadmap
In the coming monthly releases of D365FO, I expect there to be more reporting around this new licensing.
User License Estimator Report
I found a new report that shows the user to new license type associations based on the user’s access. There report is found at System Administration -> Inquiries -> License Reports -> User License Estimator.
Whereas in the previous licensing model a user would have just required an Operations license, now there are different types of these ‘enterprise’ grade licenses, and they are piece-meal. So, one user can require multiple different ‘enterprise’ level licenses based on their access. For example, in the previous license model the Alicia user would require an Operations license, now she requires a Finance, Supply Chain Management, and Retail licenses based on her assigned access.
Check out Alex's article on determining User Licenses in AX 2012 and Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.
Resources
Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide October 2019
Determining User Licenses in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations
October 2019 User Licensing Update to Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations
