Email works, files open, and the monthly Microsoft bill gets paid. That tells you the service is available. It does not tell you whether access and protection match the way your business operates.
Use these seven checks with the person who administers your environment. This is a review agenda, not a set of universal switches. Licensing, existing policies, and business dependencies affect the right configuration.
1. Confirm who owns administration
Identify the authorized administrators and what each role permits. Microsoft provides roles with different levels of access. Assign the permissions needed for the job rather than making every helper a Global Administrator.
The business should know how administrative access is recovered. Keep that process documented and the recovery material protected.
2. Review the MFA policy
Ask which accounts are covered by multifactor authentication and how coverage is enforced. Microsoft’s security defaults and Conditional Access are different approaches, with licensing and configuration considerations.
Do not disable an existing protection to follow a checklist. Have the administrator assess the current policy, exceptions, and recovery process before changing it.
3. Check former employee access
Confirm that departing users’ sign-in access and active sessions are handled through the offboarding process. Microsoft’s guidance also covers preserving and transferring relevant business data.
Removing a license is not the entire handoff. Decide what must be retained and who will own it before deleting accounts or content.
4. Review external sharing
Identify which SharePoint sites and OneDrive locations can be shared outside the business. Check whether the allowed sharing matches the purpose of the material.
A supplier may need one document, not broad access to a working folder. Review existing access as well as the rule for creating new shares.
5. Inspect forwarding
Ask the administrator to review unexpected mailbox forwarding and the policies controlling automatic forwarding outside the organization. Microsoft documents controls for external forwarding; the right choice depends on legitimate workflows too.
An unexplained rule deserves investigation, not an automatic assumption that someone intentionally configured it.
6. Check mailbox protection and reporting
Confirm what email protection your subscription provides, who monitors it, and how employees report suspicious messages. Do not assume every advanced feature is included in every plan.
Give staff an obvious reporting route. A well-configured filter still needs a response process when a message gets through.
7. Verify the recovery plan
List the business information stored in Microsoft 365 and the recovery options available under your configuration. Test an approved, harmless sample recovery. Record who performs it and where the instructions live.
End the review with a short action list: the finding, its owner, the next step, and the evidence needed to close it. Buying a subscription gets the platform into the business. Managing these details makes it fit the business.