Dynamics 365 Team Member license limitations and its purpose have become important to know as they are being enforcement by Dynamics 365. Get to know the limitations and the purpose plus alternatives for the Team Member license using Power Apps Plans licensing.
The Team member license did never lose its superpower, Microsoft just detailed what was the intent for the Team member license.
Microsoft will start to enforce team member restrictions at a point in time in near future. Below I will go through how to check if you are within use rights of your existing Team member licensing and if not then I will try to explain what options you have.
But first for people that do not know the team member license for Dynamics, this is a cheap license that grants a user access to participate in a limited specific set of functionalities with read only to all data.
Checkup: Are U Dynamics 365 Team Member license enforcement compliant?
Do you have Dynamics 365 Team Member license in use? New report helps you stay within use rights entitlement, as admin, go to: https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/analytics/d365ce/ -> Push Download->select “non-Conformant usage by users with Team members”
Remember to set Environment and “data range” before downloading the Report
This report will tell you if you are on the wrong side of license entitlement, my own pocket guide would be…if you cannot stay within a maximum of 15 additional entities (custom entities or “out-of-the-box”) in the team member app, look at a PowerApps license…. if Team members are writing to entities that are not allowed and are on the list of restricted entities for PowerApps… a Full Dynamics license is needed… read below to figure out why
Replacing Dynamics 365 Team Member license with Power Apps user license
Power apps licenses are a good replacement option from Team member licenses:
Biggest Advantages
- Offline capability is included https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/mobile-offline-for-power-apps/
- It has no Customization limitation
- PowerApps are less restrictive in term of what entities it may write data to. Power Apps have a concise list of entities it is not allowed to write data to (restricted entities) but all other may be full CRUD, Team member have a concise list of entity it is allowed to write to, but all entities not listed are only Read.
- use rights for additional Microsoft PowerApps apps and use of Power Automate.
Most important Disadvantages
Taking the Powe Apps option to connect to Dynamics data entities, you must build you own apps and cannot use Dynamics 365 first party apps, for most this would be a small task, but you should evaluate the cost before taking the option of replacing Team member licensing with a PowerApps license.
The Same entitlement for PowerApps and Team members licenses
- Access to Case
- Read all entities
As per nov. 2020 the Dynamics license guide have been updated to clarify that it is OK for a PowerApps users to read restricted entities but not write, update, or delete. for non-restricted entities, a PowerApps users may perform both Read, update, Create and update.
The good news is that the restricted entity list is now no longer out of date and have been updated. Only a few essential Dynamics entities are left restricted so a lot of use cases can be handled by switching the Team member license to a Power Apps license.
While you are in this deep in understanding Dynamics 365 Team member vs Power Apps you must be ready to take the opportunity to prove that you know the latest PowerApps stuff by taking Power Apps fundamental certification PL-900 or prove that you are able to build Power Apps taking Power App Maker certification PL-100.
Dynamics 365 Team member upgrade to Full Customer Engagement Dynamics license
This is the safe but more expensive option and needed if Team members are writing to entities that are not allowed and are on the list of restricted entities for PowerApps.
The latest PowerApps licensing guide.
Assignment of licensing can be automated Learn here how-to in less that 5 minutes.
Know what is allowed – Dynamics 365 Team Members licensing
You are looking at if you could downgrade some of you full Dynamics 365 users to a Team member? If so, below are a snapshot of the Licensing guide April 2020 and may be changed by Microsoft, so please check the latest Dynamics 365 licensing guide for the latest details on Team member use rights when you are up for a renewal or are a first-time buyer.
Team Members use rights
As writing this in April 2020 you are allowed with a Dynamics 365 team member license to access Dynamics 365 Mobile Client Application & Microsoft Dynamics 365 for iPad &
Windows & Dynamics 365 for Outlook and Dynamics 365 App for Outlook & Microsoft Dynamics 365 Web application
but no Offline capabilities.
but no access to Field service client
Customization limitation of 15 per app Additional entities (custom entities or “out-of-the-box” Common Data Service entities)
Team Members application module may be customized with maximum 15 additional entities (custom entities or “out-of-the-box”)
Dynamics 365 App for Outlook can be customized; however, usage must comply with use rights for users’ corresponding license and preapproved application scenarios
Team member users are only allowed to use the “team-member-apps-for-dynamics-365”. To get a closer look at them visit Jukka Niiranen’s excellent blog in the topic.
Preapproved application scenarios
Read
- All Dynamics 365 application data and Custom Entity data
Use
- Search and advanced find
- relationships & connections between records
Create, update, and delete:
- Contacts
- Announcements
- Activities
- Notes
- Calendar: share
- Personal Views
- Saved Views
- Word Templates
For Customer Service with Access via Team Members app module
- Create, update, and delete own Case and read Knowledge Articles
For Project Service Automation
Approve:
-
- Time
- Expense
- Invoices
Submit
-
- Time
- Expense
Update
-
- own Resource Competencies
In Dynamics 365 – Gamification, as a Spectator View, see results on leaderboards (web, mobile, and TV screens), and chats with participants. As a Fan, draft personal Fantasy Teams, earn points, badges, and trophies on team results.
There are no use rights for Microsoft PowerApps or Forms Pro with a Team Member license.
Visit Microsoft Team member FAQ at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/get-started/team-members-license
Hello, thank you very much for your great article. I have one question. Let’s say a user wants to work with Contacts, Activities and Opportunities. No custom entities needed. Would Team Member license be valid for this user (as Opportunities is not a restricted entity)?
Opportunity Entity is read only for Dynamics 365 Team member License… But are currently not restricted for Powerapps license hence a powerapps user can create and update opportunities. Read the steve modue chat with Charles lamanna go get some hints of futire changes with restricted entities for powerapps users
also be aware that the restriced entity list currently have a Microsoft disclaimer https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/data-platform-restricted-entities: “This topic is out-of-date and will be updated soon to reflect the latest licensing changes that are applicable starting October 1, 2019. For the latest information on licensing requirements for entities, see the Power Apps licensing guide” and the licensing guide then point back to restriced entity list… i guess you just need to be sure to have the restricted entity list details and added in final contract with Microsoft
disclaimer is gone and restricted entity list is updated as live
Thanks for this article. Just want to make sure I understand it. If I was had a new customer, would I need to provision 1 CRM license to create the CRM entities. Can I then switch this license to a Power App per User license to then administer the environment. I can then assign power apps per app license to other users. I would only be using non restricted entities such as account, contact, opportunity, lead, and few custom entities. I can then build a custom app to work with these entities. I am also okay keep the full D365 license for administrator if needed. let me know if I am missing something.
Is seems to within license guide ruleset, but please validate and verify for yourself. There might also be a minimum license requirement on Dynamics 365 “CRM”. The entity/table models have been open source for a long time and can be found here: https://github.com/microsoft/CDM.