Microsoft 365 permissions audit checklist for IT admins

If you manage Microsoft 365, you know how quickly permissions drift. New hires join, contractors leave, teams get spun up for short-term projects, and SharePoint sites multiply faster than anyone expects. Before long, it’s impossible to say with confidence who has access to what.

That uncertainty is frustrating. Worse, it introduces real risk. When access is overly broad or poorly understood, it creates opportunities for both insider mistakes and external threats. Add AI tools like Microsoft Copilot into the mix, and over-permissioned content becomes even more problematic. Copilot works within your existing Microsoft 365 permissions model—so if a user already has access to something, AI can surface it just as easily.

User access reviews help you keep access aligned as your environment evolves. They reinforce least privilege, reduce unnecessary exposure, and give you the visibility you need to address issues before they escalate into security incidents or compliance gaps.

Created for M365 IT admins, this permissions audit checklist outlines the key steps to review, adjust, and consistently repeat access checks across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. When paired with tools like ShareGate Migrate’s permission matrix report for visibility and ShareGate Protect for ongoing governance insights, the process becomes far more manageable—and far less reactive.

What’s a user access review?

A user access review (UAR) is a structured audit that verifies every user in your M365 environment has the appropriate level of access based on their role and responsibilities—no more, no less. 

It plays an important role in access management, security governance, and compliance frameworks like HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2. But beyond compliance language, UARs give IT admins something practical: clarity.

Permission audits help you answer questions like:

• Who currently has access to this workspace?
• Does this external guest still need access?
• Would Copilot surface sensitive information here?

On paper, permissions reviews sound simple. In a real Microsoft 365 environment, they rarely are.Pulling accurate permissions data across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive manually? That can get tedious fast. And once you have the list, the harder question remains: What does it actually mean?

The report might show dozens of users with Owner-level access or broad permissions to sensitive sites. But it won’t explain whether that access is intentional, temporary, or leftover from a role change. Without business context, it’s difficult to know which permissions create real risk and where cleanup should happen first.

Operational benefits of UARs in M365

Conducting a UAR makes day-to-day admin easier and reduces the kind of surprises that turn into security incidents. Here’s how. 

Fewer errors (and fewer fire drills)

Here’s a simple user access review example: A department migrates to a new SharePoint site. But the old site still exists with elevated permissions for users who’ve since changed roles. No one notices until someone edits or deletes content they shouldn’t have access to.

Now you’re not just fixing permissions. You’re restoring documents, retracing activity, and scrambling to explain what happened to leadership.

Incorrect or outdated permissions can lead to broken workflows, accidental edits, and unnecessary data exposure. Regular UARs help you catch those misalignments early, before they escalate into larger operational or security problems.

Streamlined access management

When permissions reflect actual roles and responsibilities, IT spends less time dealing with “why can’t I access this?” tickets or “why does this person still have access?” escalations.

But getting there requires visibility. ShareGate Migrate’s permission matrix report gives you a consolidated view of access across SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive so you can quickly identify where permissions are outdated, overly broad, or misaligned. Instead of piecing together exports from multiple admin centers, you can assess access in context and take action with confidence.

Better accountability

In many M365 environments, the real problem isn’t just over-permissioning—it’s unclear ownership. Sites without active owners. Teams where no one feels responsible for approving access. External guests who were invited for a short-term project but never removed. 

UARs reinforce accountability by validating ownership and requiring explicit approval for continued access. When every workspace has a responsible owner, access decisions become intentional rather than accidental.

For deeper investigation, native tools like SharePoint audit logs and Microsoft Purview can help track activity and monitor sensitive data. But without a structured review process, those tools often surface signals with no clear direction. UARs provide the framework that makes those signals actionable.

What are the risks of poor UARs within M365?

Most organizations aren’t ignoring access reviews entirely. The bigger issue is inconsistent or superficial reviews—ones that check a box but don’t meaningfully reduce risk. 

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Over-permissioned accounts that slip through the cracks

Privilege creep doesn’t happen overnight. It builds gradually as users change roles, take on temporary projects, or get added “just in case.” If a UAR focuses only on obvious external access and skips deeper role validation, those accumulated permissions remain untouched.

On paper, you completed the review. In reality, the risk of a security breach stayed exactly where it was.

Misconfigured access that goes unnoticed

Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive handle permissions differently—with Teams relying on Microsoft 365 Groups and SharePoint permission levels behind the scenes—which makes a unified review harder than it should be.

Incomplete or unreliable access data

If reviews rely on partial exports or manually stitched-together reports, you may not be evaluating the full picture. External sharing links, guest accounts, and legacy sites are easy to miss. When the data set is incomplete, the conclusions will be too.

Owner fatigue and rubber-stamped approvals

Many UAR processes depend on business owners to confirm access. In theory, that works. In reality, owners are busy, and a spreadsheet filled with names and roles doesn’t always provide enough context to make informed decisions. 

When faced with a long list and no clear indication of what’s high risk, it’s common to approve access broadly rather than question each entry. We get it. After the third spreadsheet of names, you might start to hover over “Approve all” just long enough to imagine how easy life could be.

But we also know that over time, that pattern reinforces the very over-permissioning these reviews are meant to address.

A practical permissions audit checklist for M365

If your last review left you staring at incomplete exports, unclear site ownership, or a long list of elevated permissions with no clear sense of priority, the issue likely wasn’t a lack of effort—what you were missing was a proper user access review procedure.

This step-by-step user access review checklist helps you move beyond a quick “looks good” review and actually reduce access risk. It focuses on getting accurate visibility and prioritizing cleanup where it reduces the most risk.

1. Define scope and stakeholders

Start by clearly defining what the review will cover. Are you assessing all Teams, specific SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, or only high-risk workspaces? 

Categorize your user groups (employees, contractors, service accounts, external guests) and identify who’s responsible for approving access, such as team leads or site owners. If ownership is unclear, resolve that before moving forward.

You should also document how often reviews will occur, taking compliance requirements and organizational changes into account.

2. Gather current permissions

Compile existing M365 permissions into a centralized view. Export user roles, group memberships, and sharing settings across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, including external users and sharing links.

Be mindful of gaps—legacy sites, broken inheritance, and direct user permissions are easy to miss if you rely on partial exports.

ShareGate Migrate’s Permissions matrix report, part of the SharePoint audit tool, simplifies this step by consolidating access data across your environment, giving you a clearer starting point for review.

3. Analyze permissions

Review whether each user’s access aligns with role-based access control (RBAC) and least privilege principles.
Look for:

• Orphaned or inactive accounts
• External guests with unnecessary access
• Former employees with lingering privileges
• Users with elevated privileges they no longer require
• Sites or Teams without clear ownership
• Signs of privilege creep across departments

A permissions list only tells you what exists. The real challenge is figuring out what actually matters. You need to understand where permissions no longer reflect how work is done. ShareGate Protect helps surface risk patterns across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive so you can focus remediation where it matters most.

4. Remediate and adjust

Once you’ve identified gaps or inconsistencies, take corrective action:

• Revoke or downgrade unnecessary permissions
• Enforce RBAC
• Update ownership for Teams and SharePoint sites
• Remove external users who no longer need access
• Apply segregation of duties where appropriate

ShareGate Protect supports in-context remediation and bulk actions, helping you address risky links, guest access, and permission changes without relying on manual scripts.

5. Document and report

Every UAR should leave a clear audit trail. Use an access review template to document what was reviewed, which permissions were revoked or modified, who approved changes, and when the review occurred. Schedule your reviews consistently, and share the findings with relevant stakeholders to stay transparent and accountable.

ShareGate provides reporting that helps admins understand who has access to content and where permissions may introduce risk.

Simplify your permissions audits with ShareGate

Permissions reviews don’t fail because of an IT team that’s phoning it in. They fail when visibility is fragmented and risk isn’t clearly prioritized.

With the right tools in place, you can centralize access data, identify high-risk permissions faster, and take corrective action without relying on manual exports or ad hoc scripts.

ShareGate Migrate’s permission matrix report gives you a consolidated view of access across SharePoint and OneDrive. ShareGate Protect helps you surface risk patterns and maintain governance over time, making permissions less likely to drift between reviews. 

The result? Fewer surprises. Fewer reactive cleanups. More confidence as collaboration expands and AI tools like Copilot work within your existing permissions model.

Ready to refine your auditing process? Start your free trial today.