Office 365 for business FAQ

Office 365. "Office 365" refers to subscription plans that include access to Office applications plus other productivity services that are enabled over the Internet (cloud services). Office 365 includes plans for use at home and for business. Learn about Office 365 for use at home. Office 365 plans for business include services such as Skype for Business web conferencing and Exchange Online hosted email for business, and additional online storage with OneDrive for Business.

Many Office 365 plans also include the desktop version of the latest Office applications, which users can install across multiple computers and devices. The fully installed applications include: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. (Publisher and Access are available on PC only.) And you can install them across multiple devices, including PCs, Macs, Android tablets, Android phones, iPad, and iPhone. When you have an active Office 365 subscription that includes the desktop version of Office, you always have the most up-to-date version of the applications.

The Office 365 plans that are online-only are a great choice for certain business needs, and they are designed to work with the latest version of Office, Office 2013, and Office 2011 for Mac. Previous versions of Office, such as Office 2010 and Office 2007, may work with Office 365 with reduced functionality. Get more details about which Office versions are supported. NOTE: This compatibility with Office does not include the Exchange Online Kiosk or Office 365 Enterprise K1 plans.

All Office 365 plans are paid for on a subscription basis, monthly or annually.

Microsoft Office. "Microsoft Office” is the name we still use for our familiar productivity software. Office suites are available as a one-time purchase and include applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which can be installed on only one PC or Mac. The applications are not automatically updated; to get the latest version, you can purchase the product again when the new version becomes available. The latest versions currently available for one-time purchase are Office 2016 for Windows and Office 2016 for Mac. These suites do not come with any of the cloud-based services included in Office 365.

Office 365 Business and ProPlus subscribers can install Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets, and 5 smartphones. You can count hybrid Windows devices, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro, as either a PC or a tablet.

Internet access is required to install and activate all Office 365 plans and to manage your subscription account. Internet connectivity is also required to access Office 365 cloud productivity services, including email, conferencing, IT management, and other services.

Many Office 365 plans also include the desktop version of Office, for example, Office 365 Business Premium and Office 365 Enterprise E3. One of the benefits of having the desktop version of Office applications is that you can work offline and have the confidence that the next time you connect to the Internet all your work will automatically sync, so you never have to worry about your documents being up to date. Your desktop version of Office is also automatically kept up to date and upgraded when you connect to the Internet, so you always have the latest tools to help you work. Compare Office 365 plans.

“The cloud" is a friendly way of describing web-based computing services that are hosted outside of your organization. When you use cloud-based services, your IT infrastructure resides off your property (off-premises), and is maintained by a third party (hosted), instead of residing on a server at your home or business (on-premises) that you maintain. With Office 365, for example, information storage, computation, and software are located and managed remotely on servers owned by Microsoft. Many services you use every day are a part of the cloud—everything from web-based email to mobile banking and online photo storage. Because this infrastructure is located online or “in the cloud,” you can access it virtually anywhere, from a PC, tablet, smartphone, or other device with an Internet connection.

Office 365 is highly scalable and can support everything from a one-person business to companies with tens of thousands of users:

• Office 365 Business plans are best for companies with one to 300 users.
• Office 365 Enterprise plans fit organizations ranging in size from a single employee to 50,000-plus users.

• Office for Android™: View, create and edit documents with touch-friendly Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps. You can count on Office for Android to keep your content and formatting intact so the document looks great when you’re back on your PC or Mac. In Word, add comments or track changes while you work together with others. Review and update Excel spreadsheets and easily add formulas or charts. Make changes to PowerPoint presentations and project them wirelessly on a big screen.

  You can view documents for free with Office for Android. Editing and creating documents requires an eligible Office 365 subscription: Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal, Office 365 University, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 Enterprise E3, E4, and E5, Office 365 Enterprise E1 and E3 (Government Pricing), Office 365 Education Plus, and Office 365 ProPlus.

• Office for iPad®: View, create and edit documents with touch-friendly Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps. You can count on Office for iPad to keep your content and formatting intact so the document looks great when you’re back on your PC or Mac. In Word, add comments or track changes while you work together with others. Review and update Excel spreadsheets and easily add formulas or charts. Make changes to PowerPoint presentations and project them wirelessly on a big screen.

  You can view documents for free with Office for iPad. Editing and creating documents requires an eligible Office 365 subscription: Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal, Office 365 University, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 Enterprise E3, E4, and E5, Office 365 Enterprise E1 and E3 (Government Pricing), Office 365 Education Plus, and Office 365 ProPlus.

• Office Mobile: Office Mobile is preinstalled on Windows Phone 8 and is available for select models of iPhone® and Android phones. Office Mobile offers great Office content viewing and on-the-go content editing capabilities. And you can count on Office Mobile to keep your content and formatting intact so the document still looks great when you’re back on your PC or Mac. Office Mobile for iPhone and Android phones can be used for free for non-commercial use, simply download the app from the store on your phone.

  In order to edit or create documents or to access documents stored in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business on premises, you must have a qualifying Office 365 plan: Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 Enterprise E3, E4, and E5, Office 365 Enterprise E1 and E3 (Government Pricing), Office 365 Education Plus, Office 365 ProPlus, and Office 365 University.

• Outlook Mobile: Windows Phone 8 includes a pre-installed version of Outlook that you can use to access your Outlook.com, Office 365, or Exchange email.
• OneNote: You can use the mobile OneNote app to access your notes while on the go. This app is available on Windows Phone 8, iPhone, iPad, and Android phones.
• OWA: If you have an Office 365 subscription that includes Exchange Online, you can use the OWA app to sort, scan, and respond to email, and stay on top of your schedule. This app is available on iPhone and iPad.
• Lync Mobile: If your organization uses Skype for Business or the newest version of Lync, you can use the mobile Lync app or the Skype for Business mobile app, to stay connected while on your mobile device. This app is available on Windows Phone 8, iPhone, iPad, and Android phones.
• SharePoint Newsfeed: If your organization uses the newest version of SharePoint, you can use the SharePoint Newsfeed app to access your newsfeed from your mobile device. This app is available on Windows Phone 8, iPhone, and iPad.

Office 365 is offered in a number of countries/regions and languages. If your country’s/region’s name doesn’t appear in the list, we have not currently launched a version of Office 365 for your market. We’re continuing to launch Office 365 in new markets and will publicly announce when we launch Office 365 in any new market.

You don't need to install anything in order to use Office 365.

To help you easily connect your desktop version of the latest version of Office, Office 2013, Office 2010, or Office 2007 to Office 365, Microsoft provides Office 365 customers an installable piece of software—called “Office Desktop Setup”—at no charge.

Office Desktop Setup provides many benefits, including:

• Automatically detecting necessary updates.
• Installing updates and components upon approval or silently from a command line.
• Automatically configuring Outlook and Microsoft Skype for Business for use with Microsoft Office 365.
• Uninstalling itself from the client computer after running.

You can find and install Office Desktop Setup in your Office 365 administration center.

If your plan includes a subscription to Office, you will also be able to install that directly from the Office 365 administration center.

Yes. If you purchase Office 365 licenses for the accounts you create during your free trial, the information and configuration for these users' accounts will remain intact. Once your free trial expires, you won't be able to continue using Office 365 for free. You will have an additional 30 days to purchase Office 365 before your account information is erased. Once your trial account information has been erased, it cannot be retrieved.

Office 365 setup provides step-by-step guidance. In just a few quick steps you can sign up for Office 365, set up your organization's domain name and add user accounts, install Office, and move your existing email to Office 365.

Office 365 Business, Business Essentials, and Business Premium plans are available for monthly commitment payment or annual commitment payment.

• Monthly commitment payment: You pay month by month, and you can cancel at any time.
• Annual commitment payment: You sign up for a one-year subscription, but you can choose to pay month to month or pay for the entire year at the time you sign up. There is a discount for using this payment option.

The Office 365 Enterprise plans (including standalone Enterprise plans such as Exchange Online) and Office 365 ProPlus are available for annual commitment payment.

• Annual commitment payment: You sign up for a one-year subscription, but you can choose to pay month to month or pay for the entire year at the time you sign up.

Yes, discounts are available for Office 365 enterprise agreement customers (typically 250+ licenses) who want to purchase through volume licensing. A Microsoft expert can help you explore the purchasing options for large enterprises and help you determine which is best for you. Learn more about volume licensing. Find a Microsoft expert.

Yes. If you need to upgrade, you can transition your account to a different plan. For example, you can upgrade from an Office 365 Business plan to an Office 365 Enterprise plan.

In most cases, you can use the Switch plans wizard in your Admin center to upgrade your plan. If your subscription has more than 300 users or if you used a prepaid card to purchase your plan, the Switch plans wizard is not available. Plans that are not eligible for the Switch plans wizard can be upgraded manually. Learn more about upgrading Office 365 plan.

NOTE: When you upgrade your account, your domain name is transferred to your new account, whether you brought your own domain name to the Office 365 account or you set up a domain name with Office 365.

Yes, you can mix and match Office 365 plans. Please note that there are some license limitations at the plan level. The Office 365 Business, Business Essentials, and Business Premium plans each have a limit of 300 users, while the Enterprise plans are for an unlimited number of users. For example, you can purchase 300 Business Premium seats, 300 Business Essentials seats, and 500 Enterprise E3 seats on a single tenant.

You can cancel your subscription at any time. However, depending on the product and the type of subscription you have, there may be a penalty for canceling before the end of your contract. For subscriptions with a monthly commitment payment, there is no penalty for canceling your contract at any time. Annual commitment subscriptions that are paid month to month may incur some penalties if canceled early. Annual commitment subscriptions that are paid up front do not receive a refund if canceled prior to the full contract period. Read the complete Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement.

Your data is yours. If you decide to cancel your Office 365 subscription, you can download your data—for example, your email and documents on team sites—and save it to another location. You should save your data before you cancel. After you cancel your subscription, data associated with your Office 365 account will be available to your administrator(s) in a limited function account for 90 days.

Go here to change your password.

Microsoft experts are trained IT and development companies that can help you move to Office 365 or develop custom solutions for your business. You can find a listing of all of our Microsoft experts in Microsoft Pinpoint.

Office 365 Small Business has been renamed Office 365 Business Essentials. Office 365 Business Essentials includes all the features of the Office 365 Small Business plan, plus additions and improvements. For example, Active Directory has been added to Office 365 Business Essentials and the maximum number of users has been increased from 25 to 300.

The Office 365 Small Business Premium and Office 365 Midsize Business plans have been replaced by one new plan, called “Office 365 Business Premium.” Office 365 Business Premium combines the best features and services into one plan, with a maximum number of users of 300.

1. Register with the Microsoft Nonprofits program.
2. If eligibility is confirmed, Office 365 Nonprofit offers will become available in the Office 365 admin portal.
3. Go to the License Management tab in the admin portal to assign your users to any of the Office 365 Nonprofit offers, including the donated E1 and Business Essential offers.

Some Office 365 offers are not included in the Office 365 Nonprofit program. In the case of standalone offers, those features or workloads are usually included in one of the Office 365 Nonprofit program’s offers, such as the donated Office 365 Nonprofit E1 offer or the discounted Office 365 Nonprofit E3 offer. We may expand the Office 365 Nonprofit offers in the future but have no plans to do so at this time. However, a customer that has become eligible for Office 365 Nonprofit offers can still purchase commercial offers going forward.

Yes. A customer that has become eligible for Office 365 Nonprofit offers can purchase both commercial and nonprofit offers going forward.

Nonprofit customers should use the standard support channel for Office 365. Details on Office 365 support options are available here.

Eligible organizations: Nonprofits and non-governmental organizations must be recognized as charitable organizations in their respective countries in order to be eligible for Microsoft Nonprofit Programs. Eligible organizations must also operate on a not-for-profit basis and have a mission to benefit the local community, which could include but is not limited to:

• Providing relief to the poor.
• Advancing education.
• Improving social welfare.
• Preserving culture.
• Preserving or restoring the environment.
• Promoting human rights.
• Establishing civil society.

For a detailed explanation of eligibility criteria and links to country-specific eligibility criteria, visit the Eligibility page.

To be validated as an eligible nonprofit, you must sign up for the Microsoft Nonprofits program and provide the organization’s basic information to kick start the validation process. Eligible organizations must hold recognized charitable status as defined in their countries in order to be eligible. Eligible organizations must operate on a not-for-profit basis and have a mission to benefit the local community. If an organization is not eligible for Office 365 as a donation, it may be eligible for other services depending on its legal status and mission. For a detailed explanation of eligibility criteria, visit the Eligibility page.

Microsoft works with its software donation partner TechSoup Global to determine if a nonprofit fits its broad eligibility requirements. We strive to make eligibility determinations as quickly as possible, and the process can take up to 20 business days. This timeframe can vary depending on nonprofit responsiveness to requests for additional documentation. Required documentation may include the certification or registration provided the nonprofit’s governing body. For example, in the U.S. we require a copy of the IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter.

Organizations need to be re-evaluated for nonprofit eligibility every two years. We will be defining how this process is enforced and facilitated in the coming months.

Office 365 Nonprofit is intended primarily for employees of eligible nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit members or beneficiaries are not eligible for Office 365 Nonprofit licensing. Nonprofits may license volunteers that have significant fiduciary or managerial responsibilities for the organization, such as members of the Board of Directors. A volunteer of an eligible nonprofit organization can receive a license for Office 365 only if they meet all three of the following tests:

• The volunteer is accountable for specific activities and results within the nonprofit organization that are defined by a written volunteer position description.
• The volunteer’s role with the nonprofit is a year-round ongoing role or is a seasonal or part-time role that reoccurs annually.
• The volunteer will not use Office 365 for personal uses that result in income to the person who is volunteering.

Commercial customers wishing to transition to a nonprofit offer should speak with customer support to understand the options available to them and ensure a smooth transition. Users that have commercial licenses that become approved for nonprofit offers will still retain their commercial licenses. Existing customers may locate their support contact information here.

Users that have commercial licenses that become approved for nonprofit offers will still retain their commercial licenses.

• Providing relief to the poor.
• Advancing education.
• Improving social welfare.
• Preserving culture.
• Preserving or restoring the environment.
• Promoting human rights.
• Establishing civil society.

Microsoft works with its software donation partner TechSoup Global to determine if a nonprofit fits its broad eligibility requirements. We strive to make eligibility determinations as quickly as possible, and the process can take up to 20 business days. This timeframe can vary depending on nonprofit responsiveness to requests for additional documentation. Required documentation may include the certification or registration provided the nonprofit’s governing body. For example, in the U.S. we require a copy of the IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter.

Organizations need to be re-evaluated for nonprofit eligibility every two years. We will be defining how this process is enforced and facilitated in the coming months.

Office 365 Nonprofit is intended primarily for employees of eligible nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit members or beneficiaries are NOT eligible for Office 365 Nonprofit licensing. Nonprofits may license volunteers that have significant fiduciary or managerial responsibilities for the organization, such as members of the Board of Directors. A volunteer of an eligible nonprofit organization can receive a license for Office 365 ONLY if they meet ALL THREE of the following tests:

• The volunteer is accountable for specific activities and results within the nonprofit organization that are defined by a written volunteer position description.
• The volunteer’s role with the nonprofit is a year-round ongoing role or is a seasonal or part-time role that reoccurs annually.
• The volunteer will not use Office 365 for personal uses that result in income to the person who is volunteering.