Setting up an External User for FYI (IT Admin or Consultant)

This article covers how you can set up external user access for FYI. This could be done if you need to give access to an IT person, for example, to manage Admin settings, or for a consultant to your practice's FYI.

This can be done by:

1. Creating a free account in Microsoft 365.
    
2. Adding the account to FYI. 

The user will be able to log in to FYI, but they will not have full access to Office or OneDrive functionality, such as editing documents in FYI. Refer below to What External Users cannot do in FYI for details of some other restrictions and the workarounds.

Note: An additional user licence fee for FYI may apply. 

Setting up an External User in Microsoft 365

Note: You need Admin access to your practice's Microsoft 365.

1. Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin centre.
    
2. Navigate to Users - Active Users.
    
3. Click Add a User.
   
4. Enter the details of the user.
   
5. Click Next.
   The Assign product licenses page displays.
    
6. Select Create user without product license.
   
7. Click Next.
    
8. Once the user has been added to your practice's Microsoft 365, add the user directly to FYI. Refer to Adding Users Directly to FYI in Managing Users.

What External Users cannot do in FYI

As External Users only have a free Microsoft account, they will not be able to access the full functionality of Office and OneDrive.

External users will be unable to:

• File emails from Outlook into FYI.
  When trying to log in to Outlook, an External User will see the following error:
  
  Note: External user accounts do not have a mailbox.
   
• Edit documents directly from FYI. 
  When trying to edit, an External User will see the following error:
  
  "Error encountered setting up your OneDrive account. Some functionality will not work. Please check you have OneDrive enabled"
  
  Note: External users can export documents from FYI to work on them locally. Any edits will need to be re-uploaded to FYI. Refer to Exporting Documents and Uploading a New Version of a Document.
  
   
• Preview documents via OneDrive.
  When trying to preview, an External User will see the following error:
  
  "Your user could not be connected to a valid Microsoft license. Please check your Microsoft account."
  
  Note: External users can preview a document in text format. This is enabled in the user's My Settings by setting Preview Office Via OneDrive as "Off". Refer to Setting Defaults and Filing Defaults for your Own Login - My Settings.
  
   
• Convert to PDF when running an Automation.
  When running an automation with a Convert to PDF step, an External User will see the following error:
  
  "Your user could not be connected to a valid Microsoft license. Please check your Microsoft account."
  
  Note: For the Convert PDF step to execute successfully, the process will need to be run by a user with a valid Microsoft 365 account.