Finance, SCM and Attach Licensing Explained
Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management pricing depends on more than the headline user licence. Learn how Base and Attach licensing, Premium functionality, Team Members, Operations – Activity, device licences, capacity and security roles affect the total cost.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management licensing can look straightforward.
Microsoft’s published UK list price for Dynamics 365 Finance is £161.50 per user per month. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is also listed at £161.50 per user per month.
So, count the users, multiply by £161.50 and you have your licence cost.
Unfortunately, it isn’t quite that simple.
Some users may need Finance. Some may need Supply Chain Management. Some need both. Others may only perform limited activities and could potentially use a lower-cost licence. Warehouse and production environments may introduce device licensing. Premium functionality costs more. Then there are Base and Attach rules, capacity allowances, indirect access and licensing implications arising from security roles.
Understanding these distinctions can make a significant difference to the cost of running Dynamics 365.
This guide explains the main licensing and pricing considerations for Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, the published UK prices used in this article, and the areas organisations should examine when estimating their actual licensing requirements.
Prices and licensing information in this article were checked against Microsoft information available at the time of review. They exclude VAT and may change. Confirm current prices, Product Terms and licence eligibility with Microsoft or your licensing provider before making purchasing decisions.
Finance and Supply Chain Management are separate applications
Although Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management are often referred to collectively as F&SCM, Microsoft licenses them as separate applications.
The published UK headline pricing used for this article is:
| Licence | UK list price |
|---|---|
| Dynamics 365 Finance | £161.50 per user/month |
| Dynamics 365 Finance Premium | £230.70 per user/month |
| Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management | £161.50 per user/month |
| Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Premium | £230.70 per user/month |
These are annual-commitment prices shown by Microsoft and exclude VAT. Microsoft pricing pages may describe prices as “per user/month”, but the commercial commitment and billing arrangement should be confirmed before purchase.
Finance and SCM are separate applications, so an individual’s requirement depends on the application and capabilities they need to access.
Do individual Finance and SCM modules need separate licences?
Generally, no.
A Finance user does not normally purchase separate licences for General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets and Cash and Bank Management.
Similarly, an SCM user does not normally purchase separate licences for Procurement, Inventory Management, Warehouse Management, Production and other core SCM functionality.
These are functional areas within the relevant Dynamics 365 application. However, specific features can have separate prerequisites, capacity limits or licensing conditions, so “included in the application” does not mean every related service is unlimited or available without qualification.
At a simplified level:
Dynamics 365 Finance covers core financial-management functionality including areas such as:
- General Ledger
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Cash and Bank Management
- Fixed Assets
- Budgeting
- Cost Accounting
- Credit and Collections
- Tax
- Financial reporting
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management covers core supply-chain and operational functionality including:
- Product information
- Procurement and sourcing
- Purchasing
- Sales and order processing
- Inventory
- Warehouse management
- Transportation
- Production and manufacturing
- Quality management
- Costing
- Asset Management, subject to applicable licensing and capacity
- Planning capabilities included within the relevant entitlement
The first licensing question therefore isn’t usually, “Which module does this person use?”
It is: “Which Dynamics 365 application and capabilities does this person need to access, and what licence type permits that access?”
Standard or Premium?
Microsoft offers Premium versions of both Finance and Supply Chain Management. At the UK prices used in this article, Premium costs £230.70 per user/month, compared with £161.50 for the standard licence.
That is an additional: £69.20 per user/month or: £830.40 per user/year.
The Premium uplift should not automatically be applied to every Finance or SCM user. It depends on whether the user needs the additional Premium functionality and entitlements.
Dynamics 365 Finance Premium
Finance Premium is associated with enhanced Business Performance Planning capabilities and related entitlements.
Microsoft’s licensing documentation distinguishes between the planning rights available with standard Finance and the broader administrator, creator and contributor/input rights available through Finance Premium. The exact rights depend on the current licensing documentation and the user’s assigned licence.
Finance Premium also includes additional capacity entitlements and 1,000 Copilot Credits per licensed user per month, subject to Microsoft’s current terms and service conditions.
If only part of a finance team needs Premium planning capabilities, it is worth identifying those users rather than assigning Premium to everyone.
For example, putting 100 users on Finance Premium rather than standard Finance represents an additional list-price cost of approximately: £83,040 per year.
That calculation is a price comparison, not a statement that all 100 users could or should be licensed with standard Finance. Their actual requirements must be assessed.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Premium
SCM Premium provides additional capabilities associated with advanced planning, Demand Planning, analytics and insights, subject to Microsoft’s current licensing descriptions and prerequisites.
SCM Premium also includes additional capacity and 1,000 Copilot Credits per licensed user per month, subject to the applicable terms.
The relevant question is:
Which users require Premium functionality or entitlements?
It is not necessarily correct to assign SCM Premium to every SCM user simply because the organisation uses one Premium capability. Depending on the feature and Microsoft’s licensing rules, access may need to be assigned to particular users or may involve additional prerequisites.
What happens when somebody needs both Finance and SCM?
This is where Base and Attach licensing can be important.
Microsoft uses a Base and Attach model for eligible users who require multiple qualifying Dynamics 365 applications.
A user first receives a qualifying Base licence. Additional qualifying applications required by that same user may then be licensed with Attach licences, provided the applicable eligibility rules are met.
An Attach licence is not simply a restricted or “lite” version of the second application. It is a licensing mechanism for adding an eligible application to a user who already has a qualifying Base licence.
However, not every product combination, licence type or purchasing scenario qualifies. The Base and Attach rules, minimums and product eligibility in Microsoft’s current licensing guidance and Product Terms must be checked.
What does a Finance or SCM Attach licence cost?
Microsoft’s licensing materials have shown Finance and SCM Attach pricing at US$30 per user/month in relevant US licensing information.
The equivalent UK price may not be displayed prominently on Microsoft’s main UK product pages. Indicative UK reseller/CSP catalogue pricing has been approximately: £23.10 per user/month on an annual commitment.
This is an indicative market price, not a guaranteed Microsoft UK list price or quotation. Actual pricing can vary by agreement, channel, currency, term and commercial discount.
Finance + SCM: a simple Attach licence example
Consider a user who genuinely needs the rights provided by both Finance and Supply Chain Management.
Buying both applications at the headline Base prices would be:
Finance: £161.50/month
SCM: £161.50/month
Total: £323.00 per user/month
If the user and products qualify for Base + Attach, an illustrative structure could instead be:
Finance Base: £161.50/month
SCM Attach: approximately £23.10/month
Total: approximately £184.60 per user/month
The indicative difference is approximately: £138.40 per month or £1,660.80 per user/year.
Across 50 dual-application users, that illustrative difference is approximately: £83,040 per year.
This is not a universal saving or a recommendation to replace licences without review. The result depends on the selected Base product, the attached application, user eligibility, minimum purchase requirements, contract terms and current pricing.
It does demonstrate why organisations should review how users work across Dynamics applications before buying two full-price Base licences for every dual-application user.
Does every F&SCM user need a £161.50 licence?
No.
Microsoft provides different licence types for different levels of access and activity. The correct licence depends on the user’s permitted activities, not simply their job title or whether they ever sign in to the system.
Three broad categories often considered are:
Team Members → Operations – Activity → Full Finance/SCM user
These are not interchangeable tiers, and the permitted activities for each licence are defined by Microsoft’s licensing documentation.
Dynamics 365 Team Members
Team Members is intended for users with limited needs.
It generally provides read access and a defined set of permitted light activities across Dynamics 365. It is not a general-purpose licence for carrying out unrestricted Finance or SCM work.
A user who mainly consumes information or performs only activities expressly permitted under Team Members may not need a full Finance or SCM licence.
Indicative UK pricing has been around: £6.20 per user/month depending on agreement, term and channel.
The important caveat is that Team Members is not a cheap general-purpose F&SCM licence. Users must remain within the activities permitted by the current Team Members licensing terms.
Dynamics 365 Operations – Activity
Operations – Activity is intended for users who perform a defined set of operational activities but do not require the full rights of a Finance or SCM user.
Indicative UK pricing has been approximately: £38.40 per user/month.
For organisations with large operational workforces, the difference between approximately £38 and £161.50 per month can be significant.
However, Operations – Activity is not simply a cheaper full-user licence. The user’s activities must fit Microsoft’s current definition and licensing rights. A role that performs a restricted activity in one process may require a full application licence if it performs additional activities elsewhere.
Warehouse and production users can be different again
Warehouses and manufacturing environments often involve employees sharing operational devices.
Microsoft provides an Operations – Device licence for eligible scenarios. A licensed device can be used by multiple people for the activities permitted under the device licence, rather than requiring every person using that shared device to have an equivalent full named-user licence.
Potential scenarios can include activities such as:
- receiving goods
- put-away
- stock movements
- picking
- packing
- shipping
- inventory counting
- specified production-floor activities
Indicative UK reseller pricing has been approximately: £65.40 per device/month.
For shift-based warehouses and manufacturing operations, device licensing can affect the overall licence requirement substantially.
The device licence does not automatically cover every activity performed through a warehouse or production device. The device, users and processes must remain within Microsoft’s permitted scenarios, and users may need separate licences for activities outside those rights.
Included functionality doesn’t always mean unlimited capacity
Having access to a capability does not necessarily mean unlimited capacity.
Asset Management is one example.
Asset Management functionality is associated with Supply Chain Management, but Microsoft applies capacity entitlements to the number of assets that can be managed. Additional Asset Management capacity may therefore require additional licensing.
Indicative UK reseller pricing for additional capacity has been approximately: £76.90 per month for an additional 100 assets.
Electronic invoicing and invoice capture can also involve separate service entitlements, transaction allowances or capacity requirements. The exact treatment depends on the service, transaction type and current Microsoft terms.
Other cost areas to review can include:
- database and file capacity
- additional environments
- invoice-processing volumes
- managed assets
- electronic invoicing
- Copilot and agent consumption
- other attached Dynamics 365 or Power Platform services
Capacity is not always priced as a simple add-on to the Finance or SCM user licence. Some services have separate subscriptions, consumption pricing or entitlement rules. Confirm the current model for each service rather than assuming that a user licence includes unlimited usage.
What about Copilot and AI?
AI is becoming another licensing consideration. Finance Premium and SCM Premium have been associated with: 1,000 Copilot Credits per licensed user per month.
The credits are intended for qualifying Copilot and agent scenarios, subject to Microsoft’s current service descriptions and terms. They should not be treated as a universal allowance for every AI feature or every workload connected to Dynamics 365.
Organisations that exceed included entitlements may need additional Copilot capacity or consumption-based services, depending on the feature and Microsoft’s current commercial model.
As AI agents become more embedded in ERP processes, organisations may need to consider not only:
“Which users need licences?”
but also:
“What automated workload are our agents creating, and which service entitlement covers it?”
Security roles can affect what licence a user needs
F&SCM customers should pay close attention to security-role design.
Microsoft’s Finance and Operations licensing tools can analyse users, security roles and privileges to help identify licence requirements and potential gaps across products such as:
- Finance
- Supply Chain Management
- Commerce
- Human Resources
- Project Operations
- Team Members
- Operations – Activity
A user’s assigned security roles and privileges can be relevant to the licence required, even if the user rarely exercises every permission. The exact result depends on Microsoft’s current licensing rules and the privileges assigned.
This means poor security-role design can be both a security and governance problem and a potential licensing-cost problem.
Organisations reviewing F&SCM licensing should therefore examine:
- assigned roles
- duties and privileges
- actual business activities
- segregation-of-duties requirements
- licence analysis results
- whether unnecessary permissions can be removed
Do not remove a required privilege solely to reduce licensing cost. Security, operational and compliance requirements still need to be met.
Do integrations avoid Dynamics licences?
Not automatically.
Putting another application, portal, integration layer, bot or automated process in front of Dynamics does not necessarily remove Microsoft’s licensing requirements.
Microsoft has rules covering indirect access and multiplexing. It also provides licensing mechanisms such as Operations – Order Lines for certain qualifying indirect transactional scenarios.
However, Operations – Order Lines is not a general exemption from user licensing. It is intended for specific scenarios and has its own conditions, measurement rules and limitations.
An organisation should not assume that a person needs no Dynamics licence simply because they do not directly use the Dynamics user interface. The relevant users, transactions, access method, automation and applicable Product Terms need to be assessed.
As we have explored elsewhere, system integration is a business issue rather than simply a technical one — and with Dynamics 365, the way systems and processes are connected can also have licensing implications.
There can also be minimum licence requirements
Microsoft’s Product Terms include minimum purchase requirements for its ERP applications.
For standard Finance and Supply Chain Management deployments, the relevant minimum is generally based on 20 qualifying ERP Base licences, which may be satisfied through an eligible combination of applications such as Finance, Supply Chain Management, Commerce and Project Operations.
Premium products have separate minimum requirements and may not be interchangeable with standard licences for this purpose.
These rules are more nuanced than saying every organisation must buy 20 Finance licences. The current Product Terms, product-specific licensing guide and commercial agreement should be checked when sizing a new deployment.
Other costs are not included in the user-licence calculation
The figures in this article describe Microsoft subscription licensing, not the full cost of a Dynamics 365 implementation.
A realistic business case may also need to include:
- implementation and solution design
- data migration
- integrations
- testing
- training and change management
- support and managed services
- customisation and development
- reporting and analytics
- non-production environments
- storage and other capacity
- third-party applications
- internal administration and governance
These costs can be material, particularly for a complex manufacturing, distribution or multi-entity deployment.
For organisations considering Dynamics 365 as part of a wider modernisation programme, the licence calculation should therefore sit alongside the bigger decision of whether to replace, replatform or integrate existing legacy systems.
So how should you calculate your real F&SCM licence requirement?
Rather than starting with employee numbers, start with what people and systems actually do.
A practical licensing review can work through these questions.
1. Which application does the user need?
Finance, Supply Chain Management, both, or another Dynamics application?
2. Does the user need Standard or Premium functionality?
Identify the specific Premium capability required. Do not assume that every user needs Premium because the organisation has purchased or enabled one Premium feature.
3. What does the user actually do?
Does the role require a full licence, or could the permitted activities fit Team Members or Operations – Activity?
4. How is the system being accessed?
Is this a named user, a shared warehouse or production device, or a qualifying indirect transaction?
5. What additional capacity is being consumed?
Consider assets, transactions, environments, storage, electronic invoicing, invoice capture and Copilot or agent usage.
6. What security privileges have actually been assigned?
What users can do may be relevant to licensing as well as what they routinely do. Review roles and privileges alongside business processes.
7. Does the user qualify for Base and Attach?
If the user needs multiple qualifying Dynamics 365 applications, check whether a Base and Attach structure is available and commercially appropriate.
The headline licence price is only the starting point
Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management licensing is fundamentally a user-role, application, access and capacity design exercise. Two organisations with exactly the same number of employees could legitimately have very different Dynamics 365 licence bills.
The areas most worth examining are:
- Finance versus SCM requirements
- Base versus Attach eligibility
- Standard versus Premium
- full users versus Team Members or Operations – Activity
- named users versus shared devices
- security-role design
- indirect access and integrations
- additional capacity
- implementation and operating costs outside Microsoft subscriptions
The objective should not simply be to find the cheapest licence.
It should be to make sure each user, device, process and service has the right licence for what it genuinely needs to do — without paying for capabilities that are not required or creating licensing exposure by assigning too little.
For many F&SCM organisations, understanding that distinction is where the real licensing conversation should begin.
Review your Dynamics 365 licensing costs
If you are paying for Finance, Supply Chain Management or related Dynamics 365 services, a structured licensing review could identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary spend, improve licence allocation and address potential compliance risks.
Our team can help you review:
- Current Finance and SCM user licences
- Base and Attach opportunities
- Standard versus Premium assignments
- Team Members, Operations – Activity and device licensing
- security roles and privilege-based licence requirements
- indirect access and integrations
- capacity, transaction and Copilot requirements
- upcoming changes to your workforce or operating model
Book a Dynamics 365 licensing review today to understand what you are paying for, what your users actually need and where your current licensing model could be improved.
