19 March 2024

Deactivating or deleting users: what's the difference?

The Authorization Box allows you to manage active, deactivated and deleted users quite easily. We explain the difference between deactivating and deleting users in this article.

Granting and revoking authorizations

To start with, the Authorization Box has the functionality to authorize users within Business Central. Users are assigned a specific organization role with authorization sets. Assigning organization roles to users is processed based on an authorization request. You can also revoke authorizations using these authorization requests.

With an authorization request you can thus grant, change or revoke new authorizations. It is also possible to deactivate or delete a user. What is the difference?

Deactivate user

When you deactivate a user, the user is given the status "Deactivated" in Business Central. With this status, the user can no longer log into Business Central, but the user's specific authorizations will be preserved. This can be useful when you want to reactivate the user. In that case, access to Business Central will be granted again and the "old" authorizations will be revived. This makes this functionality very powerful.

The Authorization Box also provides the ability to access all users in Business Central, whether active, deactivated or deleted. In this way, you can easily reactivate and authorize a deactivated user.

Delete user

Another option is to delete a user. If you decide to delete a user in the authorization request, then not only will the user be completely removed from Business Central, but also the authorizations will be removed and cannot be retrieved afterwards. You should therefore only do this if you are sure that the user no longer needs to be activated.

When to choose what?

The Authorization Box gives you the option to deactivate or delete users. In which cases do you choose to deactivate and when to delete? It is up to the administrator to decide what it will be. We recommend deactivating users for a short period of time first, so that it remains possible to reactivate a user quickly and efficiently and grant access to the system, should an error have occurred.

More Information

Do you have questions or challenges around controlling and securing Dynamics 365 Business Central? With our proven authorization solutions and specialist IT audit consultancy, we support you in achieving adequate segregation of duties. Please feel free to contact us for more information.