Add and manage customer accounts

There might be scenarios in which you want to manually create customer accounts in your Microsoft Entra external tenant. Although customer accounts are most commonly created when users sign up to use one of your applications, you can create them programmatically and by using the Microsoft Entra admin center. This article focuses on the Microsoft Entra admin center method of user creation and deletion.

To add or delete users, your account must be assigned the User Administrator or Global Administrator role.

Prerequisites

• If you haven't already created your own Microsoft Entra external tenant, create one now.
• Understand user accounts in Microsoft Entra External ID.
• Understand user roles to control resource access.

Create a customer account

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center with Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator permissions.
2. If you have access to multiple tenants, use the Settings icon in the top menu to switch to your external tenant from the Directories + subscriptions menu.
3. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
4. Select New user > Create new user.
5. Select Create a customer.
6. Under Identity, select a Sign in method and enter the Value:
   • Email: Enter the customer's email address, which will become their sign-in name.
   • User Name: Enter a user name for the customer.
7. Next to Name (required), enter the first and last name of the customer (for example, Mary Parker).
8. Under Settings, use the yes or no toggle to set Block sign in, and the select the user's primary location in the Usage location list. Then enter the customer's First name and Last name.
9. Copy the autogenerated password provided in the Password box. Give this password to the user to sign in for the first time.
10. Select Create.

Unless you've selected Block sign in, the user can now sign in using the sign in method (email or username) that you specified.

Reset a customer's password

As an administrator, you can reset a user's password, if the user forgets their password. When you reset the user's password, a temporary password is autogenerated for the user. The temporary password never expires. The next time the user signs in, the password will still work, regardless how much time has passed since the temporary password was generated. Then user must reset password to a permanent one.

To reset a customer's password:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center with Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator permissions.
2. If you have access to multiple tenants, use the Settings icon in the top menu to switch to your external tenant from the Directories + subscriptions menu.
3. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
4. Search for and select the user that needs the reset, and then select Reset Password.
5. In the Reset password page, select Reset password.
6. Copy the password and give it to the user. The user will be required to change the password during the next sign-in process.

Delete a customer account

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center with Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator permissions.
2. If you have access to multiple tenants, use the Settings icon in the top menu to switch to your external tenant from the Directories + subscriptions menu.
3. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
4. Search for and select the user to delete.
5. Select Delete, and then Yes to confirm the deletion.

For details about restoring a user within the first 30 days after deletion, or for permanently deleting a user, see Restore or remove a recently deleted user using Microsoft Entra ID.