After tenant-wide admin consent activates Dockli, you control who can use it through a single Microsoft Entra security group. Group membership is the seat list: being in the group lets a user claim a seat; being removed releases it. You never manage individual licences per person — you manage one group.
Creating and assigning the group
Immediately after consent, the approval success page offers a Create access group button:
- Name the group. The default name is Dockli Users; you can rename it before creating.
- Create it. Dockli creates the security group in your tenant (or reuses an existing one with that name) and points your licence at it. This is done for you — no manual Entra work required.
- Open the group’s Members page. The success page gives you a direct Manage members link into the Microsoft Entra admin center.
- Add people. Use + Add members to add the users who should have Dockli, up to your purchased seat count.
Added users can open Dockli and sign in right away — a seat is assigned automatically at first sign-in.
Group first, or people first?
Adding someone to the group doesn’t consume a seat by itself. A seat is claimed only when that person actually signs in to Dockli. So the group can briefly hold more names than seats-in-use — the gap is simply people who haven’t opened Dockli yet.
How membership grants a seat
Each licence has a fixed number of purchased seats. When a group member signs in for the first time, Dockli checks that they’re in the assigned group and, if a seat is free, assigns them one. From that point they hold the seat.
Sticky seat assignment
Seats are sticky. Once a user claims a seat, they keep it across sign-outs, reboots, and app restarts — you don’t need to re-assign anything. If a user leaves the group and is later added back, they re-activate their existing seat record rather than consuming a brand-new one.
This means seat usage reflects who is actually using Dockli, not churn in the group. A seat is only ever freed by the reconciliation below.
Reconciliation every 4 hours
A background job reconciles seats against group membership every 4 hours, and you (or the Dockli team) can trigger the same pass on demand via Sync now. Each pass:
- Resolves the group — if the group was created or renamed after provisioning, the job binds to it.
- Reclaims seats — releases the seat of anyone who holds one but is no longer in the group. This frees a departed user’s seat even if they never reopen Dockli.
- Checks capacity — flags any licence whose group has grown larger than its purchased seats.
Removing someone is enough
To revoke a user’s access, just remove them from the group. Their seat is reclaimed at the next reconciliation (within about four hours, or immediately on a Sync now) — even if they never sign in again. See Uninstalling and offboarding.
When the group exceeds its seats
If the group ends up with more members than you’ve purchased seats for, Dockli emails your admin an over-capacity warning — subject “Action needed: your Dockli group exceeds its seats” — and alerts the Dockli team as well. The email:
- States how many people are in the group versus how many seats your plan includes, and by how many you’re over.
- Lists exactly who currently holds a seat, so you can decide who to keep.
- Explains what happens: everyone who already has a seat keeps it; anyone added beyond the purchased count won’t get access until a seat frees up or you add more.
What to do about it
You have two options:
- Trim the group — remove enough people to bring membership back within your seat count. Their seats are reclaimed at the next reconciliation.
- Add seats — reply to the warning email (or contact the Dockli team) to purchase more seats.
The warning re-arms once the group is back within capacity, so a future breach alerts you afresh.
Adding or reducing seats
Your purchased seat count is set on your order and adjusted by the Dockli team:
- Add seats — as your order grows, the Dockli team raises your seat count. Newly added group members can then claim the extra seats at sign-in.
- Reduce seats — the count can be lowered too. If your group already holds more seats than the new lower count, you’ll want to trim the group to match.
Because seats are governed by your order, seat changes are made vendor-side (through the Dockli admin dashboard), while you control day-to-day access by managing the group. Changing your plan tier (Essential vs Spark) works the same way — see Plans and Licensing and entitlement.
Where to go next
- Licensing and entitlement — how a held seat becomes working access
- Uninstalling and offboarding — releasing seats when people leave
- Troubleshooting files and seats — when a seat won’t assign
- Per-seat licensing — the commercial model