Microsoft 365 Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Scope Template for MSPs

A Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migration is a scoping job before it is a migration job, because the quote is decided by what the native tools leave behind.

The request usually shows up the same way. A client buys a smaller company, or sells off a division, and asks how much it costs to "move them over." The mailbox count is easy to get. The shared mailboxes with delegates, the Teams channels the sales team lives in, the litigation hold nobody mentioned, the laptops joined to the old tenant, and the domain that can only belong to one tenant at a time are harder to see. Those are the lines that turn a fixed-fee weekend into three weeks of unbilled cleanup.

This template is built for that moment. It covers what Microsoft's own tools move, what they don't, what to discover before you price, and a scope you can paste into the project record.

Quick answer: price the discovery first, then quote mail, OneDrive, and Teams chats as one line, and shared data (SharePoint sites, Teams channels, Microsoft 365 Groups) as its own line. Put the per-user migration license, device re-enrollment, Outlook profile rebuilds, and post-cutover support in the scope by name. Anything you didn't discover becomes a change order.

What Microsoft's native tools move

Microsoft documents several native paths. Its tenant-to-tenant planning guide lists three approaches. The migration orchestrator handles coordinated multi-workload batches, the individual cross-tenant tools handle mailbox, OneDrive, and SharePoint moves, and partner or third-party tools cover complex moves.

The orchestrator overview is specific about scope. A batch can carry four workloads, which are Exchange mailboxes, OneDrive, Teams chats, and Teams meetings. It moves content, and the customer is responsible for creating and configuring the users. It also says the Cross-Tenant User Data Migration solution does not move shared data such as Teams, channels, or SharePoint sites, which stay in the source tenant.

A few details from Microsoft's docs belong in every scope conversation:

• Holds block the move. The cross-tenant mailbox migration guide says mailboxes on any type of hold are not migrated. The OneDrive guide says the same for OneDrive accounts with a hold policy.
• The source mailbox is deleted. After a successful move, Microsoft says the source mailbox is no longer available or searchable in the source tenant, and source-side eDiscovery stops working. If the seller needs a copy for legal reasons, that copy is a task in your scope.
• OneDrive is one pass. Cross-tenant OneDrive moves can't run incremental or delta passes, so the cutover date matters more than it does with tools that sync again later.
• Shared data has its own rules. Microsoft's cross-tenant SharePoint guide says the Cross-Tenant Shared Data Migration feature and licenses are currently only available to Enterprise Agreement customers, and that it does not migrate Teams content, channels, or structure.
• Batches have limits. Microsoft's orchestrator guidance caps a batch at 100 users, and its mailbox guide recommends submitting batches about two weeks before the cutover date because syncing has no end-user impact.

For a client that buys through CSP instead of an Enterprise Agreement, that SharePoint point decides the shape of the project. Mail, OneDrive, and chats can go native. Team sites and channels usually need a third-party tool or a planned rebuild. If you are choosing that tool, the ShareGate vs AvePoint Fly comparison covers the tradeoffs. This template stays tool-neutral.

The seven decisions to make before you quote

Every one of these changes the hours. Get an answer, or price the unknown as a range and say so.

1. Identity and sign-in names

Decide whether users keep their current sign-in name after the domain moves or get a new one in the buyer's domain. Microsoft's planning guide calls out identity mapping and UPN decisions as the first planning area. The orchestrator requires every migrating user to be mapped before any content moves.

2. Domain move timing

Microsoft's mailbox guide is clear that a domain can only belong to one tenant. If the acquired company's domain is moving, someone has to remove it from the source tenant and verify it in the target during a defined window. That window is your cutover weekend. Write down who controls DNS and who has registrar access.

3. Coexistence or a single event

A single cutover suits small, simple moves. Phased batches need mail routing, free/busy sharing, and Teams federation between the tenants for weeks. Microsoft lists these as coexistence planning items. Phased work costs more project management and more support, so quote it that way.

4. Holds, retention, and compliance

Ask for every litigation hold, retention policy, and eDiscovery case in the source tenant, plus any sensitivity labels. Microsoft's mailbox guide says labels don't migrate cross-tenant and must be recreated in the target. If the client is in a regulated industry, the overview tells customers to involve legal and compliance teams before starting.

5. Shared data

List every Teams team, channel, SharePoint site, shared mailbox, and Microsoft 365 Group with an owner and a size. Decide per item whether it moves, gets rebuilt, or gets archived. This is the line that grows the fastest when nobody counts it.

6. Devices and apps

Windows devices joined to the old tenant don't follow the user. Plan the reset or re-join, Intune re-enrollment, and app reinstalls per device, and list the line-of-business apps that use Microsoft sign-in.

7. Licensing

Microsoft requires a Cross Tenant User Data Migration license per migrating user, a one-time fee that covers mailbox and OneDrive content. The mailbox guide warns that migrations fail without it and that Microsoft offers no exceptions. Target tenant licenses also have to be in place, and the mailbox guide warns that assigning an Exchange license too early creates a new empty mailbox and breaks the move. Put the license order and the license timing in the plan.

Discovery checklist

Run this before the quote. It is also the first billable deliverable if the client wants a fixed price.

• User count, mailbox sizes, archive mailboxes, and mailboxes near quota
• Shared mailboxes, delegates, and Send on Behalf permissions (Microsoft says cross-tenant mailbox and calendar permissions aren't supported, so delegates move in the same batch as the mailbox owner)
• Litigation holds, retention policies, eDiscovery cases, and sensitivity labels
• OneDrive accounts with size, item count, and long paths
• Teams teams and channels, private and shared channels, owners, and size
• SharePoint sites outside Teams, with owners and size
• Microsoft 365 Groups and distribution lists
• Domains, DNS host, registrar access, and mail flow connectors
• Hybrid or on-premises identity sync on either side
• Devices by join type and management state
• Line-of-business and SaaS apps that use Microsoft sign-in
• Conditional Access, MFA methods, and admin roles in the target tenant
• Current licenses in both tenants and the target license plan
• Calendar resources, room mailboxes, and phone or voicemail use

The client's day one also needs a plan. Microsoft's mailbox guide says users have to rebuild their Outlook profile with their new sign-in name and resync their mail cache, that mailbox signatures must be recreated, and that existing Teams meeting links stop working and the meetings must be recreated. Each of those is a support hour per user that belongs in the quote.

What the client owes you

Put dates next to each item in the kickoff summary.

• Global or migration admin access in both tenants, or named admins on each side who will run their steps
• Registrar and DNS access for every moving domain
• A signed user list with sign-in name decisions
• Approval for each shared data item to move, rebuild, or archive
• Legal sign-off on holds and any data that must stay behind
• A communications owner who sends user notices
• A freeze on new Teams, sites, and shared mailboxes after discovery

Copy the scope template

Paste this into the project record and delete what doesn't apply.

PROJECT: Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migration
Client (target tenant):
Source organization:
Business reason: merger / acquisition / divestiture / consolidation
Model: single cutover / phased batches / tenant split
Target cutover window:
Project lead:
vCIO / account lead:

IN SCOPE
[ ] Discovery report for source and target tenants
[ ] Identity mapping and target user preparation for ___ users
[ ] Cross Tenant User Data Migration licenses for ___ users (pass-through)
[ ] Mailbox migration for ___ mailboxes, ___ shared mailboxes
[ ] OneDrive migration for ___ accounts
[ ] Teams chat and meeting migration for ___ users
[ ] Shared data: ___ Teams teams, ___ SharePoint sites (method: ___)
[ ] Domain removal and verification for ___ domains
[ ] Mail flow and DNS changes during the cutover window
[ ] Coexistence setup (mail routing, free/busy, federation) for ___ weeks
[ ] Pilot batch of ___ users before the first full batch
[ ] Device reset or re-join and Intune enrollment for ___ devices
[ ] Outlook profile rebuilds for ___ users
[ ] Teams meeting recreation guidance for meeting organizers
[ ] User notices: two weeks, one week, and the day before cutover
[ ] Post-cutover support for ___ business days
[ ] Source tenant cleanup after sign-off

OUT OF SCOPE (quote separately if needed)
[ ] Mailboxes or OneDrive accounts on hold until legal clears them
[ ] Teams channels, Groups, or sites not listed above
[ ] Line-of-business app reconfiguration beyond sign-in changes
[ ] Security policy redesign in the target tenant
[ ] Data retention copies for the source organization's legal needs
[ ] Third-party tool license costs not listed above

ASSUMPTIONS
- Client provides admin access in both tenants by ___
- Source content is frozen for new shared data after discovery
- User counts and data sizes match the discovery report within ___%

CHANGE ORDER TRIGGERS
- More users, mailboxes, sites, or devices than the discovery report
- A hold, retention case, or label found after the quote
- Domain or DNS access not available by the agreed date
- A switch from single cutover to phased batches
- Cutover moved by the client inside ___ business days of the date

The exclusions are what protect the margin. Read them aloud on the scope call, and get the signer to accept them in writing. The general MSP scope of work template has the signature and acceptance language if you need it, and the change order template covers what happens when discovery missed something.

A scenario quote

The numbers below are a labeled scenario. Use your own rates and project history.

Scenario: a client acquires a 35-user company. Mail, OneDrive, and chats move with the native tools in one cutover weekend. Four Teams teams are rebuilt in the target, and 30 Windows laptops need to be re-joined.

Licenses go on their own line, with 35 Cross Tenant User Data Migration licenses passed through at the price on the order date. If the four teams had been migrated with a third-party tool instead of rebuilt, the rebuild hours drop and a tool line appears.

Notice where the hours went. The data move (pilot, batches, and cutover) is 18 of the 86, about a fifth. Laptops, Outlook and meeting support, post-cutover support, and the Teams rebuild are 42. That is why the quote has to come from discovery. A mailbox count only prices the smallest part of the job.

Where Scopable fits

The template works in a document. The part that breaks is the gap between the discovery report and the quote, when someone retypes the findings into line items and forgets the holds.

Scopable's assessment and scoping workflow starts from the client record. You capture discovery in reusable assessment sections (including Microsoft 365 data where the account has the right connections), mark gaps and open questions, and turn findings into proposed work, exclusions, or risk notes before anything gets priced. The approved scope carries into the quote. The engineer still makes the call on each finding.

If your next migration quote is due this week, start a free Scopable account and build the scope from the discovery checklist above.

For the licensing side of the target tenant, the Microsoft 365 license audit guide covers what to check before you add 35 new users.