5 Quick Tips for Using Microsoft 365 Compliance Manager

Learn 5 quick tips to use Microsoft 365 Compliance Manager for better Microsoft 365 compliance and faster m365 security audits.

Microsoft 365 Compliance Manager is one of those tools that a lot of organizations technically "have" but barely use. And that’s a pity, because it can dramatically simplify microsoft 365 compliance, especially when you’re trying to keep up with evolving regulations and prepare for a m365 security audit.

In this quick tip guide, we’ll walk through five practical ways to get more value from Compliance Manager. We’ll keep it simple and focused on things you can do this week to reduce risk, get more visibility, and move toward more automated compliance in M365.

Tip 1: Use Compliance Score as Your Compliance Health Check

The first thing you see in Microsoft 365 Compliance Manager is your compliance score. It’s tempting to treat it like yet another dashboard number, but it’s actually a useful health check for your overall microsoft 365 compliance posture.

Compliance Manager calculates your score based on:

Controls from regulations, standards, and internal policies
Actions Microsoft has already implemented (Microsoft-managed)
Actions your organization still needs to complete (customer-managed)

This split is important. In cloud services, security and compliance are a shared responsibility. Microsoft handles a big chunk of the technical underpinnings, but you still need to configure policies, document processes, and prove you’re actually doing what’s required.

To be honest, a lot of teams skip this and jump straight to individual policies. Instead, try this:

Check your overall compliance score weekly – treat it as a trend metric, not a one-time snapshot.
Look at the split between Microsoft-managed and customer-managed actions – this tells you how much of your score is “automatic” and how much depends on your work.
Use it for executive reporting – it’s an easy visual to show risk reduction progress over time as you prepare for your next m365 security assessment or external audit.

Turn the score into a roadmap, not a vanity metric

If your compliance score just sits there, it’s useless. The real value is in turning it into a roadmap for how to prepare for a Microsoft 365 security audit.

Start with:

Current score – your baseline.
Target score – decide a realistic goal for the next quarter (for example, +10–15%).
Top improvement actions – focus on the items with the largest point value first.

This gives you a measurable, prioritized plan instead of a vague “we should improve security” statement.

Filter the score for specific regulations and solutions

Another underused feature: the ability to filter the score.

You can filter by:

Specific regulations (e.g., EU GDPR, ISO 27001, NIST)
Solutions (e.g., Azure AD, DLP, Information Protection)
Categories (e.g., information governance, insider risk management)

If you’re doing microsoft 365 audit preparation for GDPR, for instance, filter to GDPR only and review:

Your GDPR-specific compliance score
The key improvement actions related to GDPR controls

This makes it much easier to answer questions like: “How compliant are we with GDPR inside Microsoft 365?” instead of guessing or manually piecing it together.

Tip 2: Let Improvement Actions Drive Your Daily Work

Compliance Manager doesn’t just score you; it tells you exactly which actions will have the biggest impact.

On the Overview page, the Key Improvement Actions list shows:

Where you’re missing controls
The potential point increase if you complete each action
Whether the action is technical, operational, or documentation-related

In my experience, this list can replace a whole lot of spreadsheets and manual tracking.

Prioritize by risk and score impact

Instead of trying to fix everything, focus on:

High-value actions – items with a large point value usually map to stronger security or important regulatory requirements.
Medium or high-risk findings – for example, “Require mobile devices to use a password” with a failed test and medium risk is a great quick win.

This gives you a practical, prioritized remediation backlog aligned with both security and compliance outcomes.

Use the built-in guidance, not just the titles

Every improvement action includes detailed implementation guidance. Don’t skip it.

For many actions you get:

Step-by-step instructions
Links to the exact configuration page via “Launch now” deep links
Notes on how Microsoft implements its part of the control

This saves a lot of time digging through documentation. And for auditors, it shows that your actions are clearly tied to controls and regulations, which helps a lot during a m365 security audit or a cis benchmark microsoft 365 review.

Tip 3: Build Assessments That Match Your Real Obligations

Compliance Manager comes with a big library of out-of-the-box assessments—over 150 templates for standards like GDPR, NIST 800-53, ISO, and various regional regulations.

An assessment is simply a grouping of controls from a specific regulation, standard, or internal policy. Your overall compliance score is calculated from the assessments you decide to track.

Start with the most relevant assessments

Don’t just turn them all on. That usually backfires.

Instead:

Start with the Microsoft 365 data protection baseline
Add 1–3 key external frameworks you actually care about, for example:
GDPR
ISO/IEC 27001
NIST 800-53
Add internal or regional ones later as needed

The more assessments you add, the bigger your denominator becomes. That means you’ll see more improvement actions, but your score may look worse initially. That’s normal; it just means you’ve increased visibility.

Customize or create your own assessments

You’re not stuck with the templates as-is.

You can:

Modify existing assessments to fit your internal policies.
Create custom assessments for things like internal standards, contractual obligations, or industry-specific controls.

This is where Compliance Manager starts to feel like an actual m365 compliance checklist tailored to your organization, rather than a generic tool.

Tip 4: Track Implementation, Testing, and Evidence in One Place

Once you drill into a specific assessment, you’ll see each control and its related actions, along with:

Implementation status
Test status (passed/failed)
Test dates
Evidence and documentation

This is exactly the sort of structure auditors love, and it’s a huge help for microsoft 365 audit preparation.

Differentiate implemented vs. tested

Compliance Manager lets you separately track:

Implementation status – has the control been configured or the process put in place?
Test status – has someone verified it works as intended?

Only actions with test status = passed actually contribute to your compliance score.

So, for controls that don’t have automated technical checks yet, make sure you:

Manually update the test status after verification
Record the test date
Add test notes for future reference and re-testing

Attach evidence and delegate actions

For each action you can:

Upload evidence (screenshots, policies, reports)
Add implementation notes and test notes
Assign the action to a colleague for follow-up

This creates a lightweight workflow and a clear audit trail.

When auditors ask, “Show me how you enforce mobile device policies,” you don’t have to scramble. You can open the relevant control, show the status, test details, and the attached evidence.

If you’re moving toward automated compliance m365 practices, this kind of structured, repeatable evidence collection is a big stepping stone.

Tip 5: Combine Compliance Manager with Continuous Automated Checks

Compliance Manager is strong at mapping regulations to controls and guiding you through implementation and testing. However, it’s not a full-blown automated compliance engine for every framework or benchmark you might need.

For organizations working with the cis benchmark microsoft 365 or trying to build a cis certified microsoft 365 environment, you’ll often need more granular, continuous checking and reporting across all 129 CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark controls.

Use specialized tools for CIS and multi-framework mapping

If CIS is part of your security baseline, you might want a dedicated tool that:

Continuously checks Microsoft 365 against the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark
Automates assessment of all relevant controls (Level 1 and Level 2)
Detects configuration drift in near real-time
Generates audit-ready reports with clear remediation guidance

ConfigCobra is one example of this kind of solution for automated m365 compliance assessment. It continuously evaluates Microsoft 365 configurations against CIS, maps those controls to other frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST CSF, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and NIS2, and produces detailed PDF reports that are ready for audits.

This pairs nicely with Compliance Manager: Compliance Manager gives you the structure, guidance, and score; a tool like ConfigCobra gives you deep, technical verification and cross-mapping.

Schedule regular assessments to avoid audit panic

Instead of doing one massive m365 security audit scramble every year, move toward:

Scheduled assessments (monthly or quarterly)
Regular reviews of high-risk controls
Automated config checks where possible

This shifts you from reactive “audit panic mode” into continuous compliance. Whether you rely mostly on Compliance Manager or add something like ConfigCobra on top, the idea is the same: smaller, frequent reviews hurt less and are much more defensible when regulators or customers come knocking.

Microsoft 365 Compliance Manager can be much more than a dashboard you glance at once a quarter. If you:

Treat the compliance score as a living health indicator
Let improvement actions drive your remediation backlog
Build and tune assessments that actually match your obligations
Track implementation, testing, and evidence centrally
And pair it with continuous, automated checks for key benchmarks

…you get a practical, sustainable approach to microsoft 365 compliance rather than yet another set of disconnected tasks.

If your organization is working with CIS benchmarks or multiple regulatory frameworks, it’s worth looking at automation to reduce manual effort and improve consistency. Tools like ConfigCobra can continuously assess your Microsoft 365 tenant against the CIS Microsoft 365 Foundations Benchmark, detect configuration drift, and output audit-ready reports that plug neatly into your existing compliance process.

You can explore how ConfigCobra helps automate CIS-based assessments and supports broader compliance needs at https://configcobra.com/compliance Even a short trial run can give you a clearer picture of where you stand today and what to fix next, without drowning in spreadsheets or ad-hoc checks.