PulseSigning in with a Microsoft account
How to sign in with a Microsoft 365 account, and what to do when administrator consent is required.
Signing in to Pulse with a Microsoft 365 account connects your Outlook calendar as you go, and meeting notes are created to match your events. This article explains what users and administrators each need to do where “administrator approval required” appears partway through signing in.
This article covers only signing in with a Microsoft account. The only calendars that can be connected are those on cloud Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online); on-premises Exchange Server is out of scope. Choosing a sign-in method, SSO and multi-factor authentication are covered in Signing in and connecting your calendar. These steps are carried out in the desktop app (macOS and Windows).
When it says “approval required”
A screen asking for approval can appear partway through signing in. That is because Pulse is requesting permission to read your calendar events, and your settings do not let individual users decide to grant it. In Japanese companies' Microsoft 365 tenants this setting is often left at its default, so it is nothing unusual.
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The permissions Pulse asks for
Pulse asks Microsoft 365 for the three permissions below. All are read-only: it does not ask to write to your calendar or mail, or to access files.
| Permission | What it covers |
|---|---|
User.Read |
Reading basic profile information: your name and email address |
Calendars.Read |
Reading events on your own calendar |
Calendars.Read.Shared |
Reading events on shared calendars you have access to |
In addition, it uses the standard authentication scopes needed for sign-in itself (openid, email, profile and offline_access). offline_access is what saves you signing in again every time you start the app.
How the calendar information obtained is handled is set out in the privacy policy and the security and privacy FAQ.
For users: asking for approval
Where a Request approval button appears on screen, you can apply to your administrator there and then.
Click Request approval
Click Request approval on the consent screen.
Give a reason and send it
A field for your reason appears; fill it in so the purpose is clear and send it. There is an example at the end of this section.
Sign in again once approved
When an administrator approves it you will usually be notified by email. Start Pulse again and retry from Sign in with Microsoft.
For the reason, something like this works.
Used to create meeting notes automatically. Permission to read calendar events is needed
so that the start and end of meetings are identified correctly and the events can be used
as context when summarising what was discussed.
The permissions requested are read-only; nothing is written to the calendar or to mail.
An example request to your IT department
Where your organisation has a separate approval process, or where no request button appears, you will need to ask your IT department directly. Here is a template containing the items Japanese companies typically need. Replace the bracketed parts with your own details.
Subject: Request for tenant approval of our meeting-notes tool (Pulse)
To the IT team
Hello. This is [name] in [team].
We are considering using a tool called Pulse to make writing up meetings more efficient.
Signing in with a Microsoft 365 account requires tenant administrator approval, so I am
writing to ask you to look at it.
■ Purpose
[e.g. writing up the weekly team meeting and client meetings]
■ Permissions requested (all read-only)
- User.Read (reading name and email address)
- Calendars.Read (reading events on my own calendar)
- Calendars.Read.Shared (reading events on shared calendars I have access to)
* No write permission to calendar, mail or files is requested.
■ How to approve
Microsoft Entra admin centre > Entra ID > Enterprise applications >
Admin consent requests > Pending requests, and approve the request there.
The detailed steps are in the help centre article “Signing in with a Microsoft account”.
■ Notes
- The only calendars connected are those on cloud Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online).
- If you need material on how recordings and transcripts are handled, where they are
stored and for how long, I can provide it separately.
- Trial period: [e.g. DD/MM to DD/MM]
- Cost: [e.g. team budget / none, as it is the free plan]
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.
In organisations where the information security team reviews any new SaaS, you are often asked, on top of the list of permissions, for where data is stored, for how long, whether there are processors, and what encryption is used. Reading Our security arrangements and the security and privacy FAQ beforehand makes filling in the review form easier. If there are items you cannot answer, contact tharada@the-unchain.com.
For administrators: approving the request
These are the steps for handling a user's approval request as a Microsoft 365 tenant administrator.
Open the Microsoft Entra admin centre
Microsoft Entra admin centre — sign in with an administrator account.
Open pending requests
Entra ID > Enterprise applications > Admin consent requests > Pending requests — open it.
Select the request
Select the request for Pulse from the list.
Review the permissions and approve
Review permissions and consent — click it, check the permissions shown and click Approve.
Once approved, users in the same tenant can sign in without being asked for approval again.
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The approval here permits the Pulse application across the whole tenant. Where you want to limit it to particular teams, the usual approach is to enable “User assignment required” in the enterprise application settings afterwards and specify the groups to assign. Decide according to your organisation's policy.
Where there is no “Request approval” button
Sometimes a user sees only “administrator approval required”, with no Request approval button. That is because admin consent requests are disabled in the tenant.
An administrator should make the following setting.
Open the Microsoft Entra admin centre
Microsoft Entra admin centre — sign in with an administrator account.
Open admin consent settings
Entra ID > Enterprise applications > Consent and permissions > Admin consent settings — open it.
Allow consent requests
Switch “Users can request admin consent to apps they are unable to consent to” to Yes.
Ask the user to sign in again
When the user tries signing in again, the Request approval button now appears. Approve the request that arrives following the steps in the previous section.
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Where “admin consent requests” cannot be enabled
Where your organisation's policy does not allow this feature to be enabled, an administrator can sign in to Pulse themselves and give tenant-wide consent there and then.
Start the app with an administrator account
Install and start Pulse with an administrator account.
Choose Sign in with Microsoft
Sign in with Microsoft — click it.
Tick consent on behalf of the organisation
Tick the Consent on behalf of your organisation checkbox on the consent screen.
Accept
Accept — click it.
Doing this completes the administrator's own sign-in and at the same time makes Pulse usable across the tenant.
- Users can sign in from Sign in with Microsoft without an approval screen
- Outlook events appear on the home screen
- Pulse is listed among the enterprise applications in Entra ID
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Consent on behalf of your organisation — accepting without ticking it grants the permission only to the administrator's own account. Other users still cannot sign in. Check the box is ticked before accepting.
Where the administrator cannot sign in either
Where none of the approaches above is possible, contact tharada@the-unchain.com. We will look at your tenant's configuration and advise.
Whether the app is listed in the Microsoft Entra app gallery may change. Once it is listed, add the steps for adding it from the gallery to this section and delete this note. Until then, direct people to the steps in this article.
If something is not working
Q. I approved it, but the user still cannot sign in
A. Approval can take a few minutes to take effect. Ask the user to quit Pulse, start it again and try signing in. If the same screen still appears, “User assignment required” may be enabled in the enterprise application settings and that user may not be in an assigned group.
Q. I can sign in, but no calendar events appear
A. Where the calendar is on an on-premises Exchange Server, events cannot be retrieved. Also, where a conditional access policy allows access only from particular networks or managed devices, syncing can stop in environments that do not meet the conditions. For how to narrow it down, see Calendar is not syncing.
Q. I want to revoke an app permission I approved
A. Select Pulse under Enterprise applications in the Microsoft Entra admin centre and either delete the application or remove the assignment. Revoking it means users in that tenant can no longer sign in with a Microsoft account, and syncing of connected calendars stops. For what happens to notes already created, see Deleting your account.
Q. I cannot reach the Microsoft sign-in screen from the corporate network
A. A proxy or firewall may be blocking the authentication traffic. The destinations that need allowing, and how to narrow it down, are in Network and allowlists.