Apple Business Manager: what it is and how to set it up

Key facts

• Apple Business Manager is free. There is no licence cost and no minimum number of devices.
• You need a D-U-N-S number to enrol, which is a business identifier issued free by Dun and Bradstreet.
• Apple reviews every application manually, and approval takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
• Apple Business Manager does not manage devices by itself. It feeds a device management platform, and you still need one.
• It works with any Apple-compatible management platform, so it does not lock you into a particular vendor.
• The biggest benefit only applies to devices bought after you set it up, which is why doing it early matters.

Why this matters for a small business

Most Australian businesses acquire Apple devices one at a time. Someone needs a new laptop, it gets bought, somebody spends an afternoon setting it up by hand, and the device is tied to whatever Apple ID the employee happened to sign in with. That works until the fifth device, or until the person holding the Apple ID leaves, at which point the apps they bought and sometimes the device itself become a problem.

Apple Business Manager is the fix, and the reason to do it before you need it is that its main advantage only applies to devices purchased after the account exists and is linked to your supplier. Devices you already own can be added, but with a caveat covered on the existing devices page.

Setting it up

What is Apple Business Manager?

Apple Business Manager is a web portal at business.apple.com where an organisation registers itself with Apple and links three things together: the devices it buys, the apps and books it buys, and the work Apple IDs its staff use.

The part most people come for is Automated Device Enrolment. Once your supplier is linked, a device you order appears in your Apple Business Manager account before it arrives. When the person opens the box and turns it on, the device contacts Apple during setup, discovers it belongs to your organisation, and enrols itself into your management platform automatically. Nobody has to touch it first.

The second part is Apps and Books, which is volume purchasing. Licences bought this way belong to the business and can be taken back and given to someone else. The third is Managed Apple IDs, which are work Apple accounts your organisation creates and controls, as opposed to the personal Apple ID an employee signed up with years ago.

What do you need before you can enrol?

Four things. A D-U-N-S number for your business, which is a unique nine digit identifier issued by Dun and Bradstreet at no cost, and which many established Australian businesses already have without knowing it. Your registered legal business name and address, matching the D-U-N-S record exactly. A work email address that has never been used as an Apple ID, which is the requirement that catches people out. And a person in your business who will be the administrator, plus a second person Apple can contact to verify the application.

The email address requirement is worth planning for. It cannot be an address already associated with any Apple ID, personal or otherwise, so an address like the owner’s own work email is often unusable. Create a fresh address for the purpose.

How long does approval take?

Apple reviews applications manually and it can take anywhere from a couple of days to a few weeks. Part of the process involves Apple contacting the verification person you nominated to confirm the application is legitimate, so choose someone who will recognise the call and respond promptly rather than treating it as a scam.

The wait is the reason to set this up before you need it rather than in the week a new starter is arriving. If you are planning an Apple rollout, start the enrolment first and buy the hardware second.

Does Apple Business Manager cost anything?

No. Apple Business Manager itself is free, regardless of how many devices you have, and there is no minimum. A business with three Macs can use it exactly as a business with three hundred can.

What does cost money is the device management platform it connects to, and the apps you buy through it. It is also a separate thing from Apple Business Essentials, which is Apple’s own paid management subscription. You do not need that subscription to use Apple Business Manager.

Does Apple Business Manager manage devices on its own?

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. Apple Business Manager is the layer that tells Apple which devices and licences belong to you. It does not push settings, enforce encryption, install software or let you wipe a lost phone. For any of that you need a device management platform, and Apple Business Manager hands your devices over to it.

Which platform is a separate decision, and there is no single right answer. Businesses already running Microsoft 365 often use whatever management platform is included in the licences they already hold, since it manages Windows in the same console. Businesses with larger or Apple-only fleets often prefer a dedicated Apple platform, which tends to support new Apple features sooner and in more depth. Apple Business Manager works with all of them, so the choice stays open and you can change platforms later without redoing the Apple side.

What to do next

Enrol at business.apple.com first, because the approval wait is the long pole. While you wait, decide on a management platform and get your supplier details together so the reseller link can be set up as soon as the account is live. Then work through zero-touch enrolment, which is where the setup starts paying for itself.