If you're an IT administrator managing Exchange Online, you know the pain: adding 20, 50, or 100 users to a distribution list one person at a time through the Exchange Admin Center. It's tedious, time-consuming, and frankly, a waste of your valuable time.

The typical scenario: Your manager sends you a list of 50 employees who need to be added to the "All Company" distribution list. You open Exchange Admin Center, click on the distribution list, click "Add members," search for each person individually, click add, repeat 49 more times.

Time spent: About 25-30 minutes for 50 users. At $20/hour, that's $10 of labor cost for a single task you probably do multiple times per month.

The Manual Method (Slow and Painful)

Here's what most IT admins do:

  • Open Exchange Admin Center
  • Navigate to Recipients ? Groups
  • Find the distribution list
  • Click "Manage members"
  • Click "Add members" for EACH person
  • Search, select, add, repeat...

For 50 users, this takes approximately 30 minutes. For 100 users? Nearly an hour of clicking.

The PowerShell Method (Better, But Still Complex)

Experienced admins know about PowerShell:

Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity "GroupName" -Member "user@domain.com"

This works, but you still need to:

  • Connect to Exchange Online via PowerShell
  • Format your user list correctly
  • Write a loop to process each user
  • Handle errors for users not found
  • Deal with authentication timeouts

Better than clicking, but still 10-15 minutes of work.

The BUTTER Method (2 Minutes, Seriously)

BUTTER (Bulk User Transfer Tool for Exchange Resources) was built specifically to solve this problem.

Here's how it works:

  1. Open BUTTER
  2. Select "Add to Existing Distribution List"
  3. Paste your list of names or emails (any format works)
  4. Click "Go"
  5. Done. All 50 users added in under 2 minutes.

BUTTER accepts multiple formats:

  • Full email addresses
  • First and last names
  • CSV files
  • Mixed formats in the same list

It automatically:

  • Converts names to email addresses
  • Tests multiple email format patterns
  • Handles errors gracefully
  • Shows you exactly what succeeded or failed

The Math: Is BUTTER Worth It?

Let's do the calculation:

Manual method: 30 minutes per bulk operation
BUTTER method: 2 minutes per bulk operation
Time saved: 28 minutes per operation

If you do this just twice per month:

  • Time saved: 56 minutes/month = 11 hours/year
  • Labor cost saved: $220/year (at $20/hour)
  • BUTTER cost: $60/year subscription
  • Net savings: $160/year

And that's just for distribution lists. BUTTER also handles shared mailboxes, permissions, and more.

Want to Learn PowerShell Anyway?

Even if you use BUTTER for daily tasks, understanding PowerShell is valuable for your career. Check out PowerShell courses on Udemy to level up your scripting skills.

Try BUTTER Free

Don't take my word for it. Download the free trial and test it with Browse Mode. Add users to a test distribution list and see how much faster it is than the manual method.

Bottom line: Your time is valuable. Stop wasting it on repetitive clicking when tools like BUTTER can automate the work in minutes.

Try BUTTER - Starting at $5/month ?