The Employee Exit Checklist

The Employee Exit Checklist

Person leaving: ________ Last day: ________ Access ends (date and time): ________ Checklist owner: ________

1. Before the last day

• Pick the exact day and time their access ends. Write it down.
• Name one person who owns this checklist from start to finish.
• Ask them to list where they keep work: folders, email folders, notes, and apps.
• Ask which shared passwords and shared accounts they know or look after.
• Find any account where they’re the only owner, like the website, social media, the bank, or a supplier’s site. Add a second owner before they go.
• Choose who takes over their email, files, customers, and open tasks.
• If the parting isn’t friendly, turn off access during the exit meeting, not after it.

2. Accounts and sign-in

• Turn off their company sign-in at the time you picked.
• Don’t delete the account yet. Deleting it can delete their email and files with it.
• Sign them out everywhere: phones, tablets, laptops, and web browsers. Most email systems have a “sign out of all sessions” button.
• Remove their phone from any sign-in codes or sign-in approvals.
• Take away any owner or manager rights they had in any system. Make sure someone else still has them first.
• Remove them from groups, shared calendars, and team chats.
• Look for accounts they opened with their work email for company use, like free trials and tools.

3. Email

• Decide who gets their new email. Forward it, or give that person access to the mailbox.
• Set an auto-reply. Say they’ve left and who to contact instead. Keep it short.
• Remove them from shared inboxes, like info@ or billing@, and from email lists.
• Keep their old mailbox as long as your business needs the records. Ask your accountant or lawyer how long that is.
• Update your website, contact lists, and anywhere else their email address appears.

4. Files and shared folders

• Move any files that live only on their laptop into a shared company folder.
• Make someone else the owner of the documents and folders they own, so nothing vanishes when the account goes.
• Check what they shared with people outside the company. Turn off any links that shouldn’t stay open.
• Ask them to delete company files from personal phones, computers, and personal online storage. Get that in writing.

5. Company phone and laptop

• Collect the laptop, phone, tablet, chargers, and any security keys.
• Write down the serial number of each thing that came back.
• If they read work email on a personal phone, remove the company account from it.
• Save anything the company needs from the laptop. Then wipe it and set it up fresh before anyone else uses it.
• Move their work phone number to someone else before you cancel the line. Change the voicemail greeting.

6. Shared passwords they knew

• List every shared password they knew: Wi-Fi, door and alarm codes, the bank, suppliers, social media, and the website.
• Change each one. Start with anything that moves money, then anything customers can see.
• Tell the people who still need the new passwords, and nobody else.
• Keep the list. Next time, it’s your starting point.

7. Apps and subscriptions outside your main email and office apps

• List every other app they used: accounting, scheduling, customer lists, design, file sharing, and project tools.
• Remove them from each one, or hand their seat to the person taking over.
• Some apps keep working after the main sign-in is off. Check each one by hand.
• Cancel paid seats you don’t need anymore, so you stop paying for them.
• Check for subscriptions paid on their personal card or in their name. Move them or cancel them.

8. Payroll, money, and the building

• Tell payroll their last day. Follow your local rules for final pay.
• Remove them from bank accounts, payment approvals, and company cards. Cancel any card in their name.
• Collect keys, badges, and fobs. Change door and alarm codes they knew.
• Take them off the alarm company’s call list, the parking list, and any building access list.
• Update your staff page, phone list, and emergency contacts.

9. The final check, about a week later

• Make sure their sign-in still shows as turned off.
• Look for anything still going to them: email, bills, alerts, or sign-in codes sent to their phone.
• Ask the people who took over their work if anything is missing.
• Date and sign this checklist. Keep it with their file.
• Write down what was hard this time, so next time is easier.