When an Employee Leaves: An Account Closure Checklist

In a small team, when an employee leaves, their email account often stays active for weeks. At the same time, that account may hold correspondence with clients, draft contracts and important files. If you delete the account quickly and thoughtlessly, business material may be lost. If you don't touch it at all, a door is left open. This article offers a short sequence that works on both platforms.

The main principle is simple: first close access, then save the data, and only after that think about deleting the account.

Step 1. Decide who takes over the work

Before the departure date, decide who will continue the ongoing work: who receives the files, who reads incoming emails and who replies to clients. This should be one responsible person, not the whole team. It is best to transfer file ownership to a specific colleague or to a role-based account, not to a personal address.

Step 2. Block sign-in

At the moment of departure, first of all prevent sign-in to the account. According to Microsoft's documentation, the first step in offboarding a former employee is precisely to make sure they can no longer sign in to Microsoft 365 services. Blocking does not delete data: the mail and files remain and are accessible to the administrator.

At the same stage:

• change the account password;
• revoke active sessions so that an account opened on another device does not stay signed in;
• check whether the person had administrator rights, and if so, remove them immediately;
• if a personal phone was linked for two-step sign-in, keep in mind that this will no longer work after blocking.

Step 3. Clean up devices

If the employee used work email or files on a personal phone or tablet, the company data must be removed from there. Microsoft 365 has a separate step for this: only your organization's data is wiped from the former employee's mobile device. This does not affect personal photos and contacts. In the Google Workspace Admin console you can also review the devices connected to the account. Also have the person return the company laptop, phone and keys.

Step 4. Preserve the mail

Correspondence is often the most valuable part, so decide its fate in advance.

In Microsoft 365 there are two simple ways. First: forward the former employee's emails to another employee. Second: convert the mailbox into a shared mailbox. According to Microsoft's guide, this keeps the address active in case clients or partners still write to the old address. The conversion must be done before removing the license. If the mailbox needs to stay, leave the account with a sign-in block instead of deleting it.

In Google Workspace, Gmail messages do not automatically pass to another user the way Drive files do. So decide in advance whether the correspondence is to be kept, and if needed, use the data transfer tool, an export, or temporary retention of the account. Google's Help Center describes temporarily suspending and archiving accounts as separate options. When an account is archived, the data of Google Workspace services is preserved.

Step 5. Move the files

In Microsoft 365, give another employee access to the former user's OneDrive in advance. Microsoft's articles stress that this must be done before the account is deleted so that the files are not lost.

In Google Workspace, an administrator can transfer Drive files to a new owner. According to Google's help page, this requires the Drive and Docs administrator privilege. Transfer to an external user, for example a personal Google account or a user from another organization, is not possible. This restriction is designed to protect company data. Also pay attention to files that are not in the former employee's own My Drive: Google's instructions advise first looking for so-called unlinked files and moving the necessary ones to their My Drive.

Step 6. Check team spaces and external services

The employee may be the owner of Teams teams, groups or shared folders, or may be used to sign in to some service. Review:

• teams and groups of which they were the only owner;
• recurring calendar meetings that they organized;
• websites and social network pages where sign-in was done with their email;
• systems where their address was set for recovery (for password changes).

Also set up an automatic reply that tells the sender whom to contact.

Step 7. License and deletion last

Remove the license only when the mail has been forwarded or converted and access to the files has been granted. According to Microsoft's guide, after the license is removed you can assign it to another employee. Deleting the account is the last stage. Microsoft's documentation notes that a deleted account can be restored within 30 days. In Google Workspace, a deleted user can be restored for up to 20 days after deletion, after which the data is permanently lost. Also keep in mind that in Google, only super administrators can transfer all data during the deletion process; other administrators must move the data before deletion.

Short checklist to print

• name the person who will take over the work;
• block sign-in, change the password, revoke sessions;
• remove administrator rights;
• clean mobile devices and have company equipment returned;
• forward or preserve the mail;
• transfer the files and check team spaces;
• set up an automatic reply;
• remove the license and delete the account only at the very end.

It is useful to write this checklist once and use it for every departure, including when the departure is amicable. That way, less depends on the human factor.

If you want to set this process up correctly once in your team in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, Appy.ge, a Georgian IT company and an official Microsoft CSP partner that also helps businesses with Google Workspace setup, will be happy to provide a consultation.

Sources:
• Remove a former employee - Overview - Microsoft 365 admin (Microsoft Learn) - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/add-users/remove-former-employee?view=o365-worldwide
• Transfer Drive files to a new owner as an admin (Google Workspace Help) - https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/drive/transfer-drive-files-to-a-new-owner-as-an-admin
• Delete or remove a user from your organization / Restore a recently deleted user (Google Workspace Help) - https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/kb/transfer-data-to-multiple-users-when-a-user-is-deleted-000008367?hl=pl
• Remove a former employee and secure data - https://support.bemopro.com/hc/en-us/articles/4883055062931-Remove-a-former-employee-and-secure-data