How to deactivate a user
Deactivating revokes someone's access while preserving everything they did.
When to use this
- Someone leaves the organization
- Someone is on extended leave
- You need to free a seat on your plan
- Access needs revoking immediately for any reason
Requirements
- Available on: All plans
- Roles: Owner only
Steps
- Go to Dashboard → Users.
- Find the user.
- Choose Deactivate.
- Confirm.
What happens next
Access is revoked immediately — on their very next request, not at their next sign-in. Role, plan, and deactivation state are re-read from the database every request, so a deactivated user cannot keep working from an open tab.
Their history is preserved. Everything they created, changed, completed, or was assigned stays attributed to them. Deactivation does not rewrite the record.
Their Person record remains. Assignments and checkouts target People, so custody history survives.
The seat is freed on your plan's user limit.
Before you deactivate
- Check what they hold. Open their Person record to see current assignments and checkouts.
- Check items back in. An asset checked out to someone who has left stays checked out.
- Reassign their assets to whoever takes over.
- Reassign their open work orders.
Deactivating does not do any of this for you, and an asset assigned to a deactivated person is easy to lose track of.
Deactivation vs deletion
Deactivate for almost every case. It revokes access and keeps history.
Deleting a user invalidates their session immediately, but deactivation is the safer default because it preserves the historical attribution of everything they did.
To archive the human record itself — so they can no longer receive assignments — archive the Person.
Reactivating
Deactivation is reversible. See Reactivating users.
Automatic deactivation
On Cosmos, Microsoft Entra directory sync can deactivate users automatically when they are removed from your directory. See Auto-deprovisioning leavers.
Common mistakes
Deactivating before checking items back in. Outstanding checkouts stay outstanding and keep generating overdue alerts.
Assuming deactivation removes them from history. It does not, deliberately.
Deactivating the Owner. Transfer ownership first.
Troubleshooting
I can't deactivate anyone. Deactivation is Owner-only.
The user is still signed in. They are not — access ends on their next request. Their browser may still be showing a cached page until they navigate.
Their assigned assets disappeared from my view. They have not. Check the asset list filtered by that person, or open their Person record.
My seat count didn't drop. Reload Settings → Plan & Usage.
I need to deactivate the Owner. Transfer ownership to someone else first, then deactivate.
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