{"id":989,"date":"2026-04-23T10:40:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/offboarding-a-leaver-safely-microsoft-365\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:40:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:40:46","slug":"offboarding-a-leaver-safely-microsoft-365","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/offboarding-a-leaver-safely-microsoft-365\/","title":{"rendered":"Offboarding a Leaver Safely (Microsoft 365)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br>What to do when someone leaves your business<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why This Matters<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>When someone leaves your company, it is critical to handle their Microsoft 365 account properly. A forgotten account is a security risk and could also mean you are paying for a licence nobody is using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This guide walks you through the key steps in the right order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"banner-highlight\"><strong>\u2728 Important: Do not delete the account straight away. You need to secure it and recover any important data first. Deleting too early can result in permanent loss of emails and files.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step-by-Step Offboarding Process<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 1: <\/strong><strong>Block sign-in immediately<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Go to <a href=\"https:\/\/admin.microsoft.com\">admin.microsoft.com<\/a>, then Users > Active users.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Find the leaver and click on their name.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Click Block sign-in (or the block icon). This stops them from accessing their account right away.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This is the most important first step, especially if the departure was not on good terms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 2: <\/strong><strong>Reset their password<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Even though sign-in is blocked, reset their password as well for an extra layer of security.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This ensures any saved sessions or cached credentials are invalidated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 3: <\/strong><strong>Set up email forwarding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If other people need to receive emails sent to the leaver, set up mail forwarding.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the admin centre, click on the user, then go to the Mail tab.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Click Manage email forwarding and enter the email address of the person who should receive their mail.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You can also choose to keep a copy in the original mailbox.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 4: <\/strong><strong>Set an out-of-office reply<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is good practice to set an automatic reply on the leaver&#8217;s mailbox letting people know they have moved on and who to contact instead.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See our separate guide on setting out-of-office on behalf of someone else.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 5: <\/strong><strong>Transfer or back up their files<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The leaver&#8217;s OneDrive files will be kept for 30 days after the account is deleted, but it is much safer to transfer them before that.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You can grant another user access to the leaver&#8217;s OneDrive through the admin centre.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Go to the user&#8217;s profile, click OneDrive, then click Create link to files to get access.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Copy anything important to a shared location like a SharePoint document library.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 6: <\/strong><strong>Remove from groups and shared resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Remove the leaver from any Microsoft 365 groups, Teams channels, and shared mailboxes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This keeps things tidy and prevents confusion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 7: <\/strong><strong>Remove the licence and delete the account<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Once you have secured everything, remove the licence from the user so it can be reassigned.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After 30 days you can permanently delete the account, or delete it sooner if you are confident everything has been saved.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deleted accounts can be restored within 30 days if you change your mind.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"banner-tip\">\ud83d\udc49 <strong>Tip: <\/strong>Create a simple checklist based on these steps and use it every time someone leaves. Consistency prevents mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What to do when someone leaves your business Why This Matters When someone leaves your company, it is critical to handle their Microsoft 365 account properly. A forgotten account is a security risk and could also mean you are paying for a licence nobody is using. This guide walks you&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microsoft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freethought.uk\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}