---
title: Offboarding, a tidy finish for every leaver
canonical_url: https://hrhive.co.uk/product/offboarding/
content_type: product
summary: Setting a leaving date creates an offboarding checklist and tells payroll, HR and the person's manager. After the last day the portal closes, and you archive the record, which is kept until its retention date. The checklist has nine fixed items that you cannot edit.
audiences:
  - employer
  - adviser
topic: onboarding
jurisdiction: uk
status: published
last_updated: 2026-10-05
---

# A leaving date, a checklist and a record that stays in order

> Setting a leaving date creates an offboarding checklist and tells payroll, HR and the person's manager. After the last day the portal closes, and you archive the record, which is kept until its retention date. The checklist has nine fixed items that you cannot edit.

## What problem does this solve?

People leave in a hurry or in good time, and either way the same things need to happen. Payroll has to know, holiday has to be reviewed, equipment comes back, access is switched off, and the record is tidied and put away. These tasks usually live in someone's head or in an email. When one is forgotten, you find out later: a login that still works, a laptop that never came back, payroll hearing about it late.

## What HRHive does

- Starts from one action. Record a leaving date with an optional reason and notes, and HRHive does the rest.
- Creates a checklist of nine items: Final working date recorded, Manager informed, Payroll informed, Outstanding holiday reviewed, Leaver documents generated, Equipment returned, Accounts and access removal confirmed, Company property returned and Employee portal status updated.
- Tells payroll, HR and the person's manager that they are leaving, with a prompt to review final pay, outstanding holiday and the checklist.
- Looks after leave. Holiday booked wholly after the last day is cancelled. Leave that runs past it is kept and flagged for HR to adjust.
- Closes the portal after the last day. The person's employee login is disabled, links sent to them stop working and requests still waiting on them are cancelled. The offboarding checklist stays open.
- Lets you archive the record after the last day. It moves under Leavers and is kept until its retention date.
- Warns you about loose ends. Home lists people leaving in the next 14 days, and flags a checklist that is still open after the leaving date.
- Lets you undo it. Cancel a leaving date recorded in error, or restore a leaver to active.

> **What offboarding does not do**
>
> The checklist is not editable: it has nine fixed items, and the app has no screen to add, remove or rename them. HRHive does not work out final pay or holiday pay, and it does not issue a P45. It does not switch off access in your other systems: "Accounts and access removal confirmed" is a reminder for you to do it and then tick it off. And it does not run a dismissal, redundancy or disciplinary process. The reason is a note for your records, with no letters, consultation steps, hearings or notice calculations.

## How it works

1. **Record the leaving date.** Choose Record leaving date on the person's record. Give the last working day and, if you want to, a reason (resignation, end of contract, redundancy, dismissal, retirement, mutual agreement or other) and notes. The reason is visible to HR only. Nothing is deleted.
2. **Work through the checklist.** Open it from the person's Employment tab and tick items off as they are done. Undo an item that was ticked by mistake.
3. **The last day passes.** At the next daily run HRHive closes the portal and marks the person as a leaver. If you record a leaving date that is already past, this happens straight away.
4. **Archive the record.** After the last day, archive it. It moves under Leavers, portal access is closed and a retention date is set.
5. **Come back to it if you need to.** Restore a leaver to active if they return. An owner or admin can permanently remove personal details, addresses, bank details and documents from an archived record. The audit history is kept, and it cannot be undone.

## What you see

On the person's Employment tab, a notice shows "Leaving on" or "Left on" with the reason and, once archived, the date their records are kept until. A button opens the offboarding checklist and shows its progress. The checklist lists each item with a Mark done button, and shows when each was done. The People list shows "Leaving" against anyone with a future leaving date, and the Leavers tab lists former employees.

**Offboarding: Mei Ling Chen**

- [x] Final working date recorded
- [x] Manager informed
- [x] Payroll informed
- [ ] Outstanding holiday reviewed — Check the balance on their Holidays tab
- [ ] Leaver documents generated
- [ ] Equipment returned
- [ ] Accounts and access removal confirmed
- [ ] Company property returned
- [ ] Employee portal status updated — The portal closes by itself after the last day

Leaving on 30 October 2026. Their portal closes after their last day.

## The record it creates

HRHive records the leaving date and reason, the checklist with the time each item was done, and the archive with its retention date. The leaving date, any cancellation, the archive and any restore appear on the timeline. The leaver's record stays complete: documents, contract, holiday record and history remain on file. The Leavers report lists former employees and people leaving soon with their reason and the date their records are kept until, and the Starters and leavers report gives payroll the same list for a period.

## Who can do what

Recording a leaving date, archiving and restoring are HR decisions. They are never self-service, and they are not payroll's to make.

| Role | What they can do |
| --- | --- |
| Owner and admin | Record and cancel a leaving date, work through the checklist, archive and restore a leaver. Only owners and admins can permanently remove a person's personal data, and only from an archived record, by typing the person's full name to confirm. |
| HR | Record and cancel a leaving date, work through the checklist, archive and restore a leaver. |
| Manager | Is told when someone who reports to them is leaving. Cannot record a leaving date. |
| Payroll / Finance | Is told when someone is leaving, with a prompt to review final pay and outstanding holiday. |
| Employee who is leaving | Keeps their portal access until after their last day. They cannot see the checklist, which is for HR. |
| Adviser invited into the organisation | Works with whichever role you give them. An HR consultant given the HR role can record a leaving date as HR can. |

## What happens next

Recording a leaving date also tells the right to work records when the engagement ended, which starts the clock on how long the check evidence is kept. When the retention date passes, HRHive lists the record for HR to approve its destruction, and every destruction is written to a log. Until then the record is there if someone asks. See [Employee records](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/employee-records/) for what it holds, and [Leave](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/leave/) for how holiday is handled for a leaver.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I change the checklist?

No. It has nine fixed items, and the app has no screen to add, remove or rename them. Anything extra you need to do, such as removing access in your other systems, goes on your own list. The checklist item is there to remind you.

### What happens to a leaver's access?

After their last day HRHive closes the employee portal, disables their employee login, stops any links they were sent from working and cancels requests still waiting on them. The record, its documents and its history stay. HRHive does not control access to your other systems.

### How long is a leaver's record kept?

Until a retention date, which HRHive sets when you archive the record. The default is six years after the leaving date, and you can change it in Settings. The date is shown on the person's record. Records past their retention date are listed for HR to approve their destruction, and nothing on that list is destroyed automatically. The exception is right to work check evidence, which the right to work area destroys when it falls due, starting from the end of the engagement plus two years.

## About this page

- Last updated: 5 October 2026

## Related

**In HRHive**

- [Employee records and personnel files](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/employee-records/)
- [Holiday and leave](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/leave/)
- [Documents, versions and expiry dates](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/documents/)
- [Reminders and expiry dates](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/reminders/)
- [Evidence packs and printable records](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/evidence-packs/)
- [Reports and exports](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/reporting/)

**Related reading**

- [Someone is leaving: what to do, in order](https://hrhive.co.uk/start/someone-leaving/)

Canonical URL: https://hrhive.co.uk/product/offboarding/
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