Employee offboarding checklist for a small business

When someone leaves a small shop, closing out their job falls to the owner or a manager, usually in the same week as covering their shifts. A written list keeps keys, logins, pay and paperwork from slipping through. Below are the steps in order, the pay rules to check, and a template you can copy.

What is offboarding?

Offboarding is the work of closing out a person's employment. It covers handing over their duties, collecting business property, ending their access, paying them correctly and recording why they left. The offboarding process starts when you learn the last day and ends after the last payroll run and tax form, which can be weeks later.

The same steps apply whether the person resigned, retired, was let go or reached the end of a seasonal contract. What changes is the timing. A resignation with two weeks' notice gives you time for a handover. A termination means access has to end the same day, often before the conversation is over.

Some businesses call the written list an employee exit checklist. What matters is that every manager follows the same one.

How to offboard an employee

Work through these in order, starting on the day you learn the last day.

Confirm the last day in writing

Record the date, the reason for leaving and who will coordinate the departure. Tell whoever runs payroll on the same day, because the deadline for final pay may depend on that date and on the reason.

Plan the handover

Ask the person to list what they look after, such as supplier contacts, open orders, recurring tasks and the end-of-day cash count. Agree who takes over each item and have them walk through it together before the last shift.

Return of company property

Collect keys, fobs, uniforms, name badges, store phones, tablets and any company card. Write down what came back, and follow up on anything missing while the person is easy to reach.

Revoke access when employee leaves

List every system the person could use, from the register and email to supplier portals, the business bank account and social media. Remove their logins at the end of the last shift, or before a termination meeting. Change door codes, alarm codes, safe combinations and shared passwords they knew. Look for accounts registered under their personal email and move them to a business address.

Pay, benefits and tax forms

This section is general information for US employers, not legal advice. State rules vary, so check with your own state's labor department before the last day.

Final pay. The U.S. Department of Labor says federal law does not require employers to give former employees their final paycheck immediately, though some states do. California, for example, requires all wages, including accrued vacation, at the time of discharge, and within 72 hours when someone quits without giving 72 hours' notice (California Labor Commissioner). Check whether your state requires unused vacation to be paid out.

Health coverage. Federal COBRA continuation rules generally apply to group health plans of private employers that had 20 or more employees in the previous year (29 U.S.C. 1161). The Department of Labor notes that many states have similar laws, sometimes called mini-COBRA, for employers with fewer than 20 employees. If you offer a health plan, ask your insurer or plan administrator which rules apply and what notice the employee should receive.

Tax forms. Confirm the person's mailing address before they go. The IRS instructions for Form W-2 let you furnish a departing employee's copies at any time after employment ends, and no later than the usual deadline for all employees. If the employee asks for them, provide them within 30 days of the request or of the last wage payment, whichever is later (IRS instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3).

Exit interview questions

A short conversation in the last week tells you what to fix before you hire again. Keep it to fifteen minutes, hold it in private and write down the answers. Questions worth asking:

• What made you decide to leave?
• Which part of the job took more time than it should have?
• Was your training enough for what you were asked to do?
• What would you change about how the store runs?
• Is there anything you have not handed over yet?

Leave out anything that reopens the decision itself. If the person was let go, a written request for feedback may work better than a meeting.

Offboarding checklist template

Copy this table into a document or spreadsheet, add a column for the date each step was done, and adjust the timing to your business. "Last day" means the person's last working day.

Running the checklist in headoffis

In headoffis, a manager starts an offboarding checklist for a business member by choosing a template, a coordinator and a reference date, which for a departure is the last working day. Each step in the template becomes an assigned task on the Work board, with a due date counted in calendar days before or after that date. The starter template covers a work handover, reassigning open work, returning equipment, reviewing access to outside tools and reviewing headoffis business access, and you can edit its steps, instructions and timing. The departure record links to the person's other open work so it can be reassigned.

Completing the checklist does not remove the person's access or change billing. That is a separate step: Review business access opens the person's existing access form, where you make the change yourself. The tasks do not return equipment, change outside tools or send messages. A person does each of those and marks the task done.

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