1. List every work account the person uses: email, files, payments, social media, booking, and vendors.
2. Find which accounts they own or manage, not only the ones they use. Before they go, ask them to hand over any account only they can transfer.
3. The day they leave, or right away if they have already gone, stop their sign-in without deleting the account. Change shared passwords they knew, and remove their personal phone and email from two-step sign-in and account recovery on business accounts.
4. Move ownership of files, shared folders, and admin roles to the business.
5. Save the mail and records the business must keep, and collect business devices.
6. Delete or close their accounts only after the files and mail are saved.

In Microsoft 365

1. Reset their password and choose Sign out of all sessions, then block sign-in. Blocking on its own can take up to 24 hours to take effect.
2. If colleagues need the mail, convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox while the license is still assigned. Do not delete the user account afterward, because the shared mailbox depends on it. Without a license, a shared mailbox holds up to 50 GB.
3. Before you remove the license, give a manager access to the person’s OneDrive and have them copy the files the business needs to a shared SharePoint site. Access alone does not keep the files: by default, an unlicensed OneDrive becomes read-only after 60 days and is archived after 93.

In Google Workspace

1. Suspend the account to stop sign-in. A suspended account blocks new mail, so decide where customer mail should go. Before you delete the account, transfer the person’s Drive files in the Admin console and move or export the mail you need. Deleting the account also deletes their Gmail.

On Apple devices

1. Have the person sign out of their Apple Account on the device, or use your device manager to turn off Activation Lock, then erase it. If the business will reuse the device, keep it in your device manager. Remove it only if the device is sold, given away, lost, or can’t be repaired.

• The person set up the domain, email, or website and holds the login.
• Recovery codes or two-step sign-in go to their personal phone.
• Devices need to be cleared and given to someone else.

We help list the accounts, confirm who has authority to change them, and plan the order of changes so nothing is lost. For Microsoft 365 and Apple devices, we check mailbox handling, licenses, and device management. We record what changed and who now owns each account.

Should we delete their email account right away?

Not before the business has saved what it needs. Keeping or converting the mailbox for a set time can preserve customer messages. In Microsoft 365, a shared mailbox or mail forwarding only works while the old user account exists, so do not delete that account while you still need the mail. Remove their sign-in access first, then decide what happens to the mail. Little Fight NYC handles Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace offboarding for small teams without losing mail.

What if they used a personal account for work tools?

Ask them to transfer ownership to a business account before they go. If that is not possible, contact the vendor with proof that the business owns the account. Little Fight NYC can help document which accounts the business owns.