Archive or restore an employee

Task index

Archive an employee (offboard without deleting)
Restore an employee (rehire / reactivate)
Stop someone from signing in (deactivate their user login)
Confirm what changes for field work (“what stops working”)
Delete an employee (only when allowed)

Archive an employee (offboard without deleting)

When to use this

Someone leaves the business and should no longer be treated as an active employee.
You need to remove them from active lists and day-to-day assignment pickers, without deleting their history.

What you need first

Office/admin permission to manage employees.

Steps

1. Open Employees. 2. Find the employee. 3. Choose Edit. 4. Choose Archive.

What happens next (what stops working)

The employee is treated as inactive and moves out of most active lists.
They usually stop appearing in places where you pick an employee for new work (for example, scheduling/assignment pickers).
Their historical records stay in the system (past jobs, forms, notes, and other history linked to them).

Important:

Archiving an employee does not automatically deactivate their user login. If they still have an active user account, they may still be able to sign in until you deactivate that user (see “Stop someone from signing in”).

Need to remove a mistaken/duplicate employee record? See [Delete an employee (when allowed)](delete-an-employee-when-allowed.md).

Restore an employee (rehire / reactivate)

When to use this

Someone returns and should be treated as an active employee again.
You need them to show up in active lists and assignment pickers again.

What you need first

Office/admin permission to manage employees.

Steps

1. Open Employees. 2. Switch to the Archived list (or use search and filters to find archived employees). 3. Choose Edit on the employee. 4. Choose Restore.

What happens next

The employee becomes active again and can be selected again in employee pickers.
If you also track HR status in the employee profile, set their Status back to Active if they are returning to work.
If they need to sign in:
Make sure they have a user account in Settings → User Roles.
Make sure that user is Active (not deactivated).
If they don’t have a user account yet, follow [Create an employee and give them a login](create-an-employee-and-give-them-a-login.md).

When to use this

You need to prevent someone from signing in (for example, offboarding a field user).
You archived the employee but they can still sign in.

What you need first

Admin permission to manage users.
The email address they use to sign in.

Steps

1. Open Settings → User Roles. 2. Find the user by email (or search by name). 3. Choose Deactivate.

What happens next

They will be blocked from signing in and see an “account inactive” message.
Deactivating does not instantly sign them out on devices that are already signed in.

Failure and recovery matrix

| Problem you see | What it means | Immediate fix | When to escalate | |---|---|---|---| | You can’t find the employee after archiving | You’re looking at an “Active” list that hides inactive employees. | Switch to the Archived list (or All) and search again. | Escalate if the employee is missing from All lists. | | The employee is archived but still signs in | Their user login is still active. Archiving only changes employee status and visibility. | Deactivate the user in Settings → User Roles. | Escalate if you can’t see User Roles or the Deactivate button. | | You restored the employee but they still can’t sign in | The user login is inactive, missing, or using a different email. | In Settings → User Roles, confirm the user exists, is Active, and uses the correct email. | Escalate if the user exists and is active but sign-in still fails. | | “Archive” / “Restore” buttons are missing | You don’t have permission to manage employees. | Ask an office/admin user to archive/restore for you. | Escalate to an admin to update your access. | | You can’t select a person in an employee picker | Most pickers only show active employees. | Restore the employee if they should be selectable again. | Escalate if they are restored but still missing after a refresh. |

Change alignment notes

Confirmed in system behavior: archiving an employee marks them inactive and removes them from most active lists and pickers.
Confirmed in system behavior: sign-in blocking is controlled by whether the user login is active in Settings → User Roles, not by employee archive status.