Deactivating a user ensures they can no longer access The Layer while keeping all your data intact and secure. This guide walks you through what happens when a user is deactivated, what to check before doing it, and how to reassign their records smoothly.
Is there anything I should do before deactivating a user?
Before deactivating a user, review who owns their records to ensure that no records are overlooked or left unattended.
🔑 Who can deactivate users?
Only Administrators can deactivate users.
Getting Started
Only Administrators can deactivate users. Here’s how:
Go to: Settings ➡️ Users
Identify the user you want to deactivate.
Find & select the user and click the
button. 
Deactivate User: Head to the User profile and
(button on the left)
Review & update their settings in each relevant tab, especially the System tab—this is crucial for fully deactivating the account.
How to deactivate a user
🚩Critical: Remove users email and Mobile/Phone details
⚡ Deactivate a user in one click
You can now deactivate a user straight from their User Profile by clicking Deactivate User.
The system will automatically clean up everything linked to their account — no manual checks needed.
Here’s what it does behind the scenes:
Area | What happens |
User account |
|
Person record | Blocks all outbound contact methods (email, phone, mail, SMS). |
Mail & Exchange | Disables calendar sync, sweeps (cases/opportunities), and email archiving.
*Mail Agent should be deleted manually |
Team memberships | Removes the user from all Business Units. |
Workflows | Deletes workflow steps that reference the user. |
News Feed | Unsubscribes from all digests and category follows. |
Scheduled emails | Deletes any scheduled emails and related widgets. |
Security roles | Removes all assigned roles. |
Case portal notifications | Removes them from all portal notifications. |
💡 In short: clicking Deactivate User completely turns off the account and clears their access, roles, and notifications across the system.
🧰 Manual deactivation (if you’re not using the button)
If you prefer to deactivate manually, double-check these in Settings → Users → [User]:
System Tab🔧
Make sure the following settings are unticked:
➡️ Active
➡️ API Login Allowed
➡️ Default Case Watcher
➡️ View Only My Records
Memberships 🏢
Department Memberships: Untick all departments.
Shared Calendar Department: Set to "--Please select a business unit--"
Shared Calendar Mode: Set to "Hide All"
Default Browsing Group (Widget): Set to "--No Group--"
Custom Report Access Group: Set to "--No Group--"
Communication 🔊
Default Mail Agent (Email) to “--Default Mail Agent--”
Default Mail Agent (Calendar) to “--Default Mail Agent--”
Untick all Notification Schemes
Preferred Contact Method to “--Please select a contact Method--”
Can E-mail/Phone/Mail/SMS to “--Not set--”
Access the menu above the tabs:
➡️ Digests: Untick any Digests
➡️ Subscriptions: Ensure no scheduled subscriptions remain, delete all Subscriptions
Other Settings
Signature, Telephony, and Information: No changes are needed unless an * Asterisk phone system is in use.
🚩Delete Mail Agent
Is there anything I should do before deactivating a user?
Before deactivating a user, review who owns their records to ensure that no records are overlooked or left unattended.
What happens when a user is deactivated?
Lead and Customer records will automatically have the Owner set to Unassigned.
Other records (e.g., Tasks, Opportunities, Sales Orders) will retain the user as Owner until they are manually reassigned.
How to reassign records before deactivation
Option 1: Resassign via Work Stacks (quick and easy)
To simplify this process, we recommend using Work Stacks:
Go to each relevant record type (e.g., Customers, Tasks, Opportunities).
Create a Work Stack filtered by the Owner (the user you’re deactivating).
Use the bulk action menu to Reassign, Reassign Owner, or Update Owner depending on the record type.
🔗 Learn how to reassign opportunities using Work Stacks
(This method also works for Leads, Customers, Tasks, Quotes, and Sales Orders.)
Option 2: Reassign users' records in bulk via Spreadsheet (for Data Manager users - permission-based)
If you need to transfer multiple records at once and have the necessary permissions, you can also do this using a spreadsheet.
Export a populated customer file from the Data Manager.
Filter the "Owner" column to display records assigned to the specific user you’re deactivating.
Update the "Owner" field to the name of the user you want to reassign these records to.
Remove any records and columns you do not wish to update, keep only the "Owner" column and all mandatory columns.
Save & close the file, ensuring it’s in the correct format.
Import the file back into the system as a Customer Upsert to apply the changes.
🙋♀️Curious about Data Manager?
We've got you covered with this article: How to use Data Manager.
Showing Inactive Users in Leaderboard Widgets
By default, inactive users won’t appear in most leaderboard widgets, such as Quotations and Sales Orders. However, you can include them temporarily to maintain historical data:
Admins can Go to Settings → Users → [User] → System tab and enable
Include inactive user in leaderboard widgets.
Note:
Inactive users will be labelled as such in widgets.
Some widgets only show users with activity (e.g., Completed Sales Orders).
Others show all users regardless of activity (e.g., Won Quotations).
This setting does not apply to dynamic (report-based) widgets.
Need Help?
Having trouble with any of the steps above, or can’t access Settings?
Speak to your Layer Administrator, or contact Support, we’re here to help you make the most of The Layer! 🙂