Employee Offboarding: A Complete Guide to Securing Assets and Streamlining Processes

When an employee leaves, the process of offboarding begins. Many companies focus heavily on hiring and onboarding, but don’t give the same attention to departures. This can cause problems — lost laptops, lingering system access, and compliance risks.

A clear offboarding process protects your company. With tools like BlueTally, you can track equipment, licenses, and accounts in one place. This makes sure nothing slips through the cracks when someone leaves your team.

What Is Employee Offboarding?

Employee offboarding is the set of steps you take when someone exits your company. It includes collecting equipment, disabling access to systems, and making sure records are complete.

Good offboarding helps you:

• Recover assets, accessories, consumables, and licenses.
• Shut down accounts quickly to protect data.
• Stay audit-ready and compliant.
• Create a smooth, professional exit for employees.
  

Why Employee Offboarding Matters

If you don’t manage offboarding well, your business may face:

• Lost equipment: Laptops, phones, or accessories might not be returned.
• Security risks: Ex-employees may still access company data.
• Audit issues: You may lack proof of how assets and licenses were handled.
• Team delays: IT and HR waste time chasing missing items.
  

Automating the process saves time and prevents mistakes.

Common Offboarding Challenges

Here are a few reasons companies struggle:

1. Manual tracking – Spreadsheets and emails often miss details.
2. Poor visibility – Teams can’t always see what equipment is assigned to each person.
3. Slow account deactivation – Without alerts, IT may take days to shut down access.
4. Confusion – Employees may argue about which items they still have.

How BlueTally Makes Offboarding Simple

BlueTally is built to solve these problems with automation, reporting, and integrations.

1. The Offboarding Report

BlueTally’s Offboarding Report is the core of the process. It shows which employees are leaving and what they still have checked out.

The report doesn’t just track hardware. It includes:

• Assets (like laptops or phones)
• Accessories (like chargers or keyboards)
• Consumables (like printer paper or ink)
• Licenses (like software seats)

Employees appear as Pending Offboarding until everything is returned. Once all items are checked in, their status changes to Completed Offboarding.

2. Archiving Employees

Employees can be archived in two ways:

• Manual archive – An admin updates the employee’s profile to Archived.
• Automatic archive – Using SCIM integrations with tools like Entra, Okta, or OneLogin, employees are archived as soon as their accounts are disabled.

Archived employees remain in BlueTally for records but are clearly marked as leavers.

3. Real-Time Transparency

If you utilize our My Item and Direct Reports Items permission level, Employees can always see the items assigned to them. This prevents disputes about what needs to be returned. Managers and IT also have a live view, making collection easier.

4. Flexible Item Statuses

Not every returned device is ready to be handed out again. BlueTally lets you mark checked-in items with statuses such as:

• Ready to Deploy
• Being Repaired
• Broken

You can also create your own, like Pending Redeployment or Wipe in Progress, to fit your workflow.

5. MDM Integrations: Intune, Jamf, and Kandji

BlueTally integrates with four leading MDM tools: Intune, Jamf Pro, Jamf School, and Kandji. Data syncs every 10 minutes.

Each integration assigns devices to employees differently:

• Intune → Devices are tied to the Primary User or Enrolled User.
• Jamf Pro → Devices are linked by the Username field, which must match the employee’s email in BlueTally.
• Jamf School → Devices are assigned based on the owner’s email address.
• Kandji → Devices are matched to the user’s email address in Kandji.

This ensures that no matter which MDM you use, assignments are always accurate.

Step-by-Step Offboarding with BlueTally

Here’s how a standard workflow looks:

Step 1: Archive the employee

• Done manually or automatically through SCIM.

Step 2: Check the Offboarding Report

• See all items (Assets, Accessories, Consumables, Licenses) assigned to the employee.

Step 3: Collect and check in items

• IT collects equipment and checks it back into BlueTally with the right status.

Step 4: Monitor progress

• The report updates automatically as items are returned.

Step 5: Complete offboarding

• Once everything is in, the employee’s status changes to Completed Offboarding.

Benefits of Automating Offboarding

By using BlueTally, you gain:

• Full accountability – Every item is tracked until returned.
• Audit-ready records – Reports meet IT and financial compliance needs.
• Time savings – Automation reduces manual work and mistakes.
• Better security – Access is cut off quickly, reducing risks.
• Clarity for employees – Staff know exactly what to return.

Best Practices for Offboarding

To make the most of your process:

1. Use a standard workflow – Define clear roles for HR, IT, and managers.
2. Automate wherever possible – SCIM and MDM save time and avoid errors.
3. Communicate early – Tell employees what they need to return before their last day.
4. Track item statuses – Use clear labels for returned equipment.
5. Check reports often – Resolve issues before they create bigger problems.

Final Thoughts

Employee offboarding doesn’t have to be a headache. With a clear process, you can protect your assets, stay compliant, and make the transition smooth for everyone.

BlueTally makes this easy. The Offboarding Report tracks all assigned items — not just devices, but also accessories, consumables, and licenses. Integrations with Intune, Jamf Pro, Jamf School, and Kandji keep records in sync. And SCIM integrations automatically archive employees, ensuring no one is missed.

With BlueTally, your team can handle offboarding with confidence, speed, and security.

‍