Protect Your Account Without Losing Any Work
When a team member leaves your business, changes role, or no longer needs access to QuickEstimate, you have two options: deactivate their account temporarily, or remove them from the account permanently. Either way, every estimate and proposal they created stays on your account—nothing is deleted.
This guide explains the difference between deactivating and removing, walks you through each process step by step, and covers how to reassign their work before you revoke their access.
Deactivate or Remove? Choose the Right Option
Before taking action, decide which option fits the situation. The difference comes down to whether the person might ever need access again.
- The team member cannot log in or access any data
- Their account, settings, and history are fully preserved
- Their estimates and proposals remain untouched and attributed to them
- Reactivation restores full access instantly—no re-invitation needed
- The seat is freed up on your plan while deactivated
- The team member is permanently removed from the account
- All their estimates and proposals remain on the account
- Their work can be reassigned to another team member
- They would need a new invitation to rejoin in the future
- The seat is permanently freed up on your plan
How to Deactivate a Team Member
Deactivation suspends access immediately while keeping the account intact. Follow these steps to deactivate a team member safely.
Open Team Settings
All team management actions are handled from the Team tab in your account settings.
- Click your profile avatar in the top-right corner of the dashboard
- Select "Account Settings" from the dropdown menu
- Click the "Team" tab to see the full list of active and pending team members
- Locate the team member you want to deactivate
Only Owners and Admins can deactivate or remove team members. If you don't see the option, contact your account Owner to request the necessary permissions.
Review and Reassign Their Open Work
Before suspending access, check whether the team member has any active estimates or unsent proposals that need to be handed to someone else.
- Click the team member's name to open their profile
- Review the "Active Estimates" list—any estimate not yet converted to a proposal
- Review "Open Proposals"—proposals with a status of Sent, Opened, or Awaiting Response
- For each open item, click "Reassign" and select the team member who will take it over
- Reassigned estimates and proposals update immediately—the new owner sees them in their dashboard
Reassignment is optional before deactivation. All work remains accessible to Owners and Admins regardless of who it's attributed to. However, reassigning open items ensures no active proposals fall through the cracks while the team member is inactive.
Deactivate the Account
Once you're satisfied that open work has been handed over, proceed with deactivation.
- From the team member's profile, click the "Actions" menu (three-dot icon)
- Select "Deactivate Account"
- A confirmation prompt will appear summarising what deactivation does—review it and confirm
- The team member's account status changes to "Deactivated" immediately
- They are logged out of any active sessions instantly and cannot log back in
A deactivated team member appears in your Team list with a grey "Deactivated" badge. Their history, estimates, and proposals remain fully intact and visible to Owners and Admins.
Reactivating a Deactivated Member
If the team member returns or their circumstances change, reactivation restores their full access without any reconfiguration.
- Go to Account Settings → Team and filter by "Deactivated" to find them
- Click their name to open their profile
- Click "Reactivate Account" from the Actions menu
- Their account is restored immediately with the same role and permissions they had before
- They can log in straight away using their existing password—no re-invitation required
How to Permanently Remove a Team Member
Permanent removal is irreversible. Take the steps below carefully—especially the work reassignment—before confirming the action.
Export or Reassign Their Work
Before removing a team member permanently, make sure all their estimates, proposals, and client records are either reassigned or exported for your records.
- Open the team member's profile in Account Settings → Team
- Click "Export All Work" to download a PDF or CSV of all their estimates and proposals
- Reassign any active estimates to another team member using the "Reassign" button on each item
- Reassign any open proposals so the correct team member receives client response notifications
- Check whether any shared templates or branding assets were created by this member and update ownership if needed
Taking a few minutes to reassign open work before removal prevents orphaned proposals and ensures the right person receives client responses going forward.
Remove the Team Member
Once all work has been exported or reassigned, proceed with permanent removal.
- From the team member's profile, click the "Actions" menu (three-dot icon)
- Select "Remove from Account"
- A confirmation prompt will appear—read it carefully and type the team member's name to confirm
- Click "Confirm Removal" to complete the action
- The team member is immediately logged out of all active sessions and cannot log back in
- Their name is removed from the Team list but their work remains on the account attributed to them
The account audit log records who performed the removal and at what time, providing a complete record for compliance purposes.
What Happens to Their Data After Removal
Removing a team member from QuickEstimate does not delete any business data they created. Here's exactly what happens to each data type:
- All estimates they created remain on the account and are accessible to Owners and Admins
- All proposals and their full version histories are preserved and continue to function normally
- Any active shareable proposal links they sent remain live—clients can still access and sign them
- Their name is retained in proposal version history and audit logs as the original author
- Their personal notification preferences and display settings are deleted
- Any integrations or API connections set up under their account may need to be reconfigured by an Admin
All business data is retained for the full 7-year account archive period, regardless of team member status.
Tips for Managing Team Member Offboarding
A consistent offboarding process protects your business data and keeps your team's pipeline running smoothly during transitions.
Create an Offboarding Checklist
For every departure, run through the same steps: export work, reassign open items, update client contacts, then deactivate or remove. Consistency prevents things being missed.
Deactivate First, Remove Later
If you're unsure whether someone is gone for good, deactivate first. You can always remove later, but you can't undo a permanent removal. A deactivated account costs nothing and preserves everything.
Update Client-Facing Contacts
If the departing team member was a client's main point of contact, update proposal follow-up emails and notification routing before removing their account so clients aren't left with a broken contact.
Reassign Before the Last Day
Don't wait until the day of departure to reassign work. Handing over open proposals and active estimates a day or two in advance gives the new owner time to get familiar with the jobs before they land in their dashboard.
Revoke Access Promptly
Once a team member's last day has passed, deactivate or remove their account the same day. Leaving active accounts for former employees—even briefly—is an unnecessary security risk.
Review Seats After Removal
After removing a team member, check your plan's seat usage in Billing. Freed-up seats can be reallocated to a new hire without a plan change, or used to reduce your monthly cost on flexible plans.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. QuickEstimate does not automatically notify a team member when their account is deactivated or removed. They will simply find themselves unable to log in. If communication is appropriate—for example, during a formal offboarding process—we recommend letting them know directly before or after taking the action.
Yes. Owners can remove any team member including Admins. Admins can also remove other Admins and lower roles, but cannot remove the Owner. If you need to remove an Owner, ownership must first be transferred to another team member before the original Owner can be removed.
Shareable proposal links remain fully live and functional after a team member is removed. Clients can still open, view, and sign proposals via their existing links. Approval notifications for those proposals will continue to be sent to any other team members configured to receive them. If no notification recipients were set, an Owner or Admin should update the notification settings for those proposals.
Yes. A deactivated team member does not count toward your active seat limit, so the seat becomes available for a new invite immediately. If you reactivate the member in the future, they will consume a seat again—make sure a seat is available at that time if your plan has a limit.
Yes. Even after a team member has been permanently removed, Owners and Admins can still reassign their estimates and proposals to active team members. Go to Account Settings → Team, filter by "Removed Members," locate the former member, and use the Reassign option against any unassigned items.
Building or Restructuring Your Team?
Learn how roles and permissions work, or invite new members to fill the gaps.