User Deactivation Checklist

When an employee leaves your organization, deactivate their account only after confirming that all expenses have been submitted and reimbursed. Use this checklist to verify unsubmitted or denied transactions, handle reimbursements, cancel or reassign cards, and expense any remaining transactions tied to a deactivated user. Completing these steps ensures accurate reconciliation and compliance before deactivation.

Users who have been deactivated will no longer receive email notifications.

1. Review Unsubmitted or Denied Corporate Card Expenses

Before deactivating an employee’s account, you must verify that all corporate card transactions have been submitted. This step ensures that no unsubmitted or denied expenses remain tied to the employee’s corporate card, which could delay reconciliation.

Unsubmitted Expenses

  1. Go to Admin → Card Transactions → Pending Submission.
  2. In the All Users dropdown, select the user.

If unsubmitted transactions are displayed in the list view, you can either expense them or ask the employee to submit the transactions before their final day.

Denied Expenses

  1. Go to Admin → Card Transactions → Denied.
  2. In the All Users dropdown, select the user.
  3. If any denied transactions appear, notify the employee to resubmit them. See How to Resubmit a Denied Expense. Only the employee can resubmit a denied expense.
Only the employee can resubmit a denied expense.

2. Manage the Employee’s Corporate Card

After all transactions have been submitted and approved, you can proceed with cancelling or deleting the employee’s corporate credit card in Emburse Spend.

Cards Issued Through Emburse Spend

If you issue cards through Emburse Spend, such as Emburse Cards, you can manage them directly within Emburse Spend. To do this:

  1. Go to Admin → Team Cards.
  2. Use the Search filter to locate the employee’s card.
  3. Select More Actions More actions button to Edit, Suspend, or Cancel Cards.

Cards Issued Externally

After suspending or cancelling the card with your financial institution, you can delete it from Emburse Spend. This will not impact the data associated with any approved expenses.

  1. Go to Admin → Team Cards.
  2. Use the Search filter to locate the employee’s card.
  3. Select the Trash Can to delete the card from Emburse Spend.
For auditing purposes, we recommend not deleting the card until all expenses have been submitted and approved.

3. Confirm Pending Reimbursements

If an employee has outstanding reimbursable expenses, these must be approved before deactivating their profile. If you are not using Emburse Spend to process reimbursements, proceed to Step 4: Deactivate the Account.

  1. Go to Reimbursements → Needs Review.
    Reimbursements Needs Review page showing list of pending reimbursements
  2. In the All Users dropdown, search for and select the user.
    All Users dropdown menu used to select a specific employee
  3. Approve any remaining expenses. See Approve Submitted Reimbursable Expenses.
  4. Ensure the employee’s bank account is still connected so approved payments can be completed after deactivation. See How to Confirm a User Has a Bank Account Connected.

4. Deactivate the Account

  1. Go to Admin → People.
  2. Use the Search filter to locate the employee.
  3. Select the Trash Can to deactivate the user. You can choose to deactivate immediately or select Set deactivation date to schedule a future date.
    Deactivate user screen with trash can button highlighted

If the user is a manager with expenses pending their approval, you, as an admin, can either approve these expenses or reassign them to another approver before deactivating. See Reassign or Approve Any Expenses Pending Manager Approval.

After deactivation, the employee can no longer access Emburse Spend on the web or mobile.

5. Handle Unsubmitted Corporate Card Transactions for Deactivated Employees

When an employee with a corporate card is deactivated, any unsubmitted transactions remain in Emburse Spend. Admins have two options to submit these expenses to maintain accurate expense records. You may either temporarily reactivate the user or reassign the card to an active cardholder to submit the expenses. If you do not want to reactivate the user, go to Option 2.

Once the card is reassigned to an active cardholder, any admin can also submit unsubmitted transactions from the Pending Submission tab on the Card Transaction page.

Option 1: Temporarily Reactivate the User

  1. Go to People → Status → Deactivated.
  2. Select the pencil.
    Edit icon (pencil) used to reactivate a deactivated user
  3. In the dropdown, select Reactivate.
  4. Go to Team Cards and locate the unassigned card.
  5. Under Cardholder, select Click to assign Card User.
    Assign card user screen showing Click to assign Card User field
  6. In the dropdown, select the active Cardholder to reassign the card to the user.
  7. Select SAVE.

From the Pending Submission tab on the Transactions page, the active Cardholder can now submit any unsubmitted transactions.

If the employee cannot log in, they should select Forgot your password? on the Emburse Spend login page, and follow the email instructions to reset their password.

Once complete, deactivate the user again.

Option 2: Reassign the Card

  1. Go to Admin → Team Cards.
  2. Select the deactivated employee’s card.
  3. Select the pencil icon.
    Edit card details screen showing pencil icon
  4. In the dropdown, select an active Cardholder.
    Dropdown menu for selecting active cardholder
  5. Select SAVE.

From the Pending Submission tab on the Transactions page, the active Cardholder can now submit any unsubmitted transactions.

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