# Revoke Staff Access to Client Files on Day One

- Author: AutoBankConvert (https://www.autobankconvert.com)
- Published: 2025-03-01
- Updated: 2025-03-01
- Category: Security and trust
- Canonical: https://www.autobankconvert.com/blog/revoke-staff-access-to-client-files

> How to revoke staff access to client files when someone leaves: a same-day list of logins, shared folders, devices and client bank access to remove.
To revoke staff access to client files when someone leaves, remove it on their last day, in one sitting: their email and cloud accounts, every shared folder and link, accounting and statement software, client bank users, and any device holding client data. Then change shared passwords and confirm nothing still opens.

## Which client file access must be revoked on the last day?

Everything that opens a client's files must be revoked on the last day, not in the following week. That covers the departing person's own accounts, the shared passwords they knew, and access that clients granted to them by name. Start with email, because it can reset every other login, and finish with a test that their old credentials fail.

Most practices know about the obvious accounts and forget the rest. A person who worked on client books for a year has usually collected access in places nobody wrote down:

- Their own email, cloud drive and password manager seat.
- Accounting software, including the accountant console and each client file they were invited to.
- Statement, payroll and reporting tools.
- Bank users set up for them inside clients' business banking.
- Shared folders and links they created for clients or CPAs.
- Personal accounts with consumer AI chat tools where they may have pasted client data.

The last item is easy to miss. Ask the departing person directly whether they used any outside tool with client data, and ask them to delete that history. The post on [AI tools and client financial data](/blog/ai-tools-and-client-financial-data) sets out what a practice should allow in the first place.

## Revoking cloud folder shares and links a leaver created

Cloud folder shares and links outlive the account that made them unless you remove them. Suspend the person's cloud account rather than deleting it on day one, move ownership of their files to the practice, then find and turn off every link they shared to anyone outside the firm. Deleting first can destroy client files they owned.

Most business cloud storage lets an administrator list files shared externally by a given user. Work through that list:

1. Transfer ownership of their files and folders to a practice account.
2. Turn off "anyone with the link" sharing on each item.
3. Remove outside addresses the client no longer expects to have access.
4. Remove the person from shared drives and team folders.

Personal accounts are the harder case. If staff ever saved client files to a personal drive or emailed them to a personal address, you cannot reach those copies yourself. Ask in writing for them to be deleted, and record the answer. Your [privacy policy for the bookkeeping business](/blog/privacy-policy-for-a-bookkeeping-business) should already tell clients how their data is handled by staff, which makes this request easier to justify.

## Client bank and accounting software access held by a departing bookkeeper

Access a client gave to a departing bookkeeper by name has to be removed in the client's own system, and often only the client can do it. Tell each affected client that day, name the user, and ask them to confirm. Where you administer the access yourself, remove the person and check the client file's user list afterward.

Accounting software usually separates practice-level access from client-level invitations. Removing someone from the practice console may not remove an invitation that a client sent to their personal address. Check both.

Bank access is stricter. A bank user created for a staff member belongs to the client's account, and the bank will usually only act on the client's instruction. Send the client a short message naming the user, the date they left, and the action needed.

Work that runs from statements rather than bank logins makes this step smaller. In [AutoBankConvert](/get-started), clients do not need an account at all, and on the Firm plan staff work under team seats and roles, so the leaver has one seat to remove there and no bank login to chase.

## Devices and personal phones with client files after staff leave

Devices that held client files must be returned or wiped on the last day. A practice laptop comes back, is signed out of every account, and is wiped before reuse. A personal phone that synced work email or a cloud drive must have those accounts removed, and you need confirmation that downloaded files are gone.

Remote wipe through a device management tool is the cleanest answer for practice devices. For personal phones, removing the work account from the device usually removes its synced mail and files, but not attachments saved to the photo library or a downloads folder. Ask about those specifically.

Keep a record of what you did. A short log row per leaver is enough:

| Leaver | Last day | Item | Action | Done by | Confirmed |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Example Staff A | Example date | Practice laptop | Returned and wiped | Owner | Yes |
| Example Staff A | Example date | Personal phone | Work account removed | Staff A | Written note |

The values are examples. Keep the log with your retention records, alongside the schedule in [how long to keep client bank statements](/blog/how-long-to-keep-client-bank-statements).

## What if a departing employee is let go without notice?

When someone is let go without notice, revoke access before or during the conversation, not after it. Suspend their email and cloud accounts and remove software seats while the meeting is happening, so there is no window in which files can be copied or deleted. Change shared passwords the same hour.

Plan the order beforehand. One person runs the meeting while another works through the revocation list. Collect the practice laptop during the meeting. Then notify affected clients the same day, briefly, with the name of the user to remove from their systems.

The same plan applies to a contractor whose engagement ends early, and to staff who leave to start their own practice. Someone setting up a practice of their own may approach former clients, which the guide to [running bookkeeping as a side business](/blog/bookkeeping-as-a-side-business) discusses from the other side. Your job on the last day is the same either way: access ends, and files stay with the practice.

## The same-day access revocation list for client files

The same-day revocation list puts every step in one order, so nothing depends on memory. Work from the top and tick each item only after testing that the old access no longer works. Print it, or keep it in your procedures folder where whoever handles departures can find it.

1. Suspend the person's email account and sign out all sessions.
2. Remove their password manager seat, then change every shared credential they could see.
3. Suspend their cloud drive account and transfer file ownership.
4. Turn off external shares and links they created.
5. Remove them from accounting software, at practice level and in each client file.
6. Remove them from statement, payroll and reporting tools.
7. Send each affected client a request to remove their bank user.
8. Collect and wipe practice devices; confirm removal from personal ones.
9. Forward their email to a manager for a set period, then close it.
10. Update the client access list and the leaver log.

Run the list again for a role change. A staff member moving off a set of clients is a partial departure, and the same steps apply to those clients only.