A bookkeeper or employee is leaving — how do I remove their access to my books and financial accounts, and what else do I need to change?

Why doesn't removing them from the accounting file end their access?

Every system keeps its own list of who may act for the business. Intuit's help on removing an accountant user from QuickBooks Online says the accountant is immediately removed and can no longer access your company file; nothing in that reaches the bank. Wells Fargo's Online Access Agreement, for example, says a Delegate or Authorized Representative may instruct the bank in writing, electronically or verbally, and treats their transactions, including ones you did not want or intend, as authorized by you, unless the law provides otherwise, until you tell the bank they are no longer authorized and it has had a reasonable opportunity to act. Each bank, card issuer, payment provider, payroll service and tax agency needs its own revocation.

How do I list every path they had?

Build the list from records, not memory: a year of bank and card statements shows the paid services, and each system's user list shows who is on it. Add what no statement shows: tax and agency portals, authorizations the person or their firm holds (ask them), and services billed to their own card (ask them and check their expense claims). Note their role in each system and whether they own or administer it:

What must move to the business before they are removed?

What you do first depends on what they held:

Intuit's help on changing the primary admin in QuickBooks Online says you must be able to sign in as the current primary admin and the new person must already have the Admin role; on QuickBooks Online Simple Start, it says to contact Intuit to transfer the primary admin. Stripe's User roles page (undated) says there can be only one Owner for an account and only the owner can transfer ownership.

Google Workspace Help's page on deleting or removing a user says that when a user leaves a domain-verified organization, you or the user need to transfer data they own to another user, because a deleted user's data is unrecoverable once deleted; files in shared drives belong to the organization. On an email-verified Google service, removing the user converts their account to a consumer Google Account that keeps files you did not transfer and can still open files in shared drives and files shared directly with them, which by default include files you transfer to another user. To stop that, set Drive permissions to prevent sharing outside your organization, a policy the page says is available on Business editions and paid Essentials editions.

Should I delete, deactivate or reassign their account?

Reassign what they own first, then pick the route that keeps their history readable. Intuit's Add and manage users page, covering QuickBooks Online and Intuit Enterprise Suite, says under its Delete a user heading that deletion is permanent, though you can still view the user's history in the audit log. Google's page says you can suspend or archive a user to retain their data, and can restore a deleted account for up to 20 days. Suspend where you can while your review is open. Tracing altered transactions in the audit trail, and permissions for the people who stay, are separate questions.

How do I withdraw their authority to move money?

Do every row at or before notice; the level of authority decides what you ask each institution for:

At Wells Fargo, a Delegate appointed through another area may need to be ended through that same area. Remove the person as an authorized caller or contact of record at each bank, card issuer and provider, through each one's own process.

Stripe's User roles page lists paying out the balance to an external bank account, editing bank account details and editing account contact details among an Administrator's abilities. It warns that an attacker who compromises a user in a role that can invite users can invite additional users under their control, so check every team list for people the departing person added.

Ask each card issuer, through its own process, to cancel the person's cards and to replace the number of every business card they used, saved or could see, including cards issued to someone else, so copied numbers stop working. A new number may not stop saved details: Wells Fargo's agreement, for example, says that when an eligible card is replaced it may automatically give Paze, Early Warning and your card network the updated card details. Ask each issuer, through its own process, whether it passes replacement details on and how to stop that for cards the person saved; until it confirms, treat saved details as live and check each statement after the departure for charges the person set up. Collect the check stock and count it against the last check number used; if any are missing, tell the bank at once and ask what it can do, through its own process.

Which credentials and connections outlive their login?

These paths survive the removal of every named account. Change those on bank, card, payment, payroll and EFTPS accounts at or before notice, and the rest by the last day:

• Shared logins. The IRS's EFTPS page describes signing in with the business's Taxpayer Identification Number, PIN and Internet Password; if the person knew them, ask EFTPS's Customer Service Agents how to replace them. Change every other shared password they knew.
• Recovery phones and emails. Replace any on a business account that belong to the person.
• Authentication devices. Re-register two-step devices and security keys to someone who stays, and collect the hardware.
• API keys and app connections. Stripe's API keys page (undated) says to rotate keys when team members with access to them leave. After a Dashboard rotation both keys work for up to 7 days unless you choose Now, which deletes the old key; choose Now for any key the person could have copied, and update your integration the same day. Reconnect apps authorized under their login from an account that stays.
• Saved payment details. Move subscriptions billed to their own card onto a business card, and remove their personal card or bank account from business systems.

Which tax and payroll authorizations stay in force until you withdraw them?

Each authorization on file with the IRS or a state agency has its own withdrawal route:

• Form 2848 power of attorney. To revoke one without naming a new representative, the Form 2848 instructions say you write "REVOKE" across the top of the first page with a current signature and date below it, then mail or fax a copy to the IRS using the Where To File Chart or, for a power of attorney for a specific matter, to the IRS office handling the matter. Without a copy, send a signed and dated statement saying the authority is revoked and listing the matters and years or periods (or "revoke all years/periods") and each representative's name and address. Filing Form 2848 does not revoke a Form 8821. If an IRS matter is open, line up the replacement first.
• Form 8821 tax information authorization. To revoke one without submitting a new authorization, the Form 8821 instructions say you write "REVOKE" across its top and add a current taxpayer signature and date under the original signature. The instructions do not say where the annotated copy goes; they send a revocation notification to the Where To File Chart address, so fax or mail the annotated copy there. Without a copy of one that is not a specific-use authorization, send the Where To File Chart address a signed and dated notification stating the designee's authority is revoked and listing each designee's name and address and the tax matters and periods (or "revoke all years/periods"). A specific-use authorization or its notification of revocation goes to the IRS office handling your case.
• Reporting agents. The IRS's About Form 8655 page says a reporting agent can be authorized to make deposits and payments for certain returns, and Revenue Procedure 2012-32 says that, subject to one exception it sets out, the authorization remains in effect until the IRS receives a revocation or a new authorization, or the agent is suspended. Decide who makes the next deposits, then ask the IRS how to revoke it.
• Business Tax Account. The IRS's Manage access in Business Tax Account page says a Designated User can view and/or make payments for tax forms a Designated Official authorized, and a Designated Official can add and manage access for Designated Users and remove another Designated Official. A Designated Official who stays removes a departing Designated User. In a sole proprietorship, the page says the sole proprietor authorizes Designated Users, so the owner withdraws a departing user's access. To remove a departing Designated Official, someone who stays and meets the page's eligibility rules for your entity type registers as one, since the page says an account can have more than one, each registering separately; registration ends with a PIN sent by mail, so start before notice.
• IRIS. The IRS's Publication 5717 says you must update and maintain your IRIS TCC application as changes occur, and lists deletions of Responsible Officials, Contacts or Authorized Delegates among changes that require the officials or delegates on the application to re-sign it.
• Responsible party. If the person is the business's responsible party with the IRS, the IRS's About Form 8822-B page says changes in responsible parties must be reported within 60 days.
• State accounts. Each state runs its own. New York's Employee roles on Business accounts page, for one, says Business Master Administrators may add or remove other Business Master Administrators, remove employees, and delete or lock the Business account. It also says they may manage the tax professionals authorized to receive confidential tax information and conduct transactions on behalf of the business, so withdraw a departing firm there too.

Payroll, filing and payment authority are separate tracks. The IRS's outsourcing payroll page says that if a payroll service provider defaults, the employer remains responsible for depositing federal tax liabilities and filing returns on time, so confirm who makes the next deposit and files the next return before the person or firm leaves.

Which payments and automations keep running after they leave?

Do not assume anything stops when their login does. Look in each system for what runs on its own:

• Recurring invoices, bills and journal entries, scheduled bill payments and bank rules in the accounting file
• Scheduled or recurring transfers, bill payments, future-dated wires and batches awaiting approval at each bank
• Recurring card charges and direct debits that vendors or services take under an authorization the person gave, found on the card and bank statements
• Scheduled tax payments in EFTPS, which the IRS's EFTPS page says can be scheduled up to 365 days in advance and changed or cancelled
• Payout schedules and payout bank accounts at payment providers
• Scheduled payroll runs and the tax payments the payroll service makes
• Integrations, bank feeds and app connections that post or pay automatically

Record each one, then reassign it to someone who stays or cancel it before its cut-off; put a replacement in place before cancelling anything that pays tax or payroll. Reviewing this queue does not confirm where any money goes: a payee whose bank details the person changed, or any bill or message changing a payee's payment details, needs verifying before anything is paid, and that is a separate question.

In what order should I do it?

The order below, the review of their work and the revocation log are recommended practice, not a formal standard. Transfers need the current holder, so arrange them early, but money-movement rights, shared money credentials and scheduled payments are dealt with at or before notice whatever the state of the transfers. On good terms, the person can help with the transfers, and their remaining ordinary access can run to the last day. If the departure is involuntary or contested, or you suspect wrongdoing, bring every last-day step forward to the moment of notice, with agency administrator roles such as a Business Tax Account Designated Official or a state account administrator. Ask for any transfer at the notice meeting, use the recovery routes below if the person refuses, and save the books and pending items as they stand at that moment, as evidence. The gap between notice and revocation is the exposure; keep it short. Reading the books for signs of theft, and the employment-law side of the departure, are separate questions.

What should I review about their recent and unfinished work?

Before you treat the departure as closed, check three things:

• What they did. Read the period before notice in each system's activity record, including changes to users, payees, bank details and settings. Stripe's Start a team page (undated) says Stripe logs team members' account activity for the past 180 days, so do not wait.
• What is unfinished. List bills entered but unpaid, payments awaiting approval, unreconciled accounts, and returns and deposits coming due. Publication 5717 says the IRIS View Submitted Forms tile shows transmissions associated with the logged-in user, so collect the record of anything the person filed before their login goes.
• What only they knew. Get routines, passwords held in memory and informal arrangements with vendors or the bank written down.

Then reconcile every bank and card account to the departure date and confirm that the filings and deposits in flight were made.

What record of the revocation should I keep?

The FTC's guide Protecting Personal Information tells businesses to have a procedure making sure workers who leave no longer have access to sensitive information, and to terminate their passwords and collect keys and identification cards as part of the check-out routine. Keep one dated log with a line for each access path in your inventory: the system, what was removed or changed, who did it, the date and time, the date the institution confirmed, and the confirmation itself, such as a screenshot, the bank's written acknowledgment or your copy of an IRS revocation. Add the items returned and the check count. With each institution's confirmation, the log shows when you withdrew each access and when the institution confirmed it, if later activity is questioned. Someone other than the person leaving should keep it.

What if they were the only administrator or signer?

If the person can no longer sign in or will not help, recovery comes from the vendor or institution, not the person. Intuit's change-primary-admin page says that if the primary admin is no longer with the company and you cannot sign in to their account, you must submit a request to Intuit's account protection team. Intuit's page on requesting the role describes a Business Change Request form, after which owners and other authorized parties have 14 business days to verify their identity and upload all required documents, or the request is declined automatically. The documents are a driver's license, government-issued ID or passport, plus business documents that depend on the entity type and must include the owners' names and titles, so gather them first.

For the IRS Business Tax Account, use the registration route above. Intuit's payroll-contact help says that for Intuit QuickBooks Workforce, if the current Principal Officer is not available, you need to create a new account to set up a new Principal Officer, so change that entry before they leave. The same page says the change applies only to payroll: a QuickBooks Payments principal is changed in the Merchant Service Center, and a new principal there needs a new account. Where the person was the only Responsible Official on your IRIS application, or a provider's account owner, ask the IRS or the provider what it requires. At a bank, ask what it needs from the owners or officers to replace an administrator or signer who has gone. If you are the only person left, carry out each step yourself; the log is your evidence.

What changes when the person is an outside bookkeeper or firm?

Intuit's help on removing an accountant user says a primary admin or company admin removes accountant users from the Accounting Firms tab under Manage users in QuickBooks Online. The firm may also be your primary admin: Intuit's page on transferring primary admin access back to a client says a firm the client invited as its accountant, or that started the company file, can also be its primary admin, and that after the firm transfers the role, the client must open the emailed link and accept it. The firm may hold Forms 2848, 8821 or 8655, or a state tax-professional authorization, for you too. Get the file, your records and the credentials handed back and ownership transferred before you remove the firm from the systems it administers, but withdraw its banking and payment rights at or before notice, whatever the state of the hand-back. Recovering books from a firm that will not release them is a separate question.

What does the full checklist look like?

Work in this recommended order; in a contested departure, bring the last-day rows and agency administrator roles forward to the moment of notice: