Client & Organization Offboarding

Kraal uses a staged offboarding workflow instead of a one-click status change. This is designed to keep departures controlled, reviewable, and export-first.

Offboarding supports two scopes:

• Client offboarding for a single client leaving the firm
• Organization offboarding for the entire tenant leaving Kraal

Use offboarding when a client is leaving your firm, a test client should be retired, or an organization needs a controlled exit from Kraal. Do not use offboarding for temporary setup issues that should be fixed and re-tested.

Portability without offboarding

You can build a portable client package at any time without starting an offboarding run. From Clients, choose Continuity for the client, then build a complete set or a package for one legal entity. Normal work and integrations remain active.

Use Accounting Continuity & Data Portability for audits, routine continuity checks, provider changes, and record requests where the client is not leaving. Use this offboarding workflow only when you also intend to freeze work, revoke integrations, complete a handoff, and apply retention policy.

Who should start offboarding

Client offboarding should be started by a firm owner, organization admin, business owner, or another user your firm has authorized to manage that client.

Organization offboarding should be treated as a firm-owner decision because it affects every client and shared organization settings.

For a small firm, the same person may request and approve offboarding. The important control is that the user pauses, reviews the precheck, confirms the export and handoff, and only then schedules purge.

Where to start client offboarding

There are two main places to start a client offboarding run:

1. Open the client's hub from Settings → Clients and use Start Offboarding at the bottom of the page
2. Open the client's Workspace Overview and use Start Offboarding

Both entry points take you into the same workflow. Starting a client offboarding asks you to type the client's name to confirm, so it is never a stray click.

Where to start organization offboarding

Organization offboarding is started from Settings → General using Start Organization Offboarding.

This path is intentionally placed at the organization level because it affects:

• every client under the organization
• organization-scoped integrations
• retention and purge policy for the full tenant

What the workflow does

Offboarding is staged so teams can work in order:

1. Start Offboarding
2. Run Precheck
3. Freeze
4. Build Export
5. Revoke Integrations
6. Complete Handoff
7. Schedule Purge if policy allows

This flow is designed to avoid delete-first mistakes.

Step-by-step guide

1. Start Offboarding

Choose the client or organization you want to offboard and enter a plain-language reason. Select the retention period and confirm whether legal hold applies.

If legal hold applies, Kraal keeps the offboarding record in a protected state and does not schedule purge until the hold is removed.

2. Run Precheck

Run Precheck before freezing. Kraal looks for conditions that may need attention, such as active work, open handoff items, connected integrations, or policy decisions.

If blockers appear, resolve them before continuing. If warnings appear, review them and decide whether it is still appropriate to proceed.

3. Freeze

Freeze prevents new work from being added to the offboarding scope. This protects the handoff package from changing while the departure is in progress.

After freeze, treat the client or organization as read-only for normal work. If you froze the wrong scope, stop and contact your Kraal administrator or support before continuing.

4. Build Export

Build Export creates the handoff package for the scope. Wait for the export to show ready before revoking integrations or completing handoff.

For a complete client handoff, use Build complete set on the same Continuity page. Confirm that it includes the client-shared package and every expected legal-entity package, then review its cutoff, status, and declared exceptions. Download and store the original archive according to your firm's records policy. Obtain a provider-native export as well when material records remain only in that provider.

Follow Prepare and Hand Off Portable Client Records for the full review checklist.

5. Revoke Integrations

Revoke Integrations disconnects the scoped third-party connections Kraal manages for that client or organization.

After this step, do not expect automated syncs or connected-system updates for the offboarded scope.

6. Complete Handoff

Complete Handoff confirms that the export is ready, integrations have been revoked, and the firm has finished the operational handoff.

Use this step only after the responsible person has reviewed the offboarding status and confirmed that the departure is intentional.

7. Schedule Purge

Schedule Purge sets the future deletion date based on the selected retention period. Purge is not immediate.

If a legal hold is active, purge scheduling is blocked. Remove the legal hold only when your firm's policy allows it.

What users should expect

The offboarding workflow shows:

• current run status
• blockers and warnings from precheck
• export package status
• integration revocation status
• retention policy and legal hold state
• step-by-step timeline

Once a client is scheduled for purge, the client should be treated as offboarded. It may still appear in administrative views until the retention window ends, but normal work should stay frozen.

Safety checks

• Confirm you selected the correct client or organization before freezing.
• Run Precheck and review all blockers or warnings.
• Wait for the export package to be ready before completing handoff.
• Confirm integrations are revoked before scheduling purge.
• Use legal hold when retention or compliance policy requires records to be preserved.
• Keep the downloaded handoff package according to your firm's document retention policy.

When to contact support

Contact Kraal support before continuing if:

• you started offboarding for the wrong client or organization
• the export does not become ready
• a required integration cannot be revoked
• legal hold or retention policy is unclear
• a client must be restored before purge

Related review tools

• Use Audit Center when you need a client-wide history of operational activity
• Use task detail when you need to inspect one task deeply
• Use Accounting Continuity & Data Portability when you need a portable package without offboarding

Best practices

• Run Precheck before freezing so you can resolve obvious blockers first
• Build the export package before completing handoff
• Treat organization offboarding as a firm-owner workflow, not a routine client admin action
• Use legal hold when retention needs to pause purge scheduling
• Avoid offboarding as a troubleshooting shortcut for a real active client