Joining hangs off one date. Leaving hangs off three, and they are usually different days: when notice was given, the last day somebody works, and the day employment ends. Typing the same date into all three is the mistake that ends up on a final payslip.
Onboarding somebody
On the People tab, open the person and find Onboarding. An HR admin can start it for anyone. A People manager can start it for their own direct reports, because HR is not always the one who knows somebody has arrived.
- Check the start date. Every due date is worked out from it, so the preparation falls before day one.
- Click Start onboarding. A dialog asks whether to go ahead and warns that a second run makes a second copy.
- Click Yes, create them. The screen reports how many tasks were created and how many have no owner yet.
- Give the unowned steps to somebody. See below.
| Task | Goes to | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Send the contract | Whoever started the checklist | 7 days before the start date |
| Create accounts and licences | Nobody yet | 3 days before |
| Prepare equipment and a desk | Nobody yet | 3 days before |
| Add to payroll | Whoever started the checklist | 3 days before |
| Day one welcome | Their manager | The start date |
| Assign the first-week learning path | Their manager | The start date |
| Check in after the first week | Their manager | 5 days after |
| Check in after 30 days | Their manager | 30 days after |
Each task title ends with the person's name, so two joiners in one month stay apart on the board. If you want different steps, edit the tasks afterwards.
Accounts and equipment are created with no owner, on purpose. They are IT's work, and AB Talent only raises the request, so it does not guess a name. Somebody has to pick them up. The same goes for manager steps when the record has nobody in Reports to.
No start date? The screen tells you, and the dates are worked out from today, so the plan runs late rather than out of order. People imported from Microsoft 365 have no start date, and there is no field to add one to an existing record. A start date comes from the New person form or from an accepted offer.
Recording a departure
Only an HR admin can record a departure. Open the person and click Record a departure.
- Choose the Kind. Resignation, Termination, End of contract or Retirement.
- Enter the three dates, carefully. The form fills in today for Notice given and the same day next month for both of the others, so check each one. They must run in order. Two can be the same day when that is what really happened.
- Say why. Why? is required. “Left the company” is not a reason.
- Click Record.
| Date | What it means | What hangs off it |
|---|---|---|
| Notice given | The day notice was served | Notice periods; planning the handover; telling the team |
| Last working day | The last day they actually work | Attendance stops; accounts are revoked; equipment is due back; licence seats are released; the exit interview and their own handover fall just before it |
| Employment ends | The day employment formally ends, which can be weeks later if they take accrued holiday | The leave balance settles; final figures go to payroll; they come off payroll and benefits |
Saving sets their status to Leaving straight away. Somebody serving notice is still an employee and still on the org chart. A second record, with the status Left, goes into their history dated to Employment ends. Their status does not change by itself on that day; The roster and org chart says what to do once employment has ended.
Who can read the reason
Everyone who can open the record can see that somebody is leaving, and when. The reason depends on the kind:
- Termination: HR admins and the person themselves. A manager sees “The reason is restricted to HR.”
- Resignation, End of contract, Retirement: anyone who can open the record, which includes their manager.
The leaving checklist
Under Leaving checklist, click Start the leaving checklist. It needs a departure first, because every date on it comes from that record, and only an HR admin can run it. The screen warns you that this makes a fresh set of tasks; click Yes, create them to go ahead.
| Task | Goes to | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Plan the handover | Their manager | 1 day after Notice given |
| Tell the team | Their manager | 1 day after Notice given |
| Exit interview | Whoever started the checklist | 5 days before Last working day |
| Hand over work, files and accounts | The person leaving | 1 day before Last working day |
| Collect equipment and access cards | Nobody yet | Last working day |
| Revoke accounts and licences | Nobody yet | Last working day |
| Confirm the final leave balance | Whoever started the checklist | 7 days before Employment ends |
| Send the final figures to payroll | Whoever started the checklist | Employment ends |
| Remove from payroll and benefits | Whoever started the checklist | 1 day after Employment ends |
| File the leaving paperwork | Whoever started the checklist | 1 day after Employment ends |
Nothing the person leaving has to do falls after their last working day, because their access goes with it.
The payroll handoff has no money in it
Once a departure is recorded, the person's record shows a For payroll panel. AB Talent does not work out final pay; your payroll system does. The panel holds what that system needs:
- Days worked, to the last working day, and the hours, counted from the start of the month notice was given. A line says how many of those days a person actually recorded; the rest are assumed. See Attendance.
- Untaken leave, as at the day employment ends, for each kind of leave that keeps a balance. See Time off.
Those two dates differ on purpose: attendance stops on the last working day, and the balance settles when employment ends. The panel is visible to whoever can see the person's time off, which means HR admins, their manager and the person themselves.
Licence seats go back on the last working day
A leaver's ActionBridge seats are released by a daily check, starting on their last working day rather than the day employment ends. A seat is access, and somebody on leave until their contract ends should not keep it.
- It covers every ActionBridge product in your tenant (your organization's Microsoft 365 account), not only AB Talent.
- It covers free seats too, because a leaver's free seat otherwise keeps a place that the next joiner needs.
- Nobody is told. No message goes out. An HR admin sees each seat on the leaver's record under Licence seats, as still held or released with its date.
- A person with no Microsoft 365 identity on their record cannot be matched to a seat, and the panel says so.
This is about ActionBridge's own seats only. Seats in other software are for you to handle, and the Revoke accounts and licences task is the prompt.
Holdings: what somebody has, and whether it came back
Holdings on a person's record is a simple list of what they have been given, so their last day has a list to work from. An HR admin writes it. Anyone who can open the record can read it, which means a manager can see there is a laptop to get back.
- Issue something. Click Record something issued, choose the Kind (Device, Phone, Licence, Key or Card), fill in What is it? and Issued on, then click Record.
- Take it back. Click Record return beside it, enter Returned on and, if it matters, Condition (optional), then click Record.
- A name is required. What is it? is what somebody would call it, such as “MacBook Air” or “desk key”, and it is the wording the leaving checklist uses.
- It is either held or returned. There are no other states. Returned items stay on the list with their date, and a return cannot be recorded twice.
- It is not an inventory. AB Talent keeps no serial numbers, models, warranty, stock or repair history, and the screen has nowhere to put them.
Holdings feed the leaving checklist. Each thing still held gets its own Collect: … task, in place of the generic Collect equipment and access cards. If nothing is recorded, the generic task stays, because “nothing recorded” does not mean “holds nothing”. These tasks have no owner either.
The Still out card above the list on People shows HR admins what people with a recorded departure still hold. Anything past the last working day is marked Overdue, counted from that date rather than from the day employment ends. Overdue items are also flagged on the Home tab.
If you remember one thing, make it the three dates: get those right when you record the departure, and the checklist, the handoff and the seats all land on the right day.