Offboarding is the structured process by which a person loses access to their MeisterTask team (including tasks, projects, and notes) when they leave a company. As part of offboarding, ongoing tasks and projects are typically transferred to someone else.

This is typically necessary when an employee leaves the company, a freelancer has completed their assignment or a student leaves the organization. Done correctly, offboarding protects sensitive data, ensures continuity in projects and releases paid seats for reuse.

This guide describes the complete process step by step and explains which tasks Team Admins and Content Managers need to take on.

What does offboarding mean in MeisterTask?

Offboarding means that a user's access to team functions, projects and content is permanently removed or restricted. The aim is to ensure both data security and the continuation of active projects. The process includes the following key measures: 
 

The process consists of two parallel areas: While Content Managers organize the handover within individual projects before the team member leaves, Team Admins take over the higher-level administration at team level on the last day or after the team member has left.

Who handles offboarding?

The following people are usually involved in offboarding: the employee's supervisor, the employee who is leaving, the HR department, and possibly your company's IT administrators.

Offboarding employees is usually a shared responsibility among all parties involved. Supervisors should actively support and coordinate the process. By planning ahead, they ensure that the departure goes smoothly, projects continue seamlessly, and the farewell is respectful—with the same level of commitment as during onboarding.

Step 1: Handing over tasks to other users

Before a team member is removed from a project or has their seats revoked, all active tasks should be reviewed and handed over to suitable users. This prevents tasks from remaining unassigned after offboarding.

To do so:

1. Open each project the user is involved in.
2. Filter the tasks: Click on the user in the right sidebar to see all tasks assigned to the user.
3. Check each task individually and:
   • Assign the task to a suitable other user in the project.
   • Or archive/delete it if it is no longer to be processed.
     
     

Repeat these steps in all projects and notes.

Who can carry out this step?

• The user themselves, with the help of their supervisor. The departing employee is the only person who can ensure that they have access to all tasks.
• Other project members (e.g., the boss or project managers) may also be able to perform this step. Prerequisite:
  • The other users have access to all projects that contain tasks assigned to the user.

When should this be done?

• Before the employee leaves the company. Talk to the employee during their last week of work to initiate the handover of their tasks to other users.
• This step should be carried out before revoking the seat (Step 4) to avoid tasks being left without a responsible person.

Step 2: Hand over project responsibility

In many cases, users who are leaving the company manage projects at the same time. It is crucial that this responsibility is not lost so that project work can continue smoothly. Otherwise, it can happen that no one can manage a project anymore.

Option 1: If the user is still in the company:

If you are a Team Admin, then ask the user who is leaving the company to review all their projects.

If you are the user leaving the company, then perform the following steps in your projects:

1. Open the project settings and navigate to the Sharing tab.
2. Assign the Content Manager project role to another suitable user.
3. Optional: Change your role from Content Manager to Contributor. And remove yourself from the project.
   
   

Repeat these steps in all projects and notes.

Option 2: If the user has already left the company

In this case, the Team Admin can hand over all projects to one other user through a workaround in step 4 by setting a new Content Manager for all affected projects. Learn more below.  

Step 3: Check and hand over Team Admin role

Before a person is completely removed from the team, it must be ensured that they are not the only user with the Team Admin role. The Team Admin role is necessary to be able to manage administrative tasks such as license allocation or team settings.

To do so:

1. Open the account settings and click on My team.
2. In the overview, search for the user who is to be offboarded.
3. Check whether they are currently listed as an Admin. Consider whether another user should be given the Admin Team Role instead.
4. Appoint another user as Admin: Change the Team Role from Member to Admin.
    
   

Please note that there are differences depending on your subscription plan:

• Business plan:
  • Please note that the team must have at least one Team Admin. If the departing user is not the only Team Admin, then Step 3 is optional.
  • Only existing Team Admins can promote other team members to Admins on the Business plan.
• Pro plan:
  • Only one Team Admin is included in the Pro plan.
  • It is therefore not possible to upgrade another user to Team Admin.
  • Therefore, as an alternative workaround, you can change the account of the leaving Team Admin: Simply change the name and e-mail address together in the account settings to change the account and thereby hand it over to someone else.
  • If your only Team Admin has left the company and responsibility has not been transferred, you will need to contact Meister Support.
• Basic plan: If you have a Basic plan, this step is not necessary or possible. 

Step 4: Change seat setting and reassign if necessary

Once all organizational tasks and project responsibilities have been handed over, the paid seat can be withdrawn from the user. This is particularly important to make the seat available for new employees.

To do this:

1. Navigate to Account > My team.
2. Search for the user concerned.
3. Change the setting in the MeisterTask column:
   • from Content Manager to Viewer (for read-only access)
   • or to No access (= complete withdrawal of product access).
     
     
      
4. Optional: Assign the released seat directly to a new user. This can also be done at a later date.
   
   

What happens if: 

• You use the Viewer setting:
  • The user can still access all projects and view everything.
  • The user can no longer change or rewrite content.
  • Tasks assigned to the user lose their task owner. This means that the tasks are then no longer assigned to the user.
  • Projects in which the user is a Content Manager are transferred to another user for management. This means that the Team Admin selects another user to become the new Content Manager.
• You select the setting No access:
  • The user can then no longer access the respective tool. They can no longer see projects, notes, or tasks. 
    The tasks remain assigned to the user.
  • The user remains in the list of project members unless the user has been removed from the projects beforehand.
    • This means that the tasks remain assigned to the user.
    • The user can still be tagged.
    • To change this: Another user who manages the project (= Content Manager) can remove the leaving user from the project so that they no longer have any tasks, cannot be assigned any tasks, and cannot be tagged.
       

Step 5: Remove access to the team

After the seat has been revoked and all responsibilities have been clarified, the final step should take place: the complete removal of the user from the team.

To do so:

1. Open Account > My Team
2. Change the team role to Inactive.
   
   

Please note that the Remove from team setting does not revoke access to projects. If you select this setting, you are only separating the user's account from the team. Learn more about the difference between Inactive and Remove.

What happens if:

• You select the Inactive setting:
  • The user will no longer have access to either tool or the account area.
  • The tasks will remain assigned to the user.
• You select the Remove from team setting:
  • The user’s account will be separated from the team (but not deleted). The user is then no longer part of the team. They are downgraded to a Basic plan.
  • The user can still access all projects they are working on. (Projects that belong to the "old" team do not count toward their 3 project limit.) The tasks will remain assigned to the user.
  • The user can no longer manage projects where they had the Content Manager role. Their project role is downgraded to Contributor. 

This completes the offboarding process. 

What happens to project ownership when a team member leaves the company?

When a user is removed from the team—whether they leave, are removed, or are deactivated, or are set to “No access”—it's important to know who retains ownership of the projects they created. Please note that all projects are and remain owned by the team.

If the Content Manager of a team's project (which has a Pro or Business plan) leaves or is removed from the team:

• The departing user retains access to the projects. They can still access all projects they have joined.
• The user is no longer the Content Manager of their projects.
• The user will be downgraded to the project role Contributor in the projects. This allows them to continue working on the project, but they will no longer be able to manage it. Make sure that there is another Content Manager in each project before the team member leaves the team.
• The projects created by the leaving user will remain accessible to those who already had access to them.

If the Content Manager has been set to Inactive or No access:

• The departing user no longer has any access to the projects.
• The departing user remains a Content Manager for their projects, but cannot access them. Make sure that there is another Content Manager for each project before the team member is no longer part of the team. Otherwise, no one will be able to manage the project, e.g. change the project settings.
• The projects created by the departing user remain accessible to those users who already had access to them.