Deactivating, terminating and rehiring employees

Offboarding an employee in KAMI is more than flipping a switch — depending on how you do it, it can clear their schedule, remove them as an approver across your whole company, and trigger a final-pay calculation. This article walks through each path and the rules attached to it. It's written for HR admins.

If you're adding or inviting employees, see Adding and onboarding employees.

Before you start

Everything here is done from the employee's profile — open the person from My Team, then go to the Termination tab.
Deactivating needs the Terminate Employee right (EMPLOYEE_DEACTIVATE). Running termination pay needs Termination Pay (EMPLOYEE_TERMINATION_PAY). These are separate rights — you may have one without the other.
You cannot offboard yourself, even as an admin.

Deactivate vs terminate — which one?

These are two different actions and it matters which you choose:

	Deactivate	Terminate (with termination pay)
What it does	Switches off the person's access to KAMI	Runs the final-pay calculation (service length, payout options) as part of offboarding
When to use	Someone leaves and there's no payout to process through KAMI	You're processing final pay in KAMI
It's a…	Status change	Payroll process

You can deactivate without ever running termination pay. You would run termination pay when KAMI is handling the final payslip.

How to deactivate an employee

Open the employee from My Team.
Go to the Termination tab.
Under KAMI Workforce Access, choose Deactivate.

You are warned first: "This will immediately deactivate the employee and revoke their access to KAMI Workforce." That is accurate — there is no grace period. Before it goes through, KAMI checks the rules below — most importantly, that this person doesn't still manage or approve anyone.

How to record the exit (Set termination details)

Rather than deactivating on the spot, use Set termination details on the Termination tab. Two fields are required, and you click Apply to save them:

Separation type — how the person left.
Termination date — the effective last day.

Once the termination date passes, KAMI automatically deactivates the employee, if they aren't already. You don't have to come back and do it manually. See the timezone rule below.

When you set or clear a termination date, KAMI asks: "Do you want to keep the schedule cleared during the termination period?" Answer based on whether the person is still working out a notice period — keep the schedule if they are still expected in, clear it if they have already stopped.

Separation type and reason for termination are not the same field

These two are next to each other and are constantly confused. They do different jobs:

Field	What it is for
Separation type	Classifies the exit for HR reporting
Reason for termination	The statutory input to the separation pay calculation

The practical consequence: separation type is what your Turnover report reads. An exit recorded without one still counts as a leaver and still moves your turnover rate, but it cannot be attributed to voluntary or involuntary — it shows as Not classified. If your turnover report has unclassified leavers, this is the field that was skipped.

Reason for termination, by contrast, only matters when you are running termination pay through KAMI. Leaving it blank does not affect reporting; leaving separation type blank does.

How to run termination pay

Open the employee → Termination tab.
Fill in the required fields: batch, reason, and last bonus date.
Click Calculate. KAMI works out the length of service and the available payout options.
Review the options. For payment-in-lieu, you can edit the amount per option.
Click Confirm to finalise (a confirmation dialog appears first).

Confirmed payments are automatically added to the payroll batch you chose, as Termination payments — you do not add them to the batch yourself.

If you need to reverse it, use Cancel termination payments — but note this is only possible while the linked payslip is still pending (see rules).

Any company assets assigned to the employee are listed here too, so you can track what needs to be returned.

How to rehire / reactivate someone

If a deactivated employee returns, you don't create them from scratch. On their Termination tab, under KAMI Workforce Access, choose Activate. Their history stays intact — hire date, documents, payslips and past disciplinary records all remain.

Remember that deactivation stripped them out of every approval chain. Reactivating does not put them back; if they are returning to a role that approves things, rebuild that in the approval matrix. See Approval chains and the approval matrix.

Rules and things to watch

You can't deactivate someone who still manages or approves other people. Reassign their direct reports and approver duties first, or KAMI blocks the deactivation.
Deactivating removes them as an approver everywhere — from the approval matrix, company approvers, and any individual profiles they approve. If they were part of an approval chain, fix those chains after offboarding. See Approval chains and the approval matrix.
Auto-termination is automatic and timezone-aware. Once a termination date passes, KAMI deactivates the person automatically — evaluated in the branch's local timezone, checked every hour. Expect up to an hour's lag, not instant.
You can only cancel termination pay while the payslip is still pending. Once the linked payslip has moved on in payroll, the termination can't be undone.
Deactivating clears their schedule for the termination period if you chose that option — check this if you're offboarding someone who is still working a notice period.
Deleting an employee is different again. Deactivation keeps the record; a full delete (a separate, admin-only right) removes it. For offboarding, deactivate — don't delete — so history and payslips are preserved.

Troubleshooting / FAQ

Q: Why won't KAMI let me deactivate this person? They still manage or approve someone. Move their direct reports and any approver roles to someone else first, then deactivate.

Q: I set a termination date — do I still need to deactivate them manually? No. KAMI deactivates them automatically once the date passes (in the branch's timezone, checked hourly). Manual deactivation is only for offboarding someone effective immediately.

Q: I ran termination pay by mistake — can I undo it? Only while the linked payslip is still pending. Use Cancel termination payments on the Termination tab. If the payslip has already progressed, it can't be reversed.

Q: An employee we offboarded is coming back. Do I re-add them? No — reactivate them from their existing profile's Termination tab using the Activate dialog. Their record and history are preserved.

Q: My turnover report shows leavers as "Not classified". Those exits have no separation type. Open each person's Termination tab, set the separation type and Apply. See Turnover report.

Q: I deactivated someone and now an approval chain is stuck. Deactivation removes them as an approver everywhere, which can leave a chain without an approver. Update the affected approval matrix or profile approvers. See Approval chains and the approval matrix.