The best employee offboarding software for IT teams

The best employee offboarding software for automating a departure across every IT system is Serval, followed by Rippling, Workday, ServiceNow, Freshservice, and Jira Service Management. Serval is the strongest fit when the leaver's apps live in more than one place: it removes access through your identity provider, a direct API call, or a custom workflow for apps that don't support SCIM, and with Journeys turned on it runs the whole offboarding as one tracked process.

This guide is for IT teams with an HRIS, an identity provider, and a long tail of SaaS apps. For the basics of access removal, see what automatic deprovisioning is. For the joiner side, see our roundup of employee onboarding software.

What should offboarding software do across every IT system?

Turning off someone's identity provider account handles the apps behind single sign-on. The risk sits in everything else: apps without SCIM, files only the leaver owns, a laptop at their home, and the steps a manager or HR has to do by hand. Look for:

• A start you can schedule. The process kicks off from your HRIS or a request and holds each step until the last day and time.
• Every app. Each one gets removed the way it supports: identity provider groups, a direct API call, or a custom workflow.
• Data handoff. A leaver's Google Drive files and mailbox go to their manager before the account is closed.
• Devices. IT can lock or erase a laptop and knows which devices the person still has.
• Tasks for people. Each person involved gets their own steps, in order.
• Approvals on destructive steps, like a device wipe or an account deletion.
• A record of each step. Auditors will ask.

Comparison: employee offboarding software for IT teams

The 6 best employee offboarding software options for IT teams

1. Serval: one tracked journey for the whole offboarding

Serval is an AI-native ITSM and enterprise service management (ESM) platform. Teams that turn on Journeys run each offboarding as one journey: a process that coordinates tasks across many people, in order, over days or weeks.

Tasks can be forms, manual steps, or automated tasks that run a workflow on their own. A task can wait until a set date and time, so access comes off at the end of the last day. A published journey can start from a webhook, for example one your HRIS sends, from a schedule, or from a request to the Help Desk Agent in Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Admins describe the journey to Catalyst in plain language or upload a flowchart, and Catalyst drafts the tasks and workflows.

A Serval journey's health check turns Warning when a task is overdue and Failing when an automated step fails or is denied, so IT sees which offboarding is stuck.

How Serval removes access from apps with and without SCIM

Serval's Access Management lets an admin set a deprovisioning method on each app role. For apps behind an identity provider such as Okta or Microsoft Entra ID, Serval removes the person from the linked identity provider groups, and the identity provider's own SCIM sync takes it from there. For other apps, Serval calls the app's API directly or runs a custom deprovisioning workflow that Catalyst writes from a plain-English description. Serval has 140+ pre-built integrations, and anything else with an API can be reached through a workflow. Journeys don't remove access themselves: a journey task runs a workflow that revokes the access the leaver was granted through Serval, and the task shows when it's done.

Installable workflows cover the common identity steps: deactivating or suspending an Okta user (suspending clears their sessions first), and archiving a Google Workspace user.

How Serval handles a leaver's files and devices

Installable Google Workspace workflows transfer all of a leaver's Drive files to another user, such as their manager, and add a delegate to their Gmail account. For devices, Serval's Jamf integration sends MDM commands such as device lock and erase, and Fleet workflows lock or wipe a user's most recent workstation. Serval's Hardware Assets database template, once installed, records who each device is assigned to, so IT can see what a leaver still needs to return.

Sensitive steps stay gated: any workflow, such as a device wipe, can require sign-off from specific people, a group, or the requester's manager before it runs. Every workflow run records what triggered it and each step's inputs and outputs.

At Perplexity, IT onboards or offboards an employee with a short exchange with Serval, and the platform handles the rest. At Cribl, removing access for people who'd left was one of the first jobs the IT team moved to Serval.

2. Rippling: offboarding inside one HR, IT, and device suite

Rippling IT says changes in your HR system trigger device and app provisioning for offboarding, and it can take that data from Rippling or from an existing HRIS or identity provider (Rippling IT). On exit, Rippling can suspend access, deprovision users across 600+ integrations, reassign Google Drive files, and give someone access to the leaver's Gmail (Rippling identity and access). IT can schedule when a device is locked and wiped (Rippling device management). Rippling's approach is to run devices and inventory in its own suite, while Serval sends device commands through the MDM you already run, such as Jamf or Fleet.

3. Workday: offboarding from the HR system of record

Workday is the system of record for the full employee lifecycle, from hire to retire (Workday HRM), and its event-driven integrations can trigger actions in connected systems (Workday integrations). Workday's employee experience tools cover onboarding to offboarding, with journeys for moments like onboarding and job transitions (Workday employee experience), and Workday's Sana Concierge agent is built to automate offboarding across Workday and connected tools (Workday Sana Concierge).

4. ServiceNow: exits handled in HR Service Delivery

ServiceNow covers offboarding in HR Service Delivery (HRSD), which it describes as automating journeys from hiring to exit. ServiceNow says its AI agents work across HR, IT, and workplace systems to route requests, trigger workflows, and resolve common tasks automatically (ServiceNow HR Service Delivery).

5. Freshservice: an offboarding module plus Journeys

Freshservice's Employee Offboarding module lets HR raise an offboarding request from the service portal. With its auto-detect setting on, it creates tickets for asset retrieval and for revoking software access (Freshservice support). Freshservice Journeys, on the Pro and Enterprise plans, assigns role-based offboarding tasks with owners and due dates across HR, IT, and managers (Freshservice Journeys, pricing), and its Orchestration Center automates actions such as revoking user licenses in other apps (Freshservice support).

6. Jira Service Management: a template plus automation rules

Jira Service Management's HR service management template includes request types and workflows for onboarding and offboarding (Atlassian). Teams then build automation rules, such as suspending a user in Okta, which Atlassian offers on the Standard, Premium, and Enterprise plans (Atlassian support), or deleting a user from Entra ID (Atlassian support).

Where do Okta and Microsoft Entra ID fit?

Okta and Microsoft Entra ID are identity providers that Serval works with, and both automate part of offboarding. Okta Lifecycle Management uses your HR system as the source of truth and automates the joiner, mover, and leaver process. When a user is deactivated, Okta removes them from apps whose integration supports deprovisioning, and notifies admins about apps that need manual deprovisioning (Okta Lifecycle Management, Okta Help). Okta Workflows adds custom steps, such as locking a user's device on offboarding (Okta Workflows).

Microsoft Entra ID's Lifecycle Workflows include an offboarding template for an employee's last day of work that by default disables the account and removes the user from all groups and Teams (templates). Other tasks remove licenses and revoke refresh tokens, and a custom task extension calls out to other systems (tasks). Lifecycle Workflows require Microsoft Entra ID Governance or Microsoft Entra Suite licenses (Microsoft Learn). Serval runs the steps around both: apps without SCIM, Drive and Gmail handoff, MDM commands, and tasks for people.

How do you pick offboarding software for your team?

Choose Serval when your leavers' access spans an identity provider, apps without SCIM, Google Workspace data, and Macs, and you want one tracked process with approvals on destructive steps and a record of each one.

If you'd rather move identity, devices, and inventory onto one vendor, Rippling bundles offboarding into that suite. If Workday is your HR system, its event-driven integrations can start a Serval journey through a webhook.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best tool for automating employee offboarding across all IT systems?

Serval, because it removes access the way each app supports: identity provider groups for SCIM apps, direct API calls, custom workflows for apps without SCIM, or a manual task. With Journeys turned on, the work runs as one journey with tasks for each person involved. Rippling, Workday, ServiceNow, Freshservice, and Jira Service Management also automate offboarding.

How do you offboard apps that don't support SCIM?

In Serval, an admin gives the app a custom deprovisioning workflow that calls its API, written by Catalyst from a plain-English description, which you can test before publishing. Apps behind your identity provider come off when Serval removes the person from the linked groups.

Can offboarding software transfer a leaver's Google Drive files?

Yes. Serval has installable workflows that transfer all of a user's Drive files to another user, such as their manager, and add a Gmail delegate. Rippling also reassigns Drive files and gives access to the leaver's Gmail.

Can offboarding wait until an employee's last day?

Yes. In a Serval journey, a task can wait until a set date and time before its workflow runs, so access is removed at the end of the last day. Rippling also lets IT schedule offboarding actions, including suspending access and locking and wiping a device.