At the foot of Settings > Operators there is a group called Inactive Operators. It is collapsed until you open it, and the operators inside it are shown in grey.
An operator in this group keeps everything they had. Their record, their role and their property access are all intact. The only thing that has changed is that they cannot sign in.
Only an Admin can de-activate or delete an operator. Other operators can open Settings > Operators to reach their own profile, but these two actions are not theirs to use.
Taking someone out of the active list
Open the menu on their row and choose De-Activate. They move into Inactive Operators straight away.
There is no confirmation step, so the click is the decision. Check whose row you are on before you use it.
Use this whenever someone is leaving, going on extended leave, or changing job. It costs nothing to reverse, and it is the right choice for almost every situation where you want to stop someone signing in.
Bringing someone back
Open Inactive Operators, find them, and choose Activate on their row. They return to the active list with what they had before.
Check their role and their Accessible Apps afterwards rather than assuming. A record comes back the way it went in, which may not match what the person needs now. See Operator roles and Accessible Apps.
If they are back in the list but still cannot sign in, that is a password question rather than a record question. See Changing or resetting your password.
De-Activate and Delete are not the same thing
Both appear on the same menu and they do very different things.
De-Activate is reversible by you. The person appears in Inactive Operators and you can bring them back whenever you like.
Delete is not. The record leaves the list altogether. It is kept on our side rather than erased, so we can restore it for you, but you cannot reach it yourself and getting it back is a support request. The email address also stays attached to the deleted record, so creating a new operator on that address afterwards is refused. That refusal is covered in Error when creating an operator.
If you are not certain which you want, De-Activate. You can always delete later, and you cannot undelete.
Bots appear here too
Every bot has an operator record, so a bot can be de-activated and appears in this group in the same way a person does. A bot's record holds only its profile and its property access, so there is less to check when one comes back. See Bots in your operator list.
What this does not do
It is not something every operator can do. De-Activate and Delete are Admin only, so a colleague without the Admin role cannot remove anyone, including themselves.
De-Activate does not free the email address, and neither does Delete. The address stays attached to the record either way.
Activating does not set a password. The record returns as it was. If the person no longer knows their password, they reset it in the ordinary way.
An inactive operator cannot sign in. The record and its settings survive, but access is off until it is activated.
You cannot delete your own record. Delete does not appear on your own row. De-Activate does, and it does not ask you to confirm, so one click on your own row switches off your own access.
Taking someone out of the active list does not remove their history. Conversations and actions they were part of stay where they are.
What to do next
If you are setting someone up rather than bringing them back, see Adding and managing operators.
Getting help
Open Help at the bottom of the left menu and choose Talk to Us, or email support@bookboost.io.