How to manage obsolete users?
How do I manage users that left the company? Originally I simply removed the name from the Person data type in the SOX database and deleted the user from the Workspace and Organization. However, I noted that this has an impact on document history (in documents, spreadsheets...) as the editor name is replaced in the history with "Author not found".
Till now I kept these users but removed all roles and group memberships. However, over the years the number of these nominal members grow and grow.
How to remove these users without affecting the history?
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Hi Udo,
Thank you for your question! A common approach that we see is to leave the name of the inactive user in the Person record but add "INACTIVE" in front to make it more clear. This way, you'll be able to keep a record of the user's actions, but it'll be easy to tell that they are not a current user. Hope this helps!
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We are struggling with this as well. We have run many internal tests and have not found the best way to remove and keep history. It is not ideal to keep all the obsolete users in the application. It is our best practice to do user reviews of all systems and remove user accounts as needed.
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Since I also ran into the issue of "Author not found", I suspended users who we no longer want to have access to our organization. Are there potential problems with this approach?
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Hi Karen!
That's good approach. The only problem would possibly be that when the user attempts to regain access they'd not be able to until you manually un-suspend them, though I'm guessing you're likely aware of this.
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Hi, We are trying to determine our approach for managing obsolete users/cleaning up the user list. Have there been any updates to the functionality here or are the options noted above still the way this is managed?
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Hi Daneille!
Sorry for the delay here. I did a little asking around on this and have some info and tips for you.
1. Removing Users: Users can be removed individually or in bulk via the Organization Admin's "People" tab. Bulk removal can be done using a CSV file template for accurate formatting.2. Suspend (deactivate) Users: Instead of removing users, they can be suspended. Suspended users lose access to Workiva but can be reactivated later, restoring their memberships and permissions.3. Best Practices for User Management:
- - Regularly review and clean up workspace memberships to remove inactive users.
- - Use SCIM API to filter active or inactive users for efficient management.
4. Recent Updates:
- - Permissions are now restored when re-adding users to a workspace. However, this does not apply at the organization level.
- - Organization User Admins can now suspend and activate users without contacting Workiva.
5. Security Considerations: Removing users from groups is a manual process and is not automated when users are removed from workspaces. This ensures granular control over user access.Here's some content on these items to assist:- https://support.workiva.com/hc/en-us/articles/360046936551-Remove-organization-users
- https://support.workiva.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047731451-Remove-workspace-users
- https://support.workiva.com/hc/en-us/articles/28283850764564-Best-practices-for-efficient-user-management-for-large-enterprises
- https://support.workiva.com/hc/en-us/articles/30456185507092-Activate-and-suspend-users-in-an-organization
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