Unfortunately, terminating an employee can become complicated, especially if they had access to many aspects of the business, both physical and electronic.

Here are things to consider when an employee is terminated:

• Bank accounts
• Credit/debit cards
• Physical banking checks
• Physical/electronic keys to the office
• Office alarm codes
• WiFi passwords*
• Remote access (VPN, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc)
• Computer passwords
• Server passwords
• System passwords (Dentrix, Chirotouch, etc)
• Email (Microsoft365, Google, etc)
• Phone system (Weave, VoiceEdge, RingCentral, etc)
• Vendor/supplier accounts (Patterson, Henry Schein, etc)
• Store/shopping accounts (Amazon, BestBuy, Staples, etc)
• Keys/access to company vehicles

This list doesn't include everything but it's a good start.

Remember that an employee may know or have access to other people's codes and passwords, especially if they had any administration duties. In these cases it's often important to perform a thorough change of everyone's passwords. The longer an employee has been there and the more access they have the more you’ll need to do.

With so many systems existing in the cloud now, it's more important than ever to disable access to systems immediately. It can seem strange to let your technology team know before the employee, but it’s become a necessary step to keep your systems and data safe.

* In most cases your WiFi should be physically separate from your computer/server network. A terminated employee could come back later, sit outside and connect to your WiFi, but if your WiFi has been properly separated, they'll have access to the Internet and nothing else, so it's usually not too much of a concern.