What Happens When You Deactivate a User

Deactivating a user is the standard way to remove someone's access to NinjaCat — for example, when an employee leaves or changes roles. This article explains exactly what deactivation does (and does not) do, so admins can offboard users cleanly.

Deactivation Is a Soft-Delete

When you deactivate a user, NinjaCat performs a soft-delete:

The user immediately loses access and can no longer sign in
The user account is retained in the system rather than being permanently erased

Critically, deactivation removes the person's access — it does not clean up the content they owned.

What Happens to Content the User Owned

Deactivating a user does not automatically reassign or delete anything that user owned. The following all remain in place exactly as they were:

Reports the user created or owned
Dashboards the user created or owned
Scheduled reports the user set up

These items continue to exist and, in the case of scheduled reports, continue to run. They simply remain associated with the now-deactivated user. Nothing is transferred to another owner and nothing is removed.

Important
Because owned content is not reassigned on deactivation, scheduled reports owned by a deactivated user can keep sending on their existing schedule. If a departing user owned content that your team still relies on, plan to reassign it before you deactivate them.

Recommended Offboarding Steps

To avoid orphaned or unexpectedly-running content, follow this order:

Inventory the user's owned content first. Identify the reports, dashboards, and scheduled reports they own.
Reassign anything critical to another active user or owner while the departing user's content is still easy to find.
Update or pause scheduled reports that should no longer run, or hand them to a new owner.
Deactivate the user once their important content has a new home.

What the Admin Will See After Deactivation

The user shows as deactivated/inactive in your user management list and can no longer log in.
Their previously owned reports, dashboards, and scheduled reports are still present in the platform under their original names.
Those items still reference the deactivated user as their owner/last editor — they are not automatically reassigned.

When to Contact Support

Reach out to NinjaCat Support if:

You've deactivated a user and need help locating or reassigning content they owned
Scheduled reports owned by a deactivated user are still running and you need assistance changing or stopping them