Steps to creating an Offboarding Runbook

Last updated: May 20, 2026

Admins + SuperAdmins

Offboarding runbooks allow you to automate the employee offboarding experience. Once configured, they automatically assign and launch a structured workflow for any employee whose termination date or last working day is recorded in Kinfolk — no manual intervention needed.

Getting Started

1. Create an Offboarding Runbook

  1. Navigate to Runbooks 

  2. Click Create Runbook

  3. Set the Type to Offboarding

  4. Give your runbook a name and configure the content — messages, actions, forms, meetings, and microsite — as you would for any other runbook

Screenshot 2026-05-20 at 11.44.03.png

2. Configure the Trigger

In the runbook settings, depending what your organisation uses in the HRIS, select the date the Runbook automations will be anchored to.

Anchor Date Field

When it triggers

Termination Date

When an employee's termination date is set or updated

Last Working Day

When an employee's last working day is set or updated

The anchor date becomes Day 1 of the runbook for that employee. All tasks, messages, and meetings are scheduled relative to this date.

3. Enable Auto-Assignment

Toggle on Auto Assignment in the runbook settings. Once enabled:

  • Apply a filter (optional): Scope the runbook to a specific group of employees — e.g., only a certain department, location, or employment type. If no filter is set, the runbook applies to all employees.

  • Enable Auto Activation (optional): When turned on, meetings and scheduled items are automatically booked at assignment time — no additional step needed.

How Triggers Work

Offboarding runbooks are triggered automatically when a user's Termination Date and Last Working Day (optional) is set or updated — typically via your HRIS integration.

The flow is:

  1. HRIS sync writes a termination date and the last working day to the employee's profile

  2. Kinfolk checks all offboarding runbooks with Auto Assignment enabled

  3. Each runbook's filter is evaluated against the employee (if a filter is set)

  4. A personal runbook instance is created for any employee who matches

  5. The runbook start date is set to the value of the anchor date field

  6. If Auto Activation is enabled, all scheduled meetings are booked automatically

Note: The trigger fires whenever the anchor date field is written — including updates to an existing date. If a termination date changes, the runbook start date updates accordingly.

Configuration Reference

Setting

What it does

Type = Offboarding

Marks the runbook as field-triggered

Anchor Date Field

Which date sets the runbook start — Termination Date or Last Working Day

Auto Assignment

Automatically assigns the runbook when the trigger field is set on a matching employee

Filter

Limits auto-assignment to employees matching specific criteria. Leave blank to apply to everyone.

Auto Activation

Automatically books all scheduled meetings at assignment time

Catch up Comms

If someone is added to the runbook manually or automatically, in less time than when the first comms is due to be sent, this message will still be send and won't be 'skipped'.

Manual Assignment

If you need to assign an offboarding runbook to employees manually — for example, a retroactive assignment or a planned reduction-in-force — use Bulk Assign from the runbook detail page.

Step 1 — Set termination dates on each employee

Before assigning, each employee must have their Termination Date and/or Last Working Day set. Without these dates, the runbook has no anchor date to schedule tasks against.

To set these dates:

  1. Go to Settings → Users

  2. Click on the employee's row to open the Update User modal

  3. Fill in the Termination Date and/or Last Working Day fields

  4. Click Save

Repeat for each employee you intend to assign.

Step 2 — Run Assign

From the runbook assignees page, click Assign Users and choose one of the following options:

Option

Use when

Filter by attribute

Assign to all employees matching a filter (e.g., a specific department)

Select specific users

Provide an explicit list of employees

Assign to all

Assign to every active employee in the organization

Set a start date

Override the anchor date with a specific date for all assigned employees

Bulk assignments run asynchronously in the background and track progress including any failures.