How to Deactivate a User in Pipedrive: Quick Actions, Reassignment & Cleanup

Managing user access in your CRM shouldn't feel like navigating a minefield. Yet for years, Pipedrive administrators faced a familiar challenge: when an employee left the company, deactivating their account meant juggling multiple tasks—reassigning deals, managing data ownership, removing unused seats, and hoping nothing fell through the cracks.

The consequences of getting it wrong? Lost deals assigned to ghost users. Wasted budget on unused seats. Critical workflows broken. Reports that vanished into the void.

Pipedrive's latest update changes that. The new Quick Actions on User Deactivation feature streamlines the offboarding process, allowing you to reassign items and remove unused seats in minutes—not hours. But here's what most teams miss: while Quick Actions handles the heavy lifting, there are still critical elements you need to manage manually to avoid disruption.

This guide explains how to deactivate a user in Pipedrive using Quick Actions, what happens to deals and data after deactivation, and which steps still require manual cleanup to avoid broken workflows and reports.

New to Pipedrive administration? Start with our Ultimate Pipedrive Checklist to ensure your CRM is set up correctly.

What's new in Pipedrive: Quick Actions on User Deactivation

Quick Actions is a major improvement to Pipedrive user management. Instead of manually tracking down ownership across multiple modules, admins can now handle user deactivation through a single guided flow that surfaces owned items, supports quick reassignment, and lets you remove unused seats as part of the same process.

Automated item reassignment: Previously, reassigning deals, contacts, leads, and activities from a departing user required filtering through each module separately, selecting items in bulk, and changing ownership manually—time-consuming and error-prone. Now, when you deactivate a user in Pipedrive, the system presents all their owned items in one interface so you can reassign everything to another team member with a few clicks. No more hunting through filters or worrying about orphaned deals.

One-click seat removal: Deactivating a user doesn't always remove their paid seat automatically, and many teams forget this step—continuing to pay for inactive users month after month. The Quick Actions interface now includes a prominent checkbox to remove the unused seat immediately, helping you keep billing clean and avoid wasted spend on Pipedrive seat management.

Visual confirmation before changes: The interface also makes the action safer by showing what will happen before you commit: how many items the user owns, who will receive reassigned items, whether the seat will be removed from billing, and a confirmation step before changes take effect.

Where to find the user deactivation option in Pipedrive

Path: Settings → Manage Users → Users and Access → Deactivate user

How to deactivate a user in Pipedrive using Quick Actions

Prerequisites: Make sure you have admin access (only Pipedrive administrators can deactivate users), decide who should inherit the user's items, and notify stakeholders if the user owns key deals, pipelines, dashboards, or automations.

1. Go to Settings → Manage Users → Users and Access.
2. Find the user you want to deactivate.
3. Click the ... menu next to their name.
4. Select Deactivate.
5. In the Quick Actions screen, review the summary of owned items (deals, contacts, leads, activities), select the team member who should receive these items, and choose whether to check Remove unused seat.
6. Click Deactivate user to confirm.
7. If you removed the seat, complete the billing checkout (if prompted).

What gets reassigned: deals, leads, contacts, and activities owned by the deactivated user can be reassigned to a new owner from the Quick Actions screen.

Pro tip: If you're replacing the user with a new hire immediately, consider keeping the seat to avoid unnecessary billing transactions.

Pipedrive deactivated user cleanup: what you still need to manage manually

Quick Actions handles core ownership, but several elements still require manual review. Overlooking these can break workflows, clutter your account, or disrupt scheduling. Here's what we recommend checking every time you deactivate a user in Pipedrive.

1) Filters

The issue: Private and shared filters created by deactivated users can remain in your account indefinitely, creating "filter bloat" and cluttering the interface.

Best practice: Delete filters created by deactivated users rather than reassigning them. Personal filters rarely transfer well, and unused filters can push you toward platform limits over time.

• List/export any filters worth keeping (only if truly necessary).
• Visit each module (Deals, Contacts, etc.).
• Delete filters showing the deactivated user as the creator.
• Document complex filters you may want to recreate later.

2) Workflows

The issue: Workflows may continue running but become unclear to maintain after a user leaves. Ownership confusion leads to broken automations and duplication.

Best practice: Reassign workflows to the same owner who inherits the user's deals/leads, and remove redundant automations.

• Go to Automations → Workflows.
• Filter by workflows created by the deactivated user.
• Review each workflow: keep & reassign, or delete if outdated/duplicate.
• Document the purpose of reassigned workflows for the new owner.

⚠️ Warning: If a workflow trigger is set to "Triggered by [specific user]" and that user is deactivated, the automation can stop working. Always review trigger settings during reassignment.

Pro tip: Explore date-based automation triggers that can automate offboarding tasks like reassigning items.

3) Email templates

The issue: Email templates typically can't be reassigned. Valuable templates should be copied and recreated under an active user.

• Identify the user's most-used templates.
• Copy the content and recreate under an active owner.
• Update any workflows that referenced the old templates.
• Delete old/orphaned templates if your policy requires cleanup.

4) Reports and dashboards

The issue: Private reports from deactivated users can remain, counting toward plan limits and cluttering Insights.

Best practice: Delete private reports and consolidate into team-wide dashboards where possible. This keeps reporting maintainable and reduces duplication.

• Go to Insights → Reports.
• Filter for reports created by the deactivated user.
• Delete private reports (prefer shared team dashboards).
• Reassign only truly necessary shared reports to a manager/team lead.

5) Meeting links

The issue: Scheduler meeting links are tied to individual user accounts and can't be reassigned. When a user is deactivated, meeting links can break and disrupt booking flows.

• Find where meeting links are used (signatures, website pages, templates, campaigns, social profiles).
• Create replacement meeting links under the inheriting user.
• Update all external references.
• Test the booking flow before deactivation.

Pipedrive user management best practices (enterprise checklist)

For teams managing 20+ Pipedrive users, process beats memory. A standardized approach prevents ownership gaps and reporting chaos.

Create a standardized offboarding checklist:

• ✅ Quick Actions reassignment completed
• ✅ Unused seat removed (or documented if held for replacement)
• ✅ Filters reviewed and deleted
• ✅ Workflows reassigned and tested
• ✅ Email templates recreated under active users
• ✅ Reports/dashboards consolidated or deleted
• ✅ Meeting links replaced and external references updated
• ✅ Integrations access reviewed (email sync, Slack, Zapier, etc.)
• ✅ Team notified of reassignment

Run quarterly user audits: Review active users, seat utilization, critical ownership, filter bloat, and report limits before they become a problem. Between audits, use Pipedrive Pulse to monitor team activity and deal ownership in real time.

Automate where possible: Notify managers when users are deactivated or seat count changes, connect HR offboarding triggers where relevant, and use the Pipedrive API for monthly user activity reporting.

Common mistakes when deactivating users in Pipedrive

These are the most common Pipedrive deactivation mistakes we see when teams deactivate users without a structured offboarding process. In practice, these mistakes lead to broken workflows, lost ownership visibility, unnecessary billing, and reporting inconsistencies.

Mistake #1: Forgetting to remove unused seats

One of the most common Pipedrive deactivation mistakes is forgetting to remove an unused seat in Pipedrive. Deactivating a user alone does not always stop billing, which often results in paying for inactive users.

Fix: Always use the Remove unused seat in Pipedrive option during user deactivation unless you are replacing the user immediately. This keeps billing clean and prevents unnecessary subscription costs.

Mistake #2: Reassigning everything without review

Automatically reassigning all deals, leads, and contacts without reviewing their status creates clutter. Inactive deals, outdated contacts, and irrelevant records end up polluting pipelines and dashboards.

Fix: Review what is still active before reassignment. Archive or close dead deals first, then reassign only relevant records to avoid overwhelming the new owner and skewing reports.

Mistake #3: Ignoring integration access

User deactivation in Pipedrive does not always revoke access to connected tools such as email sync, Slack, Zapier, or other third-party integrations. This can cause automation errors and data sync issues.

Fix: As part of the offboarding process, review and revoke access to all connected integrations associated with the deactivated user to prevent broken syncs and security risks.

Mistake #4: Not communicating with the team

Deactivating a user without informing stakeholders often leads to confusion. Team members may rely on filters, workflows, reports, or meeting links created by the deactivated user without realizing they have changed ownership.

Fix: Notify relevant stakeholders before deactivation and clearly communicate who inherited deals, workflows, reports, and ongoing responsibilities.

Mistake #5: Skipping documentation

Without proper documentation, reassigned workflows and dashboards quickly become “mystery assets.” Over time, teams lose context on why certain automations exist or who should maintain them.

Fix: Document the purpose and new owner of workflows, reports, and dashboards after reassignment. This ensures long-term maintainability and avoids repeated cleanups in the future.

Pipedrive user offboarding at scale: operational risks (10+ users)

If you manage more than 10–15 users in Pipedrive, user deactivation stops being a simple admin task and becomes a recurring operational risk. In most audits we run, we find orphaned deals, broken automations, duplicate reports, and paid seats that were never removed. Fixing this early prevents compounding chaos as your team scales.

Frequently asked questions

Can I reactivate a deactivated user in Pipedrive?

Yes. Go to Settings → Manage Users, open the Deactivated tab, and click Reactivate. If you removed the seat, reactivating may trigger billing changes.

Will Quick Actions work for bulk deactivations?

Quick Actions typically runs per user, so you need to process each user individually. For bulk workflows, enterprise teams often use the API for reporting and alerts.

What if I forget to reassign items before deactivating?

You can usually still find items owned by a deactivated user and reassign them via filters and bulk edit, but reassignment during deactivation is safer.

What happens to workflows when a user is deactivated in Pipedrive?

Workflows may keep running, but ownership becomes unclear. In addition, if a workflow relies on a user-specific trigger (for example, "triggered by a specific user"), it can stop working after deactivation. Always review triggers, ownership, and redundancies during offboarding.

Do deactivated users count toward my user limit?

Deactivated users typically don't count as active users, but if you don't remove the seat you may still be billed for it—so always review seat usage.

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