Manage the People Lifecycle

This guide explains how to activate, inactivate, and (when appropriate) delete people in ClickTime — plus how to resolve common blockers, what each action means for billing, data retention, and reporting.

Who can do this: Administrators and Managers with People Edit permissions. Delete is typically restricted to Administrators.

Jump to:

• Activate a person
• Inactivate a person
• Bulk activate/inactivate
• Delete a person (when allowed)
• Resolve blockers (approvals, stopwatches, locks)
• Billing implications & invoices
• Data retention & reporting behavior
• Related guides

Activate a person

1. Go to Company → People and click the Edit (pencil) for the person.
   
2. In Basic Information, set Status to Active and Update.
   
3. Optional: Use the Actions menu to Send Welcome Email or Reset Password if they haven’t signed in.
   

Note: Reactivating a previously inactive person counts them toward your active user billing (see Billing implications).

Inactivate a person

Inactivation is the recommended way to end access while preserving historical data for reports and exports.

1. Go to Company → People → Edit the person.
2. In Basic Information, set Status to Inactive and Update.

Effects: Inactive people cannot sign in or log time/expenses, but all their historical entries remain on reports. You can reactivate them at any time.

Bulk activate/inactivate

1. From Company → People, choose a view (Show: Active, Inactive, or Active & Inactive) and check the boxes next to people.
2. Open Actions and choose Mark as Active or Mark as Inactive.

Heads-up: Bulk updates process only if all selected people can be changed. If you get an error, reduce the selection or resolve blockers per below and retry.

Delete a person (admins; only when no history exists)

Deletion is permanent and is only available when the person has no time, expense, time off, approval, or resource-management data in the account. If any such history exists, the delete action will be blocked and you'll see an “unable to delete” message. In those cases, use Inactivate instead.

When you can delete

• No time entries (any date range; submitted or not)
• No timesheets (including approved/locked)
• No expenses (sheets or items)
• No time off (requests or balances recorded)
• No Resource Management data (allocations/requests)

Tip: Deletion is best reserved for brand-new/test records that never captured production data.

How to delete

1. Go to Company → People and click the Edit (pencil) for the person.
2. Open the Actions menu and choose Delete, then confirm.
   

If Delete is blocked

The presence of any historical data will block deletion and show an error (e.g., “Unable to delete user”).

• Recommended: Set Status to Inactive to preserve reporting history and stop access/billing.
• Not recommended: Manually remove every historical record (time/expenses/time off/allocations) until none remain, then delete. Only do this for test data you are sure you do not need.

Resolve blockers (approvals, stopwatches, locks)

If you can’t change status or delete, check for these common blockers:

• Pending approvals: Timesheets, time off, or expenses awaiting review. Ask the approver to approve/reject, or temporarily reassign the approver in Security & Permissions → Approvals.
• Running/abandoned stopwatches: Have the user stop and save, or use Manager override from the person’s timesheet (Day View) to stop/save.
• Locked/approved timesheets: Unlock (if allowed via Company → Preferences → Security Settings) or have an Administrator unlock/reject as needed.
  

After clearing blockers, try the action again.

Billing implications & invoices

• How invoices work: Most subscriptions are billed in arrears, monthly, to the card on file. The charge is your Average Number of Active Users for the period × your per-user rate.
• What “Active User” means: Billing is based on a person’s account status (Active/Inactive on the Person Details page), not whether they used the app. To reduce charges on monthly plans, inactivate users who no longer need access.
• Average user calculation: We count how many users are active each day in the cycle, average that across the period, then round up to the nearest whole number.
• Annual plans: If you’re on an annual commitment, contact support@clicktime.com before changing active headcount, as it may affect contract terms.
• See your current active count: Go to Company → People, filter to Active, and check the total at the bottom of the list.
• Change payment/billing contact or view invoices: Go to Company → Preferences → Billing and Payment to update payment method or billing contact, and to view/download past invoices.

Data retention & reporting behavior

• Inactivated person: Historical time, expenses, and approvals remain available in reports/exports; person is hidden from new-entry pickers unless explicitly included.
• Deleted person: Profile removed. Deletion is only possible when no history exists, so there’s no reporting loss.
• Reactivation: Restores access and counts toward active user billing. Re-review Manager scope (Division/Project) and approver settings as needed.