I have to fire our financial manager; help!

[Anonymous]

For reasons not worth going into, I have to fire our small organization's financial manager. Problem is this person has all the passwords to our bookkeeping software, payroll, etc. This person also knows bank account numbers and passwords (and had sole responsibility for keeping them). How can I fire the person while ensuring I get all this information to hand over to an outside vendor? The termination is going to be ugly and the person may not be willing to help with any of this information. Any guidance?

[Anonymous]

You need to get this information first. Tell them the CPA or outside auditors or the IT Dept requires the President or Owner to have a copy.

Test everything for access before you fire the person.
You may have to fire the person several days or a week later.

[Anonymous]

They will see right through this.

[Anonymous]

Do you really think they’d retaliate?
Just ask them to get you all login info for the systems by the end of the day. Set up a word document for them to fill out.

Also… they should have used company email to setup the systems, so if you have access to their email, you can submit requests to change passwords and get the resulting emails to do so.

[Anonymous]

I hope when you hire someone new, you fix the way you have handled passwords.

[Anonymous]

Is it legal to use some sort of Spyware to capture all the passwords for a couple of days?

Then have third party test them and change all of them before firing him.( perhaps overnight?)

[Anonymous]

Give a generous severance package. This is going to cost you either way.

[Anonymous]

I went through this recently during a nasty layoff. It was fun getting all the 2-factor-authentication texts on my cell phone as they tried accessing various accounts. I'm sure it was a huge pain for them.

[Anonymous]

Severence package contingent upon successful transmission of passwords

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Severence package contingent upon successful transmission of passwords

Very smart!

[Anonymous]

Ask them to provide a password spreadsheet.

Log into the account and change all passwords.

Fire them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Give a generous severance package. This is going to cost you either way.

It's a small org, can they afford to be "generous"?

The password thing was an oversight.

They need to get the passwords prior to termination.
Termination may need to be delayed by a week or two.

[Anonymous]

Hire an auditor come in to do "audit" and request access/password.

[Anonymous]

You never let one person hold the keys.

There should always be a second person who can change the password and lock terminated employee out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give a generous severance package. This is going to cost you either way.

It's a small org, can they afford to be "generous"?

The password thing was an oversight.

They need to get the passwords prior to termination.
Termination may need to be delayed by a week or two.

It’s a small org, can they afford not to?