How to Remove SaaS Access on Offboarding with n8n: A Step-by-Step Automation Guide

Offboarding employees securely and efficiently is critical for any organization. 🔒 Manually removing SaaS access during offboarding can be error-prone, time-consuming, and risky. In this post, you will learn how to remove SaaS access on offboarding with n8n, a powerful automation platform that connects Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, HubSpot, and more to streamline your operations workflow.

By the end of this guide, operations specialists, startup CTOs, and automation engineers will have practical, hands-on instructions to build robust workflows that automate SaaS deprovisioning — reducing human error, improving security compliance, and saving valuable time.

Understanding the Offboarding Automation Challenge and Benefits

Employee offboarding is more than just a HR task; it has direct IT security implications. According to industry reports, about 56% of data breaches after employee exit are due to delayed or incomplete access removals [Source: to be added].

Manual offboarding often leads to missed accounts and residual permissions in SaaS tools like Google Workspace, Slack, HubSpot CRM, and email systems. The challenge is to automate access removal across multiple platforms instantly as soon as an offboarding trigger occurs.

Who benefits?

• Operations teams get faster, auditable offboarding processes.
• Security teams reduce insider threat risks and compliance gaps.
• HR and management see improved employee transitions and reporting.

Tools and Services Integrated in the Offboarding Workflow

This n8n automation will integrate key SaaS services your operations team likely uses:

• Gmail – To trigger offboarding from HR notification email.
• Google Sheets – As a centralized employee status database.
• Slack – To notify IT and team channels about access removal.
• HubSpot CRM – To update contact/access records reflecting access revocation.
• n8n – The workflow automation platform orchestrating the steps.

Detailed Workflow Overview: Trigger to Output

The automation involves these key stages:

1. Trigger: Receive offboarding notification via email (e.g., HR sends an email with subject “Offboard: Employee Name”).
2. Data Extraction & Verification: Parse employee name/email, check Google Sheets for current SaaS access status.
3. Access Removal Actions: Use APIs to revoke Google Workspace account, disable Slack user, remove HubSpot user.
4. Logging & Notifications: Log results in Sheets and send Slack notifications to IT/security teams.
5. Exception Handling: Retry failed steps, handle rate limits, and alert admins on manual intervention needs.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating the n8n Offboarding Workflow

Step 1: Setting Up the Email Trigger Node

Configure the IMAP Email Trigger node in n8n to monitor your HR offboarding mailbox:

• IMAP Server: imap.gmail.com
• Search Criteria: SUBJECT contains “Offboard:”
• Mark as read: true (to avoid duplicate triggers)

This triggers the workflow whenever an HR email initiates offboarding.

Step 2: Parsing Employee Details

Add a Function Node to extract the employee’s name or email from the email subject or body using JavaScript:

const subject = $input.item.json.subject;
const regex = /Offboard:\s*(.+)/i;
const matches = subject.match(regex);
if (matches) {
  return [{ json: { employeeName: matches[1].trim() } }];
} else {
  throw new Error('Employee name missing in subject');
}

Step 3: Querying Google Sheets for Current Access

Use the Google Sheets Node to look up the employee’s current SaaS access records. Configure:

• Operation: Lookup Rows
• Sheet Name: “Employees SaaS Access”
• Filter by: employeeName column equals data from previous node

This verifies which SaaS services the employee currently has access to.

Step 4: Remove Google Workspace Access 📧

Invoke Google Admin SDK API to suspend or delete the user:

• HTTP Request Node: DELETE or PATCH to https://admin.googleapis.com/admin/directory/v1/users/{userKey}
• Headers: Authorization: Bearer <OAuth token>
• Body: { “suspended”: true } (or user deletion)

Configure scopes carefully: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user is required.

Step 5: Disable Slack User Access

Use Slack API users.admin.setInactive method via HTTP Request Node:

• URL: https://slack.com/api/users.admin.setInactive
• Method: POST
• Headers: Bearer token with admin.users:write
• Body Parameters: user=USER_ID

Step 6: Update HubSpot User or Contact Record

Use HubSpot API or the HubSpot Node to update user status to offboarded:

• Endpoint: PATCH to /crm/v3/objects/contacts/{contactId}
• Body: { “properties”: { “status”: “offboarded” } }

Step 7: Logging and Notifications

Add a new row in Google Sheets recording the offboarding timestamp, services revoked, and status.

Use a Slack Node to send a notification message to #it-security channel:

Employee {{ $json.employeeName }} access removed from Google Workspace, Slack & HubSpot successfully.

Step 8: Error Handling and Retries

Implement n8n’s Error Trigger Node to catch failures, send alerts via Slack or email, and configure retry strategies with exponential backoff to mitigate API rate limits.

Tips for robustness:

• Use idempotency keys where supported to prevent duplicate removals.
• Log all API responses in a dedicated monitoring Google Sheet.
• Monitor workflow run history daily for failed executions.

Security and Compliance Considerations 🔐

Ensure all API keys and OAuth tokens are stored securely in n8n’s credential manager with minimal scopes following the principle of least privilege.

PII (Personally Identifiable Information) like employee emails and names should only be stored transiently and masked in logs.

Enable role-based access control in n8n so only authorized operators can modify the workflow.

Scaling and Performance Optimization

For enterprises with higher offboarding volume:

• Prefer webhook triggers from HR systems versus polling email to reduce latency and API overhead.
• Use queues and concurrency control nodes to limit parallel API calls and avoid rate limits.
• Split workflow into modular subflows per SaaS service for better maintainability and versioning.

Testing and Monitoring Your Offboarding Automation

Before production rollout:

• Test with sandbox or non-critical user data.
• Enable verbose logging temporarily.
• Use n8n’s built-in flow execution history to verify each step.
• Set alerts for workflow failures or anomalies.

Once stable, schedule periodic audits to ensure no orphaned SaaS accounts linger.

Looking to save time? Explore the Automation Template Marketplace for pre-built offboarding templates that you can customize and deploy quickly.

Comparison Tables

Automation Platform	Pricing Model	Pros	Cons
n8n	Open-source, cloud and self-hosted options	Highly customizable, supports complex workflows, extensive integrations, cost-effective	Requires setup and maintenance, steeper learning curve vs SaaS-only tools
Make (Integromat)	Subscription-based, tiered by operations count	User-friendly, visual builder, lots of connectors	Cost can rise quickly with scale, limited self-hosting
Zapier	Subscription with task limits	Extensive app ecosystem, beginner friendly	Limited multi-step logic, higher cost at scale

Trigger Type	Latency	API Usage	Reliability
Webhook	Near real-time	Efficient, event-driven	High reliability if endpoint is stable
Polling	Delayed by poll interval	Higher, due to repeated checks	Depends on polling frequency and API limits

Choosing Between Google Sheets and Dedicated Databases for Employee Data

Storage Option	Cost	Ease of Use	Ideal Use Case
Google Sheets	Free with Google Workspace	Very easy, no setup needed	Small-medium teams, rapid prototyping
SQL/NoSQL Database	Variable; can be costly	Requires setup and maintenance	Large scale, complex queries, integration with other systems

If you want to accelerate building and deploying automation workflows, consider signing up to Create Your Free RestFlow Account for easy orchestration and management.

FAQ

Conclusion

Automating how to remove SaaS access on offboarding with n8n empowers operations teams to streamline a critical security process while reducing manual work and errors. By integrating Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, and HubSpot, your organization creates a scalable, auditable, and secure offboarding workflow. Prioritize error handling, security best practices, and ongoing monitoring to maintain a robust system.

Ready to optimize your offboarding process and boost operational security? Start building your automation workflows today with n8n or explore proven templates to get started quickly!