People & HR

How to offboard a departing employee as Construction and Contractor Founders

People & HRFor Construction and Contractor Founders3 apps11 steps~22 min to set up

When a framer or site super leaves mid-project, you're scrambling through paper files, a shared Dropbox folder, and your own memory to figure out what they had access to: which job folders, which subcontractor contacts, which Buildertrend logins, which company credit card. You've got COIs in one place, payroll in Paylocity or ADP, email threads in Gmail, and tool assignments in a whiteboard photo. There's no checklist, no process, and the last time someone left you found out three months later they still had access to the job site key fob system. For a crew under 20, an offboard that takes two weeks of back-and-forth is two weeks of security exposure.

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People & HRFor Construction and Contractor Founders3 apps11 steps~22 min to set up

Outcome

What you'll set up

A repeatable offboarding checklist app that pulls the departing employee's payroll record from ADP or Paylocity, their active project assignments, and any open tasks — so nothing gets missed when someone walks out

An automated email workflow that drafts the offboarding communication to subs and project contacts, and sends you a daily reminder until every access item is confirmed closed

A knowledge capture step that pulls the departing employee's email threads and any Notion notes they owned into a shared reference, so the job knowledge doesn't walk out the door with them

The Starch recipe

Apps, data, and prompts

The combination of Starch apps, the data sources they pull from, and the prompts you use to drive them.

Apps used

Task Manager Email Agent Knowledge Management

Data sources & config

Starch syncs your ADP or Paylocity data on a schedule (employee records, org units, active status) and syncs your Notion pages and Gmail threads on a schedule. Buildertrend and Dropbox are reached through browser automation — no API needed. Task Manager and Email Agent are wired together so a new offboarding task auto-triggers the email drafting workflow.

Prompts to copy

Build me an offboarding checklist for a departing field employee. Pull their record from ADP, list every open task assigned to them, and create a P1-priority task for each access item I need to revoke: Buildertrend login, Dropbox folder, company gas card, and job site key fob. Flag anything overdue.

When I mark an employee as departing, draft an email to all active subcontractors on their current jobs telling them the new point of contact is [name], and set a follow-up reminder if I haven't confirmed each sub received it within 48 hours.

Pull all email threads and Notion pages owned or authored by [employee name] in the last 90 days, summarize the key decisions or contacts in each one, and save them to a new Knowledge Management section called '[Name] Handoff — [Date]'.

Run these in Starch → or paste them into your favorite agent

Walkthrough

Step-by-step

1 Connect ADP or Paylocity so Starch syncs the departing employee's record on a schedule — job title, department, direct reports, start date, and any HR notes you've logged.

2 Tell Starch to build an offboarding checklist app: describe the access items specific to your shop (Buildertrend, Dropbox project folders, company Fuel Card, gate codes, key fobs) and Starch generates a P1-priority task list in Task Manager for each one.

3 Starch automates a check of Buildertrend through your browser to pull which jobs the employee was assigned to as a supervisor or estimator — no Buildertrend API needed.

4 For each active job, Starch identifies the subcontractors listed under that project and drafts a handoff email via Email Agent, notifying each sub of the new point of contact. You review and send with one click.

5 Email Agent sets automated follow-up reminders: if a sub hasn't replied to the handoff email within 48 hours, you get a nudge so nothing slips.

6 Starch syncs the departing employee's Gmail threads from the last 90 days and summarizes each active thread — open bids, unresolved change orders, sub disputes — so whoever picks up the job has full context.

7 Any Notion pages the employee owned or edited are pulled into a new Knowledge Management section labeled with their name and departure date. Starch flags pages that look like they contain active job information (SOWs, sub contact notes, inspection records).

8 Task Manager tracks completion of each offboarding item with due dates: access revoked, equipment returned, final paycheck confirmed in ADP, and reference letter sent if applicable. Overdue items surface automatically.

9 Starch automates a check of your Dropbox project folders through your browser, confirms the departing employee's personal Dropbox access has been removed, and logs the confirmation as a completed task.

10 Once all tasks are marked done, Starch drafts a closure summary — who was offboarded, what was revoked, what was handed off, and what knowledge was captured — and emails it to you for your records.

11 The entire offboarding template is saved in Starch so the next time someone leaves, you run the same workflow in 10 minutes instead of rebuilding it from scratch.

See this running on Starch

Connect your tools, describe what you want, and the agent builds it. Closed beta is free.

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Worked example

April 2026 Offboard — Site Super, Active on 3 Jobs

Sample numbers from a real run

Active jobs under his supervision	3
Subcontractors notified via handoff email	11
Open email threads summarized	23
Notion pages flagged and archived	7
Access items revoked and logged	5
Hours spent on offboard vs. previous manual process	2

Marcus, your site super on three active residential builds in the East Side, gave two weeks notice on April 8. In the past you would have spent a full day tracking down what he had access to and another few days making sure the subs on his jobs knew who to call. This time you told Starch: 'Build me an offboarding checklist for Marcus — pull his ADP record, find all jobs he's listed on in Buildertrend, and create a task for every access item I need to close out.' Starch synced his ADP record automatically and automated a browser session to check Buildertrend — pulled three active jobs, 11 subs across those jobs, and his Dropbox folder access. Email Agent drafted 11 handoff emails in one batch; you reviewed and sent in under 20 minutes. Two subs didn't reply in 48 hours, so Email Agent flagged them for a follow-up call. Knowledge Management pulled 23 of Marcus's Gmail threads — open change orders, a framing sub dispute on Job #2, and a materials delivery hold — summarized each one in plain English, and saved them under 'Marcus Handoff — April 2026.' The whole offboard was done in about two hours. The previous time you lost a super, it took closer to two weeks and you still found a Dropbox folder he had access to six months later.

Measurement

How you'll know it's working

Time from departure notice to all access fully revoked (target: under 48 hours)

Number of subcontractor contacts on departing employee's jobs who received a handoff notification

Open job threads and change orders captured in Knowledge Management before the employee's last day

Offboarding tasks completed on time vs. overdue at end of final week

Days until replacement or interim contact confirmed with each active sub

Comparison

What this replaces

The other ways teams handle this today, and how the Starch version compares.

Paper checklist or shared Google Doc

Free and familiar, but nothing pulls the data automatically — you're still manually listing every access item, every sub, every open thread, and hoping you don't forget something.

BambooHR or Rippling (full HR suite)

Good offboarding workflow tools for office companies, but overkill for a 15-person GC and won't touch Buildertrend, your Dropbox folder structure, or your sub communication history.

Buildertrend's built-in user management

Handles Buildertrend access removal fine, but doesn't know about your Gmail threads, Dropbox folders, ADP record, or the 11 subs that need to hear from you — you're still stitching those pieces together yourself.

Paylocity or ADP offboarding module

Handles the payroll and benefits side cleanly, but the job-site access, sub notification, and knowledge capture steps are entirely outside its scope.

On Starch RECOMMENDED

One platform — task manager, email agent, knowledge management all running on connected data. Setup in plain English; numbers stay current via scheduled syncs and live agent queries.

Try it on Starch →

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

We use Buildertrend to manage jobs — can Starch actually see who's assigned to what?

Yes. Starch automates Buildertrend through your browser — no API needed. It logs in, navigates to the employee's profile and job assignments, and pulls the list of active projects they're on. It works the same way you'd do it manually, just without you having to do it.

What if my departing employee used their personal email for some job communication?

Starch syncs your company Gmail or Outlook on a schedule, so anything sent from or to the company account is captured. Personal email accounts are outside what Starch can reach — that's a real limit. For anything critical in a personal account, you'll need to ask the employee directly before their last day.

We're not SOC 2 certified — should I be worried about employee data in Starch?

Starch is not SOC 2 Type II certified yet — that's worth knowing upfront. For most small GCs, the data involved (employee records, job assignments, email threads) is the same data you're already running through Gmail and Dropbox. Make your own call based on your risk tolerance; we'd rather you know than be surprised.

Can Starch handle the final paycheck confirmation and benefits cutoff in ADP or Paylocity?

Starch syncs ADP and Paylocity employee and payroll data on a schedule, so it can confirm that the final pay run has processed and flag the benefits termination date from the record. It doesn't initiate payroll actions in either system — you're still approving the final check in ADP or Paylocity directly. Think of Starch as the checklist and confirmation layer, not the payroll processor.

What if someone leaves suddenly — no notice, mid-project?

That's exactly when this pays off. Because the offboarding checklist is already built in Starch, you run it the same day instead of spending the first 48 hours figuring out what you need to do. Tell Starch the employee name, and it kicks off: ADP record pull, Buildertrend job check via browser, sub notification drafts, Gmail thread summary, and a task list with due dates. The process is the same whether you had two weeks or two hours.

I don't use Notion — will Knowledge Management still work for capturing job knowledge?

Knowledge Management in Starch works independently of Notion. If you use Notion, Starch syncs those pages on a schedule and can pull them into the handoff archive. If you don't, Starch captures from Gmail threads and builds the knowledge base directly inside the app. You can also describe your current folder structure and Starch will suggest what to pull and where to put it.