Unlinking and offboarding a client

When an engagement ends, you unwind the agency's access to the client's account. What that looks like depends on how the client came under management: an account the client already owned and linked to you, or an account your agency created for them. This article covers both, plus what happens to the account, the money, and the history afterward.

The two situations

• A linked account is one the client already owned and linked to your agency with their consent. The client is the account owner; your access is a link on top.
• A managed account is one your agency created for the client. Your agency provisioned it, and you may have set what the client's own login can do.

The offboarding move is slightly different for each, but the outcome for the client is the same in the way that matters most: they keep everything on their account.

Offboarding a linked account

Either side can unlink a linked account at any time, with no notice period and no approval from the other side.

From the agency side:

1. Open the client's page in your workspace.
2. Choose Unlink and confirm.

From the client side:

1. Go to My Account, then Agency access.
2. Choose Unlink and confirm.

Unlinking takes effect the instant it is confirmed. From that moment the agency loses all access to the account, including read access, even for anything they had open at the time. Both sides are notified. The client-side steps in detail are in Linking an existing account; the agency-side context is in Sharing your management ID.

Offboarding a managed account

For an account your agency created, you have two tools, and they are not the same thing:

• Suspend is a reversible pause. The client's active campaigns stop serving, but nothing is deleted: campaigns, wallet, payments, and analytics are all preserved, and you can reactivate the client to restore everything intact. Use this for a hold, a billing pause, or an account under review. The steps are in Creating and managing clients.
• Unlink ends your agency's management of the account. Access ends immediately and the client keeps everything they own.

If you are winding a client down for good, unlink. If you are pausing them and expect to come back, suspend.

What happens to the account

Whichever path you take, the account and its contents stay with the client:

• Campaigns and PR orders remain on the client's account. Everything the agency created for the client lives on the client's account and remains theirs. A campaign does not disappear or move when you unlink.
• The account keeps its identity. The same account, with the same history, continues to exist. Offboarding removes the agency's access, not the account.

What happens to the money

Funds follow the provenance rules that apply throughout Mintfunnel. Before you offboard, settle allocations deliberately:

• The client keeps their self-funded balance. Money the client added themselves is always theirs. An agency can never reclaim it, and unlinking does not change that.
• Reclaim your unused allocations first if you want them back. An agency can reclaim only its own unused allocations, and only while it still has access. You can never reclaim money the client added, and never funds that are already spent or reserved by a running campaign. Once you unlink, you no longer have access to reclaim anything, so do it before you unlink if you intend to. See Funding and wallets.
• Allocated funds you leave behind stay in the client's wallet. If you unlink without reclaiming, any unused allocation simply remains in the client's wallet.

What happens to access and history

• The agency loses all access, including read access, the moment the unlink is confirmed. The agency keeps its own internal records of the work it performed, but it can no longer see or touch the client's account.
• The activity history stays on the client's account, including the full record of everything the agency did while it was linked. That history is the client's to keep. Every campaign also permanently records the agency and user that created it, so even after offboarding, "which agency did this?" stays answerable. See Reading the activity log.

Re-linking later

Offboarding is not a burned bridge. A client can link to the same agency again later, or to a different one. A future link always starts as a brand-new request at a scope the client chooses. Note that an account holds one active agency link at a time, so to move to a new agency the client unlinks from the current one first.

Quick reference

• Who can unlink?: Either the agency or the client, any time
• How fast does unlink take effect?: Immediately
• Does the client keep their campaigns and history?: Yes, always
• Can the agency reclaim money after unlinking?: No, reclaim unused allocations before unlinking
• Can the agency reclaim the client's own money?: Never
• Is suspend the same as offboarding?: No, suspend is a reversible pause on a managed account
• Can they link again later?: Yes, as a fresh request