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Terminate multiple employees using import template
Terminate multiple employees using import template

How to terminate a large number of employees in Sage HR using an import template.

Oliver Cook avatar
Written by Oliver Cook
Updated over a year ago

When you have over 25 employees to terminate in Sage HR, rather than terminating them individually, you may find it easier to terminate them using an import template.

This re-import the existing employees, but marks them as Terminated. Once complete, the employees you chose to re-import as terminated appear in the Terminated employees report.

We run through with you how to do this in the steps below.

  1. Log in to Sage HR, then on the main menu click Reports.

  2. Click Employee data, then click Payroll employee export.

  3. Under Start date select Before from the dropdown, then enter today's date next to it.

  4. Leave all other fields as All, or filter them if required.

  5. Click Generate. After a few seconds, this produces a report underneath.

  6. Click Download to export the report to Excel.





  7. Open the exported excel file.

  8. On this spreadsheet, find the employees that have reappeared.

    In Step 11 you'll need to copy and paste the employees' details from the following columns into an import spreadsheet:

    • Column A - Forename

    • Column B - Surname

    • Column H - Work Start date (DD/MM/YYYY format)

    • Column L - Email Address



  9. Back in Sage HR, on the main menu click Company, then click Import.



  10. Click Download template.



  11. Copy the information in the spreadsheet shown in step 8 for the employees that you want to terminate, then paste it into the import sheet downloaded in step 10.

    • Column A - First name

    • Column B - Last name

    • Column C - Work email

      📎NOTE: This must match the email of the profile already in Sage HR.

    • Column E - Employment start date



  12. Scroll right to column Z, in which the field says Status.

  13. Enter Terminated in this column for each leaver.

    📎NOTE: The T must be capitalised.


  14. Enter the termination dates in column AA. This should be the date they left or if you're going to later delete them make sure it is a date before today.

  15. Save the file.

  16. In Sage HR, on the main menu click Company, then click Import.

  17. Click Select file, then browse to where you have saved the completed import template and select it.

  18. Once attached, click Import.

These employees should no longer appear in your active list of employees in your company directory, and now appear in your terminated employees report:

  • Reports > Employee data > Terminated employees


Do I need to delete employees too?

After you terminate the relevant employees, deleting them is totally optional. If you want to have no record of the employee in Sage HR at all, it's easy to delete them.


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