Clean up seats safely

1. Open People. The default list shows people with no Jira work for your chosen time.
2. Only people marked “Ready to remove” start ticked. Anyone who needs a decision first starts unticked.
3. Tick or untick people. The bar shows how many are selected and, with a seat price set, the yearly cost.
4. Choose “Preview cleanup for 25 people”. Nothing changes yet.
5. The preview adds up, for example “31 selected = 25 will lose their seat + 2 kept on purpose + 2 need you first”.
6. Each outcome has its own section: “Will lose their Jira seat”, “Kept on purpose”, “Need you first” and “Change in your identity provider”.
7. For each person who will lose their seat, the preview names the groups they leave.
8. Check the groups, then choose “Remove 25 seats”. Confirm in the dialog.
9. Seatwise removes one person at a time, acting as you. Keep Seatwise open until it finishes.
10. The result shows four numbers: “Removed”, “Didn't work”, “Left out on purpose” and “People with Jira now”.
11. If a removal didn't work, the reason is shown. Choose “Try again for 1” to retry.
12. Their accounts, work items and history stay. You can undo each removal for 30 days.

What you should see

The people you removed are out of the groups that gave them Jira, so they no longer cost a seat. History records the change.

If something is not right

A removal says “Only site admins can change group membership.” You are a Jira admin but not a site admin. Ask a site admin to run the cleanup.

A removal says the group “is managed by your identity provider. Change it there.” Your identity provider controls that group, so Jira refuses the change. Remove the person there. Seatwise marks the group, so the next preview shows it.

You see “This cleanup stopped before it finished”. Seatwise was closed while it ran. Choose “Finish now” to record what happened. To remove the others, preview them again from People.