# Leave or delete a business

How to stop working at a business, hand it over to a new owner, delete a business for good, or delete your whole account.

There are three different things you may want: to stop working at a business, to delete a business with all its data, or to delete your own Ha Tang account. This article covers each one.

## Leave a business

Anyone who works at a business can leave it by themselves:

1. Open **Settings → Business settings**.
2. On the **General** tab, find **Leave business** and click **Leave business**.
3. Click **Leave …** to confirm.

You lose access at once. Your open conversations go back through the distribution rules to the rest of the team, and your open tasks move to an owner. The dashboard opens your next business (or the screen to set up a new one), and the business disappears from your business menu. Your other businesses are not affected. To come back, someone has to invite you again.

If you are the **only owner**, the button is off, because a business always keeps at least one owner. Make another person an owner first (**Settings → Employees → Edit access → Role → Owner**), or delete the business.

An owner or admin can also remove you: in **Settings → Employees** they click **Remove** in your row. Your tasks then move to the person who removed you.

## Hand the business over to a new owner

When you sell a shop or change who runs it:

1. Invite the new owner with the role **Owner**, or change their role to **Owner** with **Edit access** ([Invite employees](https://hatang.dev/help/account/invite-employees)).
2. Check that they can sign in and see everything.
3. Leave the business yourself (see above), or ask them to change your role to **Admin** or **Member** if you stay on.

Admins cannot create owners; only an owner can.

## Delete a business

Deleting removes the business with **everything it holds**: customers, products, orders, conversations, emails, payments, API keys and webhooks. Your widgets and integrations stop working immediately. This cannot be undone. Only owners can delete a business.

![The Delete business card](https://hatang.dev/help/img/en/account/delete-business.webp)

1. Open **Settings → Business settings**.
2. At the bottom of the **General** tab, find **Delete business**.
3. Type the business name exactly as shown in **Type … to confirm**.
4. Click **Delete … permanently**.

Afterwards the dashboard opens your next business, or, if you have none left, the screen to set up a new one. Your employees lose access at once.

> [!WARNING]
> Before you delete, export what you must keep, for example your customer list from CRM, and download e-invoices you are legally required to keep. Ha Tang cannot restore a deleted business.

If you only want to stop using one part of Ha Tang, turn that module off instead: its data is kept and you can turn it back on later ([Turn modules on and off](https://hatang.dev/help/getting-started/modules)).

## Delete your account

Deleting your account removes your sign-in, your sessions and your devices for good, and signs you out everywhere.

On the dashboard:

1. Open **Settings → Business settings** and the **Account** tab.
2. Under **Delete account**, read which businesses go with your account and which ones you leave.
3. Click **Delete account**, type your email address and click **Delete permanently**.

The sign-in page opens afterwards. You can also:

- In the **Ha Tang app for iPhone, Android or Mac**: open the account screen (**More** on the phone) and tap **Delete account**, then **Delete permanently**.
- Write to **hello@hatang.dev** from your account's email address and ask for your account to be closed.

Your sign-in email cannot be changed. To move to a new address, see [Sign in and sign out](https://hatang.dev/help/account/sign-in#your-email-address).

Businesses that only you own and where nobody else works are deleted together with your account. If a business you own has other employees, the deletion is refused until you name another owner or remove the other employees, so a team is never left without an owner.

## Troubleshooting

| Problem | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No **Delete business** card | You are not an owner | Ask an owner |
| **Type the business name exactly (…) to confirm** | The name you typed differs, for example in accents or spaces | Copy the name from the label above the field |
| **A business needs at least one owner** | You tried to remove or downgrade the last owner | Make someone else an owner first |
| **Leave business** is greyed out | You are the only owner | Make someone else an owner, or delete the business |
| Account deletion is refused with a business name, or **Delete account** is greyed out | You are the only owner of that business and it has other employees | Name another owner of that business, then try again |
| **The email address you typed does not match your account** | A typo in the confirmation | Type the address shown on the **Account** tab |