What should IT do before a remote employee returns a company laptop?

Before the laptop ships

1. Confirm the employee and device.
2. Secure or disable user access according to company policy.
3. Record the serial number and asset details you need.
4. Review device-management status.
5. Check Apple or Microsoft ownership and activation controls where applicable.
6. Decide what should remain active during transit.
7. Document the intended destination and next use of the device.
8. Start the physical return process.

This is a planning checklist, not a universal technical runbook. The right actions depend on your device-management platform, ownership model, security policy, whether remote access still matters during transit and what happens to the device afterward.

Know which laptop is coming back.

Useful records may include the employee, device type, serial number, asset tag, management status and an internal ticket or reference. Not every field is required. The point is that the physical return should not become detached from your asset record.

Protect company access separately from the shipment.

Depending on the departure and your policy, IT may need to disable or adjust identity accounts, SSO, email, VPN, application access or local access. This is your team's work and happens on its own timeline. ShiplyTech has no connection to your device-management systems.

Decide what should stay managed during the return.

Your environment may use an MDM, Jamf, Microsoft Intune or another endpoint-management platform. There is no rule that a laptop must be removed from management before it ships.

In many environments, keeping management in place until the laptop is physically recovered preserves important administrative control. The correct sequence still depends on your organization's own policy and tools.

Don't accidentally create an Activation Lock problem.

A Mac may involve Apple Business Manager, MDM enrollment, Activation Lock and Find My or Apple Account state. Before releasing or reassigning a Mac, understand which controls are active and what will be required when the laptop comes back.

Removing an Apple device from an ownership or management system can be difficult to reverse, so confirm the intended next step before changing its status. Follow Apple's current documentation and your own process.

Windows ownership records matter too.

A Windows laptop may remain registered in Microsoft Intune or Windows Autopilot; not every organization uses both. The right removal or reassignment sequence depends on whether the laptop will be redeployed, retired, transferred or kept as company-owned. Follow Microsoft's current documentation and your own process.

Shipping the laptop does not automatically mean wipe it.

Whether to remotely wipe a laptop before return depends on security risk, company policy, device state, whether a wipe could interfere with recovery and what needs to happen on arrival. If you believe the device or its data is at risk, your security team should follow your organization's incident or offboarding procedures. ShiplyTech handles logistics, not those security decisions.

Capture the asset information first.

Before changing device-management state, record what you will need later: serial number, asset tag, assigned user, model, management platform, current ownership or enrollment state and an internal ticket reference. Once a device leaves a management system, some convenient context may no longer be available in the same place.

The next destination affects the technical decision.

What happens after the return shapes what you change now: back to the office, internal redeployment, storage for later use or retirement.

A ShiplyTech order can return the laptop to your company, send it to ShiplyTech warehouse storage or send it for secure disposal. ShiplyTech cannot access or remove devices from your management systems, but staff may manually check enrollment and Activation Lock during warehouse or disposal processing.

Ready to start the physical return? Start a laptop return →

Technical offboarding and shipping don't have to happen at the same moment.

Account shutdown may happen immediately. The physical laptop may take days to come back. Device-management decisions may happen at different points depending on your security and asset-management process.

Then start the physical return.

A good physical return includes a confirmed employee address, appropriate packaging, clear instructions, prepaid shipping, follow-ups and tracking. See how to get a company laptop back from a remote employee and employee offboarding.

ShiplyTech handles the return, not your endpoint management.

ShiplyTech does not connect to your MDM or device-management environment. More on trust and security.

Common mistakes before a laptop return.

Removing management too early

IT loses administrative control before the device is physically recovered.

Wiping without a plan

The device is changed before the company has decided what should happen after return.

Missing the serial number

The package comes back but the asset record is incomplete.

Confusing account offboarding with device recovery

Access is closed, but nobody owns the physical return.

Waiting to start shipping

The technical work is complete, but the laptop still sits at the employee's home.

No return owner

Security, HR and IT each assume someone else is handling the box.

What if the employee doesn't return it?

If the device has been technically secured but the employee still does not return it, the problem has moved from technical offboarding to physical asset recovery and internal escalation. Read what to do when an employee doesn't return a company laptop, or see how outstanding devices are shown.

Once IT is ready, ShiplyTech can run the return.

Frequently asked questions