Overview
There are two ways to take a team member off a job, and they do different things to your job costs.
Unassign takes away their access but keeps the hours they logged counting toward the job's cost. Remove takes away their access and pulls their labor cost out of the job's totals.
Picking the wrong one changes what the job appears to have cost you.
Available in the Web App.
When to Use This Feature
A tech worked two days on a job then moved to another crew - their time was real and should stay costed.
Someone was assigned to the wrong job by mistake and never actually worked it.
A subcontractor finished their part and shouldn't keep seeing the job.
A team member left the company mid-project.
Your job costing looks wrong and you're trying to work out whose hours are in it.
The Difference, in One Line Each
Unassign - they lose access to the job. The job disappears from their assigned work. Their timesheets and compensation history stay attached to the job and their labor cost keeps counting in Job Costing.
Remove - they lose access to the job, and their compensation stops contributing to that job's cost totals.
Both actions end the person's access. The only thing that differs is what happens to the job costing calculations.
Which One Should You Use
The question to ask is: did this person actually do work on this job?
If yes, Unassign. They logged real hours. You paid them for those hours. The job genuinely cost you that money, and your profit figure should reflect it. Unassign is the right answer for almost every normal case - a crew change, someone moving to another site, a subcontractor finishing their portion.
If no, Remove. The assignment was a mistake. Their cost doesn't belong on this job because they never worked it, and leaving it in would make the job look less profitable than it was.
A useful test: if you'd still pay this person for the time showing on this job, use Unassign.
How to Unassign or Remove
Open the work order and go to the team members section.
Open the actions for the person you're changing.
Choose Unassign Team Member or Remove Team Member.
Read the confirmation window - it explains what the action does to the job's costs - and confirm.
The person loses access to the job immediately, and Job Costing updates according to which action you chose.
Seeing Unassigned Members on a Job
By default the team list shows currently assigned members. Because unassigned members' costs still count toward the job, you can also show them - they appear with a badge marking them as unassigned rather than active.
This is worth checking when a job's labor cost looks higher than the people on it would explain. The hours are probably from someone who's been unassigned.
The team member count on the job counts assigned members only, so it won't include unassigned people.
Who Can Do Each Action
These are separate permissions, and Remove is the more restricted of the two.
Unassign is available to roles that can edit and close all work orders, and to roles with full work order control.
Remove is only available to roles with full work order control, because it changes the job's reported cost.
If you can unassign but not remove, that's deliberate. See Standard User Roles.
Tips & Best Practices
Default to Unassign. It preserves the truth about what the job cost. Reach for Remove only when the assignment itself was an error.
Change people one at a time. Using Unassign or Remove on individual members is more predictable than replacing the whole team at once, and keeps each person's cost history intact.
Check the timesheets first. If the person has hours on the job, Unassign is almost certainly correct. No hours means Remove is safe.
Show unassigned members when auditing a job's cost. It's the quickest way to explain labor you can't otherwise account for.
Handle it before closing the job. Neither action works on a closed work order.
Things to Know
Both actions end the person's access to the work order and remove it from their assigned work.
Unassign keeps their timesheets and compensation attached to the job. Their labor cost stays in Job Costing.
Remove excludes their compensation from that job's cost totals.
Neither action can be performed on a closed or cancelled work order. Reopen the job first. See Canceling and Reopening a Work Order.
Unassign and Remove are governed by separate permissions, with Remove more restricted.
Unassigned members can be displayed on the job with a badge; the team member count still reflects assigned members only.
These actions affect labor and compensation. Materials someone logged are job expenses and are treated separately. [confirm: that Remove does not affect materials logged by that team member]
Job Costing detail is permission-gated, so not everyone will see the cost impact.
See Job Costing & Compensations for how labor cost is calculated.
Troubleshooting
I don't see a Remove option, only Unassign.
Remove requires broader work order permissions than Unassign because it changes reported job costs. Ask an admin to review your role.
I unassigned someone but their cost is still on the job.
That's what Unassign does. It ends access but keeps the hours and cost, because the work really happened. Use Remove if the cost genuinely shouldn't be there.
The job's labor cost is higher than the people listed would account for.
Show unassigned members on the team list. Their hours still count toward the job even though they're not in the default view.
Neither option is available on this job.
Check whether the work order is closed or cancelled. Both actions require an open job.
I used Remove but should have used Unassign.
Contact support with the work order reference before making further changes to the job's team, so the cost history can be reviewed.
Have questions? Reach out via the support chat or email support@motionops.com.