Joining and Leaving: In and Out Processing

Lesson Overview

Every member of the force begins on a day they are brought onto strength, and most will end on a day they are taken off it. Between those two days lies their whole service. This lesson is about those two days and the orderly work that surrounds them: how a person is brought in cleanly, and how a person is seen out cleanly. They are the bookends of a service record, and an orderly room that gets them right gives every member a service that opens and closes without loose ends. An orderly room that gets them wrong leaves a trail of half-opened records, kit no one has accounted for, pay that was never settled, and, most dangerous of all, live access in the hands of someone who has gone.

In-processing is the work of joining. It begins with attestation, the formal act that brings a national onto strength, and it continues through opening the service record, issuing the accounts and access the member needs to do their job, drawing the kit they are entitled to, and recording their next-of-kin so the force knows who to contact. Out-processing is the work of leaving. It clears the kit and stores the member holds, settles the pay and leave they are owed, closes the service record, and revokes every account, access, and certificate they held, promptly and completely, so that a person who has left the force does not keep a live way into it. Both are checklists of small, careful steps, and the discipline is in finishing the list, every time, for every person.

This is the knowledge layer of the course. It explains what in-processing and out-processing are, the steps each one runs through, and why a clean joiner and a clean leaver matter so much in a small force. The hands-on administration, opening a service record, raising the joining paperwork, working a clearance checklist, signing off the revocation of access, is practised and signed off in person where supervision allows, because finishing a checklist under a watchful eye is a habit that only repetition builds. Read this to understand the why; the doing is confirmed at the table.

By the end you will be able to explain what attestation is and how it brings a national onto strength; describe the in-processing checklist and the four things it sets up, the open service record, the accounts and access, the kit, and the next-of-kin; describe the out-processing checklist and the four things it settles, the cleared kit and stores, the settled pay and leave, the closed service record, and the revoked access; explain why revoking accounts, access, and certificates promptly is the most important single step of any departure, and tie it to the joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle and the deprovisioning taught in CIS 220; and explain why a clean joiner and a clean leaver are a discipline the small force cannot afford to neglect.

Key Terms

• Attestation: the formal act by which a national is enlisted and brought onto the strength of the force, taking on the obligations of service; the event that begins a member's service and the first entry in their record.
• On strength: belonging to and counted as part of a unit; in-processing brings a member onto strength, out-processing takes them off it.
• In-processing: the orderly sequence run when a member joins, opening the service record, issuing accounts and access, drawing kit, and recording next-of-kin, so the member is properly set up to serve.
• Out-processing: the orderly sequence run when a member leaves, clearing kit and stores, settling pay and leave, closing the service record, and revoking accounts, access, and certificates, so the member departs with nothing outstanding and no live access.
• Next-of-kin: the person a member nominates to be contacted on their behalf, recorded at joining and kept current, and held with great care because it is needed most in the worst moments.
• Clearance: the act of accounting for and handing back everything a departing member holds, kit, stores, accounts, and access, confirmed item by item so nothing leaves with them by accident.
• Deprovisioning: the removal of a person's accounts, access rights, and credentials when they no longer need them, the access side of out-processing, taught in detail in CIS 220.
• Joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle: the recognised pattern that access is granted when a person joins, adjusted when they move role, and removed when they leave; out-processing is the leaver step, and a leaver who keeps access is the failure the lifecycle exists to prevent.

Joining: attestation brings a national onto strength

A person does not drift into the force. There is a moment, a formal and recorded act, at which a national stops being a candidate and becomes a member on strength, and that act is attestation. In the Commonwealth pattern the force follows, attestation is the formal enlistment: the national takes on the obligations of service, the force takes them onto its strength, and the event is recorded with its authority. From that moment they are counted on the nominal roll, they appear in the strength return, and they have a service record that the orderly room will keep for the whole of their service. The first entry in that record is the attestation itself.

Attestation matters to the personnel administrator for a plain reason: it is the authority on which everything else rests. You do not open a service record for someone because they turned up; you open it because they attested, and the attestation is the thing that says so. In the same way that a Part II order is the authority that updates a record later in a career, attestation is the authority that begins the record. Get the attestation recorded right, the correct name, the correct date, the service number assigned, the authority noted, and the whole record stands on firm ground. Get it loose, and every later entry inherits the looseness.

It is worth being clear that attestation is the event, and in-processing is the sequence of administrative work that the event sets off. The two are joined but not the same. Attestation is the formal act of joining; in-processing is the checklist the orderly room runs so that the newly attested member is actually set up to serve, with a record, the accounts and access they need, the kit they are entitled to, and their next-of-kin on file. A national can have attested and still not be ready to work, if the in-processing has not been done. The administrator's job is to make sure that the formal act and the practical setting-up both happen, and that neither is left half-finished.

In-processing: setting a member up to serve

In-processing is a checklist, and the discipline is to finish it. Four things have to be done, and a member is not fully in until all four are complete. Take them in turn, because each one matters and each one is a place where a careless orderly room leaves a loose end.

First, open the service record. The service record is the single trusted account of the member's service, and in-processing is where it begins. The administrator creates the record, enters the attestation and its authority, records the member's personal details, and assigns or confirms the service number that will identify them for the whole of their service. This is the foundation. Every later entry, every promotion, posting, qualification, and leave balance, will hang on this record, so it is worth the care to start it right.

Second, issue the accounts and access the member needs to do their job. A member of a digitally organised force cannot work without the right accounts: the systems they will use, the files they may see, the credentials that let them in. In-processing is the joiner step of the joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle: access is granted because the person has joined and needs it. The administrator works with the access discipline taught in CIS 220 to provision exactly what the role requires, no more, and records what was issued, because what is granted at joining is what will have to be revoked at leaving. An access never recorded is an access easily forgotten.

Third, draw the kit the member is entitled to. The member is issued the clothing, equipment, and stores their role requires, and, crucially for the administrator, what they hold is recorded against them. This ties to the stores accounting taught in LOG 201: every issued item is accounted for to the person holding it, so that when they leave there is a true list of what must be cleared. Kit issued without record is kit that quietly disappears, and an orderly room that does not record issues at joining cannot run a clean clearance at leaving.

Fourth, record the next-of-kin. The member nominates the person to be contacted on their behalf, and the administrator records it accurately and holds it with care. This is the most human entry in the joining checklist, because it is the one that matters most in the worst moments, an injury, an emergency, a death. It must be right, and it must be kept current as the member's life changes. Recording it at joining, and treating it with the confidentiality it deserves, is part of the force keeping faith with its people from the very first day.

   IN-PROCESSING CHECKLIST: BRINGING A MEMBER ON STRENGTH

   Trigger: ATTESTATION (the national is enlisted onto strength)

   [ ]  1. OPEN THE SERVICE RECORD
           - create the record; enter attestation + its authority
           - record personal details; assign/confirm service number
           - this is the foundation every later entry hangs on

   [ ]  2. ISSUE ACCOUNTS AND ACCESS  (joiner step; ties CIS 220)
           - provision only what the role needs, no more
           - RECORD what was issued (it must be revoked on departure)

   [ ]  3. DRAW KIT AND STORES        (ties LOG 201)
           - issue entitled clothing, equipment, stores
           - RECORD each item held against the member

   [ ]  4. RECORD NEXT-OF-KIN
           - nominate and record accurately; hold in confidence
           - keep current; needed most in the worst moments

   A member is fully IN only when all four are complete.
   Half a checklist is a loose end waiting to be paid for.

Leaving: out-processing and the clean departure

A departure is the joining checklist run in reverse, and it is the one administrators are most tempted to rush, because the person is going and the work feels like tidying up after the fact. Resist that. A clean leaver matters as much as a clean joiner, and in one respect it matters more, because a botched joining is an inconvenience and a botched leaving can be a real danger. Out-processing has four things to settle, and, as with joining, a member is not truly out until all four are done.

First, clear the kit and stores. Everything the member was issued has to be handed back and accounted for, item by item, against the record made when it was drawn. This is where the LOG 201 discipline pays off: because the kit was recorded against the member at joining, the clearance has a true list to work from, and the administrator can confirm each item returned, note any loss or damage to be settled, and close the member's holdings to nil. Kit not cleared is kit gone walkabout, and an orderly room that never recorded the issue will never run a clean clearance.

Second, settle the pay and leave. The member is paid in US dollars to the correct final date, any outstanding entitlement is settled, and the leave balance is closed off, leave owed paid or granted, leave overdrawn accounted for. This is not paperwork; it is somebody's money and time, and getting it wrong sends a member out of the force underpaid or shortchanged on leave they had earned. The administrator owes the departing member the same accuracy they owed them in service, right to the last day.

Third, close the service record. The record that was opened at attestation is brought to a proper close: the departure recorded with its authority, the record made complete and consistent, and the member struck off strength so the nominal roll and the strength return no longer count them. A record left open after a member has gone is a record that lies about the strength of the force, and a force that does not strike off its leavers cannot count itself honestly.

Fourth, and most important of all, revoke the accounts, access, and certificates, promptly and completely. Every account issued at joining, every access granted, every credential or certificate held, is removed the moment the member leaves. This is the leaver step of the joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle and the deprovisioning taught in CIS 220, and it is the single step an administrator must never let slip, because a person who has left the force must not keep a live way into it. The record made at joining of what access was issued is exactly what makes a complete revocation possible: you cannot reliably remove what you never wrote down. Revoke it all, confirm it removed, and record that you did.

   OUT-PROCESSING CHECKLIST: CLEARANCE AND REVOCATION

   Trigger: DEPARTURE (the member is leaving the force)

   [ ]  1. CLEAR KIT AND STORES        (ties LOG 201)
           - hand back item by item against the joining record
           - note loss/damage to settle; close holdings to nil

   [ ]  2. SETTLE PAY AND LEAVE        (USD)
           - pay to correct final date; settle entitlements
           - close the leave balance honestly (owed or overdrawn)

   [ ]  3. CLOSE THE SERVICE RECORD
           - record departure + its authority; make record complete
           - strike off strength (roll and return stop counting them)

   [ ]  4. REVOKE ACCOUNTS, ACCESS, CERTIFICATES   <-- the critical step
           - leaver step of joiner-mover-leaver; ties CIS 220
           - remove EVERY account/access/credential issued at joining
           - confirm removed; record that it was done
           - a person who has LEFT must not keep LIVE access

   A member is truly OUT only when all four are done.
   Step 4 is the one that, left undone, becomes a real danger.

Why revoking access promptly is the step that cannot wait

Of all the steps in this lesson, one deserves to be set apart, because it is the one whose failure does the most harm and the one most easily neglected. When a member leaves, their accounts, access, and certificates must be revoked promptly. Not eventually, not when someone gets to it, not next time the orderly room has a quiet afternoon. Promptly, on departure, completely.

The reasoning is the joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle, the recognised pattern taught in CIS 220. Access is granted when a person joins, adjusted when they move role, and removed when they leave. The whole point of the pattern is that access tracks need: a person should have exactly the access their current role requires, and no access at all once they have no role. The leaver step is where this most often fails, because once a person is gone there is no one inside the force inconvenienced by their lingering access, and so no one pushing to remove it. The access sits there, live, belonging to someone who is no longer accountable to the force and no longer watched by it. That is precisely the danger: an account that can still be used, by the former member or by anyone who comes to control it, with none of the force's discipline holding it in check.

For a small, digitally organised force this is not a remote risk; it is the most likely security failure of all, because every member holds digital access and departures are routine. The defence is dull and reliable: revoke on departure, every time, and revoke completely. This is why in-processing insists on recording what access was issued. That record is not bureaucracy for its own sake; it is the checklist the revocation works from. You can only be sure you have removed everything if you wrote down everything you granted. Issue and record at joining; revoke and confirm at leaving. Close the loop, and no leaver keeps a live way in.

In Practice: A Joiner and a Leaver in the Same Week

A Corporal of the Royal Kaharagian Army, holding the orderly-room clerk duty under the Orderly Room NCO, works two members through the bookends of service in a single week, and the contrast teaches the lesson.

On the Monday a newly attested national reports to join. The Corporal does not treat the arrival as a formality. The attestation and its authority are entered and the service record is opened, with the personal details and the service number recorded right. The Corporal then provisions the accounts the role needs, exactly those and no more, working to the access discipline of CIS 220, and writes down precisely what was issued. The member draws their kit, and each item is recorded against them in the stores account, the LOG 201 way. Last, the Corporal sits with the member to record the next-of-kin, takes care to get it exactly right, and notes it as the kind of entry that must be kept current. By the end of the morning the joiner is fully in: record open, access set up and recorded, kit recorded, next-of-kin on file. The checklist is finished, not half-finished.

On the Thursday a member is leaving the force, and the Corporal runs the joining checklist in reverse. The kit is cleared item by item against the record made when it was drawn, one item noted as damaged and the matter set down to be settled, and the holdings closed to nil. The pay is settled to the correct final date in US dollars and the leave balance is closed honestly. The service record opened years before is brought to a proper close, the departure recorded with its authority, and the member struck off strength so the next strength return no longer counts them. Then the Corporal turns to the step that matters most. Using the record of what access was issued, every account, access, and certificate the member held is revoked, the removal confirmed, and the fact recorded. The Corporal pauses on this one deliberately, because the Orderly Room NCO has drilled it in: a person who has left must not keep live access, and the orderly room is the last line that ensures it.

By the Friday the Corporal has set the lesson down plainly. A clean joiner sets a member up to serve; a clean leaver settles everything they are owed and closes every way they could get back in. Both are checklists, and the only discipline is to finish them, every time, for every person. The joiner who is half set up is an inconvenience. The leaver who keeps live access is a danger, and the orderly room exists, in part, to make sure that never happens.

Check Your Understanding

1. Explain what attestation is and how it differs from in-processing. Then describe the four things the in-processing checklist sets up when a member joins, and give one reason each matters.
2. A member is leaving the force. List the four things out-processing must settle, and explain why closing the service record and striking the member off strength matters to the honesty of the strength return.
3. Explain why revoking accounts, access, and certificates promptly is the most important single step of any departure. Tie your answer to the joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle and the deprovisioning taught in CIS 220, and explain how the record made at joining of what access was issued makes a complete revocation possible.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson argues that a clean leaver matters as much as a clean joiner, and in one respect more, because a botched joining is an inconvenience while a leaver who keeps live access is a real danger. The revocation of access is the step most easily neglected, precisely because once a person is gone no one inside the force is inconvenienced by their lingering access. Think about why dull, routine final steps are the ones most often left undone, in administration and in your own life, and about what it takes to finish a checklist properly when the interesting part is already over. What habit would you want to build so that you finish the last item with the same care as the first, especially the item whose neglect would only show up later, as harm to someone else?

Summary

• Attestation is the formal act that enlists a national and brings them onto strength; it is the authority on which the service record is opened, and the first entry in that record. In-processing is the separate sequence of work the attestation sets off, and a member can be attested but not yet fully set up to serve.
• In-processing runs a four-step checklist: open the service record, issue the accounts and access the role needs (the joiner step, recorded so it can later be revoked), draw and record the kit and stores (ties LOG 201), and record the next-of-kin accurately and in confidence. A member is fully in only when all four are done.
• Out-processing runs the checklist in reverse: clear the kit and stores item by item against the joining record (ties LOG 201), settle the pay (in US dollars) and the leave balance honestly, close the service record and strike the member off strength, and revoke every account, access, and certificate. A member is truly out only when all four are done.
• Revoking accounts, access, and certificates promptly and completely is the single most important step of any departure, because a person who has left must not keep a live way into the force. It is the leaver step of the joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle and the deprovisioning taught in CIS 220, and it is most often neglected precisely because no one inside the force is inconvenienced by a leaver's lingering access. Recording what access was issued at joining is what makes a complete revocation possible.
• A clean joiner sets a member up to serve; a clean leaver settles everything they are owed and closes every way they could get back in. Both are a discipline of finishing the checklist, every time, for every person, and a small force can afford to neglect neither.
• This lesson builds on Lesson 01 (the personnel picture, establishment and strength, the nominal roll and the strength return that joining and leaving keep true), and leads on to Lesson 03 (promotions, appointments, and postings, the events of a career recorded by authority). It draws on ADM 201 (the service record opened and closed here), and connects to CIS 220 (provisioning, deprovisioning, and the joiner-mover-leaver lifecycle), LOG 201 (the stores accounting that makes a clean clearance possible), PME 210 (the service writing the joining and leaving paperwork is written in), and LDR 420 (the integrity owed to a member's pay, leave, and welfare right to the last day).

Crown Copyright © 2026 | Published by Authority of H.R.H. The Prince of Kaharagia