The ability to cancel terminations in Sona will depend on your organisation's configuration. Please check with your Sona Administrator first if you can't see the option.
How to cancel a termination in Sona, what happens when you do, and what you will need to check or correct manually afterwards.
Applies to: Admin
When would you need to reverse a termination?
The two most common scenarios are:
The employee was terminated in error. The wrong person was selected, the wrong date was entered, or the employee was set as a leaver before their actual leaving date — perhaps because they later changed their mind about leaving.
The termination date needs correcting. The employee genuinely left, but the date entered was wrong. In this case, you may need to cancel the termination and re-process it with the correct date.
Reversing a termination is different from rehiring a former employee. If someone left some time ago and is now returning as a new employee, see the section on rehiring at the bottom of this article.
How to cancel a termination in Sona
Sona has a Cancel Termination option in the admin portal. Not all organisations have access to this feature. If you cannot see it on the employee's record, contact Sona Support and the team can action this for you.
This can be accessed by clicking the three dot menu next to the Employee’s name on their employment record.
Once you have cancelled the termination, the employee's status in Sona will revert from Left to active. Their app access will be restored.
What is restored automatically
When a termination is cancelled:
- The employee's status returns to active
- The final date of employment is removed from their record
- The employee regains access to the Sona app
- The employee will appear again in the active employee list
What is NOT restored automatically — and needs manual attention
Future shifts
When the original termination was processed, any future shifts assigned to the employee were converted to open shifts. Cancelling the termination does not automatically reassign those shifts back to the employee. You will need to manually reassign any shifts they should be working.
Sona Pay: the leave date must be removed separately
This is the most important thing to check after cancelling a termination. Sona’s core information is the driver for Sona Pay, and the leave date that was set during termination will continue to feed through to Sona Pay — even after you have cancelled the termination in Sona Core.
This means the employee may still appear as a leaver in Sona Pay and could be at risk of receiving a P45 incorrectly.
To prevent this, the leave date must also be removed in Sona Pay:
- Go to the employee's record in Sona Pay.
- Select the menu (three lines, top right of the employee record).
- Click Continue Employment.
- Tick I have not issued a P45 and press Continue Employment.
For bureau payroll customers: contact the bureau team directly to ensure the leave date is removed in Sona Pay before the next payroll sync. Do not rely on only removing it in Sona Core — the sync between the two will repopulate the leave date in Sona Pay until both systems are updated.
Holiday balance
When a termination is processed, any future holiday bookings are cancelled. These are not automatically reinstated when the termination is cancelled. After reversing the termination, check the employee's holiday balance and re-enter any holiday bookings that should still be in place.
Permissions: who can cancel a termination
If the Cancel Termination option does not appear on the employee's record, this may be because your organisation does not have access to this feature, or because your permission level does not include this action. In either case, check with your Sona Administrators first, and if you still believe it should be showing, please contact Sona Support.
Time limits: is there a window for reversal?
The earlier a termination is cancelled, the simpler the correction. The main complication with reversing an older termination is that rosters for the relevant period may already be locked, making it harder to address any shifts or payroll records affected.
There is no confirmed hard time limit for cancelling a termination in Sona, but be aware that:
- If the employee has already been included in a final pay run and a P45 has been issued in Sona Pay, additional corrections will be needed in both Sona Core and Sona Pay.
- If the termination date falls in a locked payroll period, contact Sona Support for guidance — this may require support team involvement to resolve cleanly.
Correcting a wrong termination date
If the employee did genuinely leave but the termination date was wrong, you can cancel the termination and re-process it with the correct date.
Before doing so:
- Check whether any payroll runs have already been processed using the incorrect date. If so, corrections may be needed.
- If the correct date falls in a past period that is already locked, contact Sona Support before making changes.
The difference between reversing a termination and rehiring
These two scenarios look similar but are handled differently in Sona.
Cancel termination is for situations where the termination should not have happened at all, or the date was wrong. The employee's employment record is continuous — there is no genuine break in employment.
Rehire is for a former employee who left correctly and is now returning as a new employee, usually with a new employee number and a new employment period. A rehired employee will have a gap between their previous employment end date and their new start date.
If you are unsure which applies, the key question is: was there a genuine break in employment? If yes, use the rehire process. If no — the employee never actually left or the termination was an error — use Cancel Termination.
When to contact support
Contact Sona Support if:
- The Cancel Termination option does not appear on the employee's record and you believe it should
- The termination date falls in a locked payroll period
- A P45 has already been issued in Sona Pay and needs to be recalled or corrected
- You are unsure whether to cancel the termination or process a rehire
When contacting support, include the employee's name, their employee number, the termination date that was set, and a brief description of what happened.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I cancelled the termination but the employee still shows as a leaver in Sona Pay. What do I do?
This is expected behaviour. Cancelling the termination in Sona Core does not automatically remove the leave date in Sona Pay — you need to do this separately. In Sona Pay, go to the employee's record, select the menu (three lines, top right), click Continue Employment, tick that no P45 has been issued, and confirm. If you are a bureau customer, contact the bureau team to action this before the next payroll sync.
Q: The employee's future shifts did not come back after I cancelled the termination. Do I need to reassign them?
Yes. When a termination is processed, future shifts are converted to open shifts — they are not automatically reassigned when the termination is cancelled. Check the roster and manually reassign any shifts the employee should be working.
Q: We terminated the wrong employee entirely. What do I do?
Cancel the termination on the employee who was incorrectly terminated as soon as possible. Then check their Sona Pay record (if applicable) and remove the leave date. Check the roster for any shifts that have become open and reassign as needed. If you also need to terminate the correct employee, do this as a separate action after resolving the error.
Q: The termination was months ago. Can it still be cancelled?
Depending on how long ago the termination was and what has happened in payroll since, this may or may not be straightforward. If payroll periods have been locked and a P45 has been issued, you may be looking at a rehire rather than a cancellation. Contact Sona Support with the details and the team will advise on the best course of action.
Still Need Help?
Contact Sona Support with the employee's name, their employee number, the original termination date, and a description of what needs correcting.