Log Out a Staff Member Manually

While session hard timeout is the preferred way to force staff members to reauthenticate, you can also manually log out individual staff accounts when the situation warrants.

This action terminates the staff member’s session, locks the Service Console, and forces the staff member to reauthenticate in order to continue working. When an agent is engaged in a chat and is logged out, but then does not reauthenticate, the chat is sent back into the queue for assignment to the next available agent.

In order to manually log out staff accounts, staff members must have the Groups/Accounts/Distribution Lists permission on the Administration tab of the Profiles editor. See Administration Permissions to assign this permission.

When you manually log out a staff account, the server sends the information to the client. When the staff member then tries to perform an action, like saving an open record or clicking a button, a Console Locked message displays. After the staff member enters login credentials and is authenticated, a new session is created and the staff member can proceed without losing any work. Also, the end date and time are updated in the User Transactions (user_trans) table in the Oracle database, enabling you to view and track your desktop user sessions.

Using the Logged In Staff Accounts standard report, you can see which staff members are currently logged in, the date and time they logged in, and how long they have been logged in. You’ll also see a Force Logout button on the Record group of the ribbon for logging out a selected staff account. (You can also right-click a staff account in the list and select Force Logout.)

Note: If you prefer, you can create your own custom report to manually log out staff members. You’ll need to use fields from the Accounts (accounts) and User Transactions (user_trans) tables to display currently logged-in staff accounts and their login start and end times.

1. Do one of the following:
   • From the configuration list, double-click Logged In Staff Accounts in Staff Management.
   • From the Reports explorer, double-click Staff Management in Common/Site Administration.
2. Select a staff account in the list and click Force Logout.
   A message asks you to confirm the action and warns you that all of the staff member’s unsaved changes will be lost.
3. Click OK.
   A message tells you that the staff member’s session has been terminated.
4. Click OK.
5. Repeat the previous steps as necessary to log out additional staff accounts.

Results:

When a staff member tries to perform an action after being logged out, a Console Locked message displays. After the staff member reauthenticates (by entering the correct password), a new session is created and the staff member can proceed without losing any work.