Client email domain offboarding means the agency returns MX and secrets without leaving leftover hosts or a still-valid SMTP password. Screenshot the current MX, hand the client a sheet of aliases, revoke seats and SMTP, and only then remove the domain from your MailerZ account if that is the plan. Dual MX “for a while” is how you stay on-call forever. Exclusive ownership is the professional ending.
Quick answer for client email domain offboarding
Offboarding is a cutover in reverse plus credential revoke.
RFC 1035: whoever publishes MX owns inbound. If your MX stays, you still own their mail.
Hand them a map so they are not guessing local-parts.
Rotate or delete SMTP secrets you issued.
Do not invent an SLA for how long you keep copies after offboard. The store window is the window.
Start the next client on a rehearsal so offboarding is a known motion.
Authoritative mail transport is defined in IETF RFC 5321 — Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Product path: features, migration planner, and delivery recovery. Confirm remaining plan capacity on MailerZ pricing (Solo is $40 per year; Free keeps send-as, SMTP, and API Off). Drain held copies from Mail Box before you delete the domain. Field maps: MailerZ documentation.
User problem and decision criteria
Decision criteria: who publishes next, store window needs, SMTP still in their WordPress, leftover MX from you.
Criteria that do not belong: keeping MX as unpaid insurance, catch-all FORWARD as a parting gift.
If they move to Workspace, they must delete MailerZ MX. Write that.
If they stay on MailerZ under their own login, transfer seats. Do not share yours.
Legal wants a date. Give a date for MX change and revoke.
Agencies that skip revoke get used as an open-ish relay from old env files.
No SOC 2 theater in the exit packet.
No inboxing promise as a farewell.
Technical mail flow
Packet → client publishes their next MX or keeps MailerZ under their account → you revoke → public MX no longer yours if you exited.
History remains for the store window if the domain is still on the account.
Secrets in their env are their rotate job after you hand new values—or they move SMTP.
Leftover you is the incident you created.
HOLD stays their policy to choose.
Step-by-step setup / decision path
- Export alias sheet and destinations.
- Screenshot current MX and NS.
- Write the next owner and date.
- Revoke SMTP and extra seats.
- Client publishes next exclusive MX or takes the account.
- Confirm public MX is no longer you if you exited.
- Confirm old env cannot AUTH.
- Keep the packet in your archive.
Classify the next failure before a second DNS edit.
HOLD unknown unless you wrote a FORWARD reason.
Quote live pricing before promising alias counts.
Failure modes and proof
Left MX up unpaid: you still operate their mail.
Unrevoked SMTP: their hacked WP sends as them through you.
No sheet: they recreate 550s.
Dual MX transition: split.
Deleted store they still needed: clock.
Self-send as proof of exit.
Shared leftover login.
Inboxing farewell.
Header rewrite “to help them leave.”
Catch-all on as goodbye.
Wrong NS instructions.
No date: forever retainers.
MailerZ workflow and product boundary
MailerZ is custom-domain aliasing and forwarding with optional paid send-as. Secuno LLC operates mailerz.net. The app is mail.mailerz.net. Not Workspace, not IMAP, not an open relay, not a campaign ESP.
Envelope SRS only. Header From, Subject, Date, Message-ID, body, and MIME stay intact. Exclusive MX. Hold unknown on Free. Copy SMTP host, port, and TLS or STARTTLS from the dashboard when you send.
Free: one domain, ten aliases, one seat, fourteen-day store, send-as disabled, SMTP and API disabled. Solo forty dollars a year, twenty-five aliases, ninety-day store, 2,500 outgoing, 20 send-as per hour. Starter eight or eighty. Business nineteen or one hundred ninety. Agency thirty-nine or three hundred ninety. Quote pricing. No SOC 2, ISO, HIPAA, SLA, or inboxing percentage.
Cost, alternatives, and trade-offs
Unrevoked SMTP is breach cost.
Leftover MX is incident cost on a brand you no longer invoice.
A clean packet is cheap reputation.
Forever dual MX is unpaid on-call.
Agencies should bill a named offboard hour.
Store expiry is not cruelty. It is the product.
Do not discount a messy exit.
No fake SLA.
Operational depth
Put offboarding in the original SOW. Surprise exits are sloppy.
WordPress SMTP is the usual leftover secret. Tell them to open the plugin.
If they move to another forwarder, leftover MailerZ MX is their split. Your job is to tell them to delete it.
If they keep MailerZ, bill them or transfer. Do not donate.
Store windows: if they need a message, they need it before expiry. Say the date.
Do not keep a backdoor MX “just in case.” That is unpaid operations and a confused public record.
Document who has registrar access after you leave.
Quote nothing new. This is an exit.
No HIPAA packet. Point at existing legal pages if they ask.
Probe from a third mailbox after their new exclusive MX if you are still hired to watch the cut. Then stop.
Revoke your password manager items.
Postmortem internally if MX lingered.
Worked scenarios for client-domain offboarding
The retainer ends on Friday. You send the alias sheet, MX screenshots, who will publish next, and a revoke time. Thursday you revoke SMTP and agency seats. Friday the client (or their new agency) publishes their next exclusive MX. You remove the domain from your MailerZ workspace after they confirm the new hop—or after a written clock if they go silent. You do not leave your MX answering a zone you no longer bill.
The client asks you to 'keep receiving for ninety days as a courtesy.' Courtesy without exclusive ownership is leftover MX you still operate for free, plus their bank tokens in your HOLD. Write a clock, a fee, or a no. Do not stay published and uninsured.
A junior deletes the MailerZ domain first. MX still points at you. Mail dies. Offboarding order is: client ready to publish next, then you stop being the exchanger, then you delete the workspace object. Reverse that and you own an outage with no contract.
SMTP still lives in their WordPress. You revoked the secret. Their site 550s. That is correct if you warned them. If you did not warn them, you created a launch incident on the way out. The sheet includes 'update or remove SMTP.'
Dual MX 'during transition' keeps you on-call forever. The professional ending is one owner. Them or you, then the other, never both as a vibe.
History inside the store window still has hops they may need. Do not purge the workspace the hour you are angry. Export what they asked for inside fourteen or ninety days. Then leave. MailerZ is not their archive; it is also not a tantrum button.
Practice and anti-patterns at the end of a retainer
Practice: sheet, screenshots, revoke, then MX change, then workspace remove. Anti-pattern: delete first.
Practice: exclusive next owner. Anti-pattern: dual MX courtesy.
Practice: revoke SMTP and seats the day you stop being paid, after the warning. Anti-pattern: leftover secrets in their plugin.
Practice: written clock if they go silent. Anti-pattern: infinite MX hosting as a hostage or as a gift.
Practice: HOLD stays until they cut. Anti-pattern: catch-all FORWARD into your agency inbox 'so nothing is lost' after the fight.
Practice: one packet per zone. Anti-pattern: a zip named client-stuff.
Practice: morning re-query after they say they cut. Anti-pattern: believing a Slack emoji.
Operator closeout of an offboard
Closeout lists zones, last exclusive listings (yours, then theirs), revoke times, seats removed, SMTP identities killed, store exports if requested, and the written clock if they were silent.
The client has the alias sheet and knows Free versus paid if they stay on MailerZ themselves. Quote /pricing. Do not leave them surprised by a 550.
Your agency inbox is no longer a destination for their aliases. Remap or they still land on you after you wanted to be free.
Registrar access you held is returned. A leftover 2FA device is leftover authority.
A dated note: you are not their exchanger after TIME. Support macros stop promising you will look in HOLD.
Legal wants something forever. You cannot invent an archive. Give them the window. Point at /security. Do not promise HIPAA on the way out.
Edge cases in agency offboarding
The client disappears. You are still MX. Your written clock fires. You notify the registrar contact you have. You stop being MX when the clock ends, even if they never answered. Infinite courtesy is not a control.
The new agency dual-publishes you and them. You still get half the mail and half the tickets. Write that leftover MX is their incident now. Delete your side when the contract says you may. Do not stay to 'help QA.'
A franchise has twenty zones and you offboard one. Do not yank the agency plan in a way that surprises the nineteen. Confirm live caps. Per-zone offboard.
An employee of yours was the destination Gmail. Remap to the client before revoke. Offboarding the domain while mail still hits your staff is a confidentiality bug.
They want you to keep SMTP so the site 'does not break' but they will not pay. Then the site should stop sending as them or they pay. Do not donate an open-looking identity.
They accuse you of stealing the domain. MX is not registration. Keep your hands off registrar transfer unless that was in scope. Offboard mail, not their asset, unless you were the registrant of record—and then follow that contract, not this article's default.
Field notes from messy endings
The clean endings are packets. The messy endings are leftover MX and a secret in WordPress six months later.
Agencies that put offboard in the SOW get paid for the last week. Agencies that improvise donate it and still get the Monday ticket.
Clients will ask to keep both MX. The answer is the same as launch: exclusive is professional. Dual is a coin flip with your name still on half.
RFC 1035 will keep sending to whoever is published. Unpublished you is the only offboard that works.
Link /troubleshooting for leftover MX language they can hand the next agency. Link /docs if they stay on MailerZ.
No inboxing promise as a goodbye gift. No badge to soften a breakup.
Handoff memo for the incoming operator
Alias sheet, current MX picture, recommended exclusive next set (theirs), SMTP locations in apps, HOLD policy, store window remaining, who has registrar.
If they stay on MailerZ, the memo says they need their own workspace or a seat you no longer own. Do not keep their domain in your login as a favor.
Dashboard SMTP copy if they keep send-as. No folklore ports. Free has no send-as.
Your revoke time is in the memo so they do not plan a cut after you already killed AUTH.
Morning re-query is their job after they publish. You can offer a paid hour. You should not linger unpublished-but-still-watching as unpaid ops.
Acceptance criteria for a safe offboard
Client has the sheet and pictures. SMTP and seats revoked on the warning date. You are not leftover MX after the clock. Destinations are not your staff.
Workspace object removed or transferred per the plan. History export done if they asked inside the window.
Registrar access returned. No dual MX courtesy. One packet per zone.
They know whether they still pay MailerZ. /pricing quoted, not remembered.
No bodies in your Slack from their last week. No invented SLA in the goodbye PDF.
A probe from their side succeeded on their new exclusive set, or the silent-clock note is filed.
Operations review of agency exits
Count zones you still publish for unpaid clients. That number should be zero or a dated exception. Each exception is a liability.
Count SMTP users that still show agency staff. Offboard.
Count destinations that still hit agency Gmail. Remap or you are still their help desk.
Review SOW language. If offboard is unpaid, you will skip it and keep MX. Fix the SOW.
Review store clocks so you do not promise exports after expiry.
Rehearse offboard on a lab client. The first production exit should not be a fight.
Quarterly review of offboard hygiene
Any zone still on your MX without a retainer? Cut or contract.
Any secret still in a former client's plugin that you issued? If you can still AUTH, you failed revoke. If you cannot, good.
Any leftover 2FA on their registrar? Return it.
Did we dual-publish to be nice? Write the miss. Do not repeat it.
Did we delete the workspace before they published? Write the miss. Fix the order in the runbook.
Author: MailerZ editorial, Secuno LLC. Review when agency process, pricing, or scope change.
Closing notes on leaving the zone clean
Client email domain offboarding is a reverse cutover plus credential revoke. Sheet the aliases, screenshot MX, warn, revoke SMTP and seats, let them publish the next exclusive hop, then leave. Dual MX 'for a while' is how you stay on-call forever.
Do not delete first. Do not donate leftover MX. Do not keep their mail in your inbox. Do not invent an archive or a badge on the way out.
Start free on your own lab to rehearse the order. Product path: /docs, /troubleshooting, /email-forwarding, /pricing.
People in an agency exit
Your cutter, their incoming operator, the client approver who can publish DNS, and whoever still holds registrar 2FA. If the incoming operator is missing, you still need a written clock. You cannot stay MX forever waiting for a name.
Your staff who were destinations must be remapped before you revoke. Offboarding the zone while mail hits agency Gmail is a confidentiality defect. People first, then DNS.
Finance should know courtesy MX is unpaid ops plus liability. If the SOW does not pay the last week, you will skip the packet and keep leftovers. Fix the SOW. Assign finance to hear that once.
Support macros must stop promising HOLD lookups after TIME. Train the date. Otherwise you donate a help desk.
Legal may want forever mail. You cannot invent an archive. Give the window. Point at /security. Do not sign HIPAA on the way out to be polite.
Proof packet for a completed offboard
Per-zone sheets, last listings while you were MX, their exclusive listings after cut (or silent-clock note), revoke timestamps, seats removed, SMTP identities killed, destinations no longer your staff, registrar access returned, export note if they asked inside the store window.
A probe from their side on their new hop, or a dated statement that they did not provide one before the clock. Your self-send is not their proof.
WordPress and apps listed where SMTP lived. A 550 after revoke is expected if they did not update. The packet shows you warned them.
No dual-MX screenshot as a 'nice' ending. If you find one, the offboard is not closed.
Bodies stay out of your Slack. Ticket IDs only. Their last week of invoices is not your souvenir store.
Appendix: exit requests you should refuse
Keep both MX until we are sure. Sure is exclusive plus a probe. Dual is you on-call.
Keep SMTP so the site does not break, without pay. Then the site should stop sending or they pay. Do not donate an identity.
Delete everything today including history we might need. Export first inside the window, then delete on the plan. Tantrum deletes are incidents.
Stay as a hidden secondary. Hidden secondaries that serve old MX are leftover MX. Match or leave.
Transfer the domain as part of mail offboard when you were never the registrant. Mail is not registration. Stay in your lane unless the contract says otherwise.
A badge or SLA paragraph in the goodbye PDF. You do not acquire SOC 2 at the exit meeting. /security is the page. This article will not add trophies.
More operator notes on leaving clean
The professional ending is one exchanger, not a fade. Fades are leftover MX with extra calendar. Write the clock. Fire the clock. Stop being published.
Order matters: warn, remap your staff, revoke secrets, they publish, you confirm or the clock fires, you remove the workspace object. Delete-first is an outage with your name on it.
Count unpaid zones quarterly. Each one is a liability and a Monday ticket. Zero is the target.
Internal links: /docs, /troubleshooting, /email-forwarding, /pricing, /security. External: RFC 1035. No inboxing goodbye. No courtesy dual MX.
Rehearse on a lab. The first production exit should be boring. Boring exits renew your reputation even when the retainer does not.
Author: MailerZ editorial, Secuno LLC. Review when agency process, pricing, or scope change.
Extended narrative of a Friday retainer end
Monday you send the alias sheet and MX pictures and a Thursday revoke time. Wednesday you remap agency Gmail destinations to the client. Thursday you revoke SMTP and seats. The client's new operator publishes exclusive MX Friday noon. You query two resolvers. You are gone from the listing. You remove the workspace object. WordPress 550s until they paste their own dashboard values—you warned them in the sheet. That is client email domain offboarding.
The alternate story: you delete the domain Tuesday because you are angry. MX still points at you. Mail dies. You own an outage with no contract. Order is the professionalism. Feelings are not a runbook.
The courtesy story: dual MX for ninety days. You remain on-call and their HOLD still holds bank mail in your store. Write a fee or a no. Silent clocks beat infinite gifts.
The packet lives in your agency files with a date after which support will not open their HOLD. Macros change. Reputation is the clean ending, not the extra week of leftover MX.
Quarterly you count unpaid zones still on your MX. The number is zero or a dated exception. Each exception is a Monday ticket with your name still on the hop.
Endnote on one exchanger, then none of you
Offboarding is reverse cutover plus revoke. Sheet, warn, remap your staff, revoke, they publish exclusive, you leave. Do not delete first. Do not donate dual MX. Do not keep their invoices in Slack.
Product path: /docs, /troubleshooting, /email-forwarding, /pricing, /security. Author: MailerZ editorial, Secuno LLC. Review when the SOW, pricing, or agency process change.
Last checks before you drop the workspace object
They published exclusive next MX or your silent clock fired. You are not leftover. Destinations are not your staff. SMTP and seats revoked on the warned date. Registrar access returned. Packet filed per zone.
Support macros no longer promise HOLD lookups. Finance is not donating courtesy MX. Dual publish is absent. WordPress was warned about 550.
Exports they asked for happened inside fourteen or ninety days. You did not invent an archive. You did not sign HIPAA to be polite. /security is the page.
Unpaid zones you still publish: zero, or a dated exception. Then you may delete the workspace object. Delete-first is an outage. Leave-last is the job.
FAQ
- What is the safest way to handle client email domain offboarding?
- Give the client the alias sheet, old and new MX pictures, and who will publish next. Revoke SMTP and seats. Do not delete history they still need inside the store window. Do not leave your MX on their zone after you stop being paid.
- Does this require a new mailbox?
- No. MailerZ is not IMAP. Keep Gmail or Outlook unless you need a suite for other reasons.
- Will it work with Gmail or Outlook?
- Yes as destinations. Self-send is not proof. Use a third mailbox and open original.
- What DNS records are involved?
- Exclusive MX, verification TXT, one SPF if you send-as. Leftover MX is a hard stop. Dashboard values only for sending.
- What should I test before production?
- A uniquely titled probe from an unrelated provider to each public alias. Confirm Header From and hop history.
Key takeaways
- Sheet plus screenshots.
- Revoke SMTP and seats.
- Exclusive next MX. Not dual.
- Say the store clock.
- Do not keep unpaid MX.
- WP plugin leftovers.
- Date the exit.
- Keep the packet.
Conclusion
Leave the zone cleaner than you found it. One MX owner. No leftover secrets. A sheet they can run.
If you still run MailerZ for yourself, start free on a rehearsal domain and practice the packet.