A client with no appointment history can be deleted outright from their profile. A client with history can't be — their clinical and financial records carry legal retention duties — so an erasure request on a real client means scrubbing identity while restricting retained records, not wiping the row.
Can I just delete the client?
Open the client and choose Delete
From the profile panel's header actions. You need the delete-clients permission.
Confirm the name
Deleting is permanent — the confirmation shows exactly who you're removing.
Done — or told why not
If the client has appointment history, Owneli refuses with: "This client has appointment history and cannot be deleted. Merge or archive instead." That refusal is deliberate, not a bug.
Every deletion is written to the audit trail as a critical event, including who the client was.
What happens on a GDPR erasure request?
When a client with real history exercises their right to erasure, wiping everything would itself be unlawful — treatment records, consents, and financial records have retention obligations. Owneli's model:
| Data | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Identity and contact details | Scrubbed |
| Treatment records, consents | Archived and restricted — retained for the legal period, but ordinary screens refuse to show them |
| Operational leftovers | Deleted |
| Financial/audit skeleton | Kept, as required |
An erased client's restricted records answer with "these records have been restricted following an erasure request" — honestly acknowledging they exist without serving them. Scheduling and financial skeletons stay visible where the law requires them; the clinical free text does not.
Exporting the client's data first
GDPR also gives clients the right to a copy of their data (Article 15). Owneli can assemble everything the business holds about a client into a single downloadable archive, and logs the export in the audit trail.
Common questions
Why is the Delete option failing for me even though I can see it?
Deleting is doubly gated: your role needs the delete capability, and the database additionally restricts deletion to admins and owners. If the delete is refused with a permission error, ask an admin to run it.
The client asked to "be deleted" — what should I actually do?
If they have no history, delete. If they do, treat it as an erasure request: their identity is removed from everyday use while legally-retained records are locked away. Explain that some records must be kept for the statutory period.
Is archiving the same as deleting?
No. A merge or archive keeps history intact under a surviving record; deletion and erasure remove the person from operational use. When in doubt, prefer the reversible option.