Letting someone go is the hardest letter an employer has to write — and the one most likely to create liability if the wording is wrong. A Termination Letter / Notice of Termination is the formal notice you send TO the employee that their employment is ending; it's the bookend to PaperKit's Separation & Severance Agreement (this is the notice, not the signed release). Pick WHY the employment is ending — FOR CAUSE / misconduct, a LAYOFF / reduction in force, END OF CONTRACT, POOR PERFORMANCE, or a MUTUAL SEPARATION — and it reshapes the whole letter: the title, the tone (firm for cause, empathetic for a layoff, neutral for a contract end, amicable for a mutual split), the framing and the closing. Then choose the NOTICE TYPE — effective IMMEDIATELY, with a WORKING NOTICE period (a last day worked plus an end date), or PAY IN LIEU of notice — and it rewrites the effective-date and last-day wording automatically. Final pay is treated with care: it's a simple statement by default (paid per your state's law), but flip on the itemized FINAL-PAY schedule and PaperKit lists final wages, accrued PTO, severance and reimbursements and sums them to a total. Toggle exactly what applies — return of company property, benefits/COBRA end info, a severance offer (pointing to the separate agreement), rehire eligibility, a reference to prior warnings, and a reminder that confidentiality obligations continue. It's a letter TO the employee, so you (the authorized signer) e-sign it online and deliver the clean PDF — there's no employee signature line. (This is a template, not legal advice; final-pay timing, notice and layoff rules — including the WARN Act — are state-specific, so confirm your process with counsel or a qualified HR professional.)
The big lever — it reshapes the whole letter: the title, the tone, the framing and the closing.
Layoff / RIF — no-fault; the position is eliminated. The tone is empathetic and rehire eligibility often applies. (Mass layoffs may trigger WARN-Act notice — check your counts.)
Overrides the effective-date and last-day wording of the letter.
Working notice — the employee works through a last day, and employment ends on a later date.
Off = the letter simply states final pay will be provided per your state's law. On = PaperKit lists the components below and sums them to a total final-pay figure. (You must also keep the “state a final-pay statement” toggle on below.)
The authorized signer (HR / manager / owner). You e-sign the hosted letter online — this is a notice TO the employee, so there is no employee signature line.
Turn on what applies. A final-pay statement, return of company property, benefits/COBRA info and a confidentiality reminder are on by default.
Rehire eligibility fits a layoff, contract end or mutual split; a reference to prior warnings fits a for-cause or performance termination — each auto-enables only for those reasons.
A real termination letter. The reason reshapes the title, tone and framing; the notice type overrides the effective-date and last-day wording; the final-pay schedule appears only if you turn it on. Publish to get a hosted link you can e-sign online.
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A termination letter is a template for convenience, not legal advice. Final-pay timing, required notice, and wrongful-termination and mass-layoff rules (including the federal WARN Act and state equivalents) vary by jurisdiction and situation. This letter is a notice of termination — it does not itself constitute a severance agreement or a release of claims, and it does not determine any legal conclusion about the reason for termination. PaperKit is not a law firm and records electronic signature via the signer's typed name; confirm your process and any legal requirements before relying on this form.