Holiday time off gives employees a chance to rest, travel, and spend time with family. For employers, it also creates a planning challenge: how do you keep essential work moving when several people are away at once?

Accounting deadlines, customer inquiries, and administrative responsibilities continue through the holiday season. Without a coverage plan, overlapping absences can lead to backlogs, missed handoffs, and extra pressure on the employees who remain.

Planning early helps your team take its time off while giving the business the support it needs. Here’s how to prepare.

Map Time Off Against Your Business Calendar

Start by reviewing approved and anticipated PTO alongside your most important deadlines. A calendar showing who will be away is useful, but it becomes more valuable when it also shows what must happen during those absences.

Include:

• Payroll processing and approval dates.

• Month-end and year-end accounting deadlines.

• Customer commitments and scheduled appointments.

• Vendor payments and purchasing deadlines.

• Office closures and reduced operating hours.

Look for dates when several employees who handle the same function will be unavailable. Also identify responsibilities that depend on one person—even a single absence can create a gap if no one else knows the process.

Identify the Work That Needs Coverage

Not every task needs to continue at its usual pace during the holidays. Separate essential responsibilities from projects that can wait.

For accounting teams, review payroll coordination, accounts payable and receivable, invoicing, reconciliations, and close preparation. Identify who can complete each task and who has authority to review or approve it.

For administrative teams, consider reception, scheduling, document preparation, records management, and coordination with vendors or clients.

For support teams, review shared inboxes, incoming calls, service requests, and unresolved issues that may need attention while their usual owner is away.

Assign a primary person and a backup to each essential responsibility. If the same employee becomes the backup for several busy functions, revisit the plan.

Check Whether Internal Coverage Is Realistic

Cross-training can help cover short absences, but employees still need time to complete their own work.

Before assigning additional responsibilities, ask:

• Does the backup employee have the necessary skills?

• How much time will the extra work take?

• Will their own deadlines overlap with the coverage period?

• Which responsibilities should be reassigned or postponed?

A coverage plan should reflect actual capacity. If it depends on one person absorbing several workloads, temporary staffing may be worth considering.

Define Your Temporary Staffing Needs Early

If you need outside support, prepare a clear description of the assignment before contacting a staffing partner.

Specify the start and end dates, work schedule, location, key duties, and required experience. For accounting assignments, include the software the person will use and the processes they will support. For administrative and support roles, describe communication responsibilities, systems, and expected workload.

Distinguish between skills someone must bring on day one and procedures you can teach during onboarding.

Whenever practical, allow the temporary professional to start before the employee’s PTO begins. An overlap gives both people time to review responsibilities, practice routine tasks, and resolve questions.

Prepare a Handoff That Someone Can Use

A useful handoff gives the person covering the role a clear path through the work.

Include:

• Upcoming deadlines and current priorities.

• Step-by-step instructions for essential recurring tasks.

• The status of open items and where to find relevant files.

• Key contacts and escalation procedures.

• Required approvals and the people authorized to provide them.

Arrange appropriate system access before the coverage period starts. Each person should use authorized access suited to their responsibilities.

For accounting work, preserve review and approval controls during absences. Covering a task should not mean removing the checks that protect the business.

Keep Communication Simple During the Coverage Period

Name a supervisor who can answer questions, adjust priorities, and address unexpected issues. Make sure employees, temporary staff, and relevant stakeholders know who is handling each responsibility.

A brief check-in can help surface problems before they become backlogs. Focus on approaching deadlines, unresolved questions, and changes in workload.

When employees return, provide a short recap of completed work and anything that still needs attention.

Put Your Holiday Coverage Plan in Motion

The best time to address a holiday staffing gap is before it disrupts your operations. Review your PTO calendar, identify essential responsibilities, and decide where your team needs additional capacity.

Temporary Staffing Professionals can help you explore staffing support for accounting, administrative, and business support needs.

Preparing for overlapping holiday absences? Contact TSP to discuss the roles, schedules, and skills your coverage plan requires.