What Happens When You Are Not There?

In a small business there is usually one person who knows everything. What was discussed with which customer, the password to the system, who to call at the supplier, how a price is worked out. That person is usually the owner.

This arrangement works until the day somebody falls ill. Or takes a week off. Or gets pulled into another job halfway through this one. On that day the work does not slow down. It stops. This article is about the minimum record that keeps it from stopping.

First, a distinction: where does the knowledge sit

There are two different situations and the fixes differ.

If the knowledge sits in one head, nobody can reach it while that person is away. Even with a phone switched on, somebody has to call them every time. Holiday and hospital produce the same result.

If it is written down but scattered, the situation is better but not solved. The password is in one place, the supplier list in another, the pricing logic in a third. Searching is only slightly faster than asking the person.

The aim is not to fix both. The aim is to put the minimum needed to keep the work running for a week into one place.

Five things that go missing while you are away

1. What was said to the customer

The customer calls and asks about the price discussed last month. Without a record of that conversation you cannot answer. Whoever is covering for you certainly cannot.

This is the quietest form of losing a customer. They do not complain. They simply do not call again.

2. Passwords and settings

The website panel, the email account, the accounting software, the social accounts. If access sits with one person, none of it opens without them. Reset routes usually run through the same phone as well.

This is the heading small businesses skip most often, and on its own it stops the most work.

3. Who to call

Supplier, accountant, service engineer, courier. Those numbers live in a phone, and who handles what lives only in the owner memory. Whoever covers for you can see the list without knowing which name deals with which problem.

4. How the price is worked out

Quoting a job involves cost, time and how much room there is to move. If that reasoning is not written down, the person covering either quotes too low or too high. Both cost money.

A price list is not enough on its own. What needs writing down is not the list but what gets done in which situation.

5. The order of the recurring work

There are things done at the start of every month: issuing invoices, chasing payments, counting stock, sending reports. When these live as one person habit, they do not happen while that person is away, and nobody notices they are missing.

For the automation side of the same problem, see automating processes without writing code.

What a week without you looks like

It does not stop with one event. Small things stack up. A typical week runs like this.

Monday. A customer calls asking about the price discussed last month. Whoever answers has nowhere to look and says you will call back on your return. The customer waits.

Tuesday. The supplier asks about a payment date. Nobody knows what was agreed. The invoice sits somewhere, but which terms were discussed, no one can say.

Wednesday. Somebody needs to get into the accounting software. The password is with you and the recovery code goes to your phone. It does not get opened that day.

Thursday. A new customer asks for a price. The person covering cannot give a figure, because they do not know how the calculation works. The customer asks somewhere else.

Friday. The month-end work has not happened. No invoices issued, no payments chased, no report sent. Nobody noticed the gap, because those tasks were not on a list. They were in your habits.

Nobody made a mistake that week and there was no technical fault. The information simply sat in one place, with you.

A three-minute self-check

If you could not come in tomorrow, who would do what? If you can name somebody, could that person find what they need?
Does anybody else have access to the systems? If not, none of them can be opened.
Is this month work written down anywhere? If not, nobody sees what was missed at the end of the month.

If any of the three is uncomfortable to answer, the minimum record below covers it.

What is worth writing down

The aim is not a manual. What is needed to keep a week running is short:

Access. Which system, which account signs in, what the recovery route is. Passwords belong in a password manager, not on paper.
Who is who. Supplier, accountant, service. Name, phone and one line saying what they handle.
The month routine. What gets done on which day. Invoices, payments, reports, stock.
Pricing logic. Not a list, a decision rule. What gets done in which situation.
Open work. Customers and quotes currently waiting, with where each one stands.

How to write it

Keep it short. A few lines per heading is enough, and being readable matters more than being complete. A forty-page document does not get opened.

Keep it in one file. Information sitting in five separate places produces the same result as nothing written at all, because in an urgent moment none of it gets found. Make sure it opens on a phone, since the moment it is needed you may not be at the office.

When to write it

Today. There is no right moment for this, because the moment it is needed arrives without warning.

Do not try to finish it in one sitting. On the first day write only the access list. That alone makes the biggest difference. The other headings get added over the following days.

Once written, look at it monthly. Update anything that changed. A record that is not maintained turns into a source of wrong information within six months, and wrong information is worse than none.

What not to do

Writing passwords on paper. Paper gets lost, becomes unreadable and does not get updated. A password manager exists for this.
Trying to write everything at once. It ends up half finished, and a half finished document helps nobody.
Writing it and not looking at it again. Old information sends the person covering in the wrong direction.
Writing it so only you can follow it. Your own shorthand and private notes tell somebody else nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions

I work alone. Who would I hand it over to?

Handover does not require a second person. The record also works for you: two weeks later your own note reminds you. And in an emergency a family member or your accountant can read it.

How long does this take to write?

The access list takes about half an hour and it is the part that helps most. The other headings can spread across a few days. Trying to finish in one sitting usually leaves it half done.

Is writing passwords down not risky?

Writing them on paper is risky. A password manager keeps them encrypted behind one master password. That master password can be shared with somebody you trust or left in a sealed envelope.

It is all in my head already. Do I really need this?

Having it in your head is not the problem. The problem is that it is only in your head. Look at how long the work stalls when you are unreachable for a week, and the answer is there.