Will the new controls work when the owner is away?

The improvement depends on the owner noticing everything

Suppose a business has recovered from a difficult cash period. The owner now checks every large payment and overdue account. Then a site emergency takes them away for several days, and decisions wait in an inbox nobody else can interpret.

Test whether the new process can operate during an ordinary absence. A control that works only when one person is available may recreate the same late-warning problem under pressure.

Choose a real decision to hand over

Start with a recurring task, such as reviewing an overdue account or checking a payment run. Identify the information used, the decision required and the point at which the owner or adviser must be involved.

Do not give a backup person a vague instruction to “use judgement” while withholding the account history and limits. Equally, avoid granting wider authority than the business intends simply to make the handover easier.

Confirm authorised access to the supporting records

Check that the backup can retrieve the relevant invoice, approval and current cash information using their own authorised access. Resolve missing permissions through the proper administrator process.

business.gov.au recommends keeping digital business records accessible and backed up. Test the particular records the backup needs rather than assuming that access to one shared folder covers the whole task.

Source: business.gov.au: Record keeping

Write the limits in practical terms

Explain which actions the person may take, what must be referred and who is the alternate contact. Keep contractual, banking and professional obligations in mind when setting authority. Seek advice where the limits are uncertain.

Record unresolved matters and their next review dates. An absence should not turn a known dispute into an automatically approved payment or cause a formal notice to sit unread until the owner returns.

Run a short supervised test

Have the backup work through a real account while the usual owner is available to answer questions. Note where the explanation, evidence or authority is missing. Improve those points before relying on the arrangement during a crisis.

Avoid treating the test as a memory examination. The process should help an authorised person reach a supported decision without needing to remember every previous conversation.

Review what happened after the absence

Check whether decisions were made within authority, important changes were escalated and the records stayed current. Keep useful improvements and remove steps that added delay without helping the decision.

If an absence reveals renewed debt pressure, give your adviser or CRP the actual accounts and missed decision points. The purpose is a business process that continues to function, not a recovery plan that exists only in the owner's head.