Holidays! 7 tips for smoothly handing over tasks to your colleagues

1. Proper preparation is half the battle

• Timing: Let your colleagues and manager know of your holiday dates in good time so they will not be taken by surprise.
• Record your tasks: Make a list of your current tasks and projects, including deadlines and contacts.
• Also prepare a checklist of all the daily and weekly tasks you need to hand over.

2. Communicate clearly

• Give clear instructions: Make a list of what needs to be done for each task and, if necessary, create manuals for specific tasks or systems.
• Notify your colleagues of your absence: You can do this by email or in a team meeting but also remember to set up a clear out-of-office message before you leave. This message should include how long you will be absent, which colleagues will take over your tasks, and whether your emails will be read or forwarded. If needed, write the message in several languages.

3. Hold a meeting for the task handover

• Handing over tasks is best done in person, during a meeting.
• Consider the expertise and workload of your colleagues when assigning tasks.

4. Make the handover technically feasible

• If appropriate, use project management software to keep track of tasks, responsibilities and deadlines.
• Make sure your colleagues can access the necessary documents, tools and systems.

5. Automate tasks whenever possible

• Relieve your colleagues of as much work as possible by automating repetitive tasks with digital tools.
• Billit also makes that possible! (See later in this blog.)

6. Have an emergency plan in place

• Clearly define what to do in case of unexpected issues.
• Also specify who your colleagues should contact in such a case (and how).

7. Evaluate

• Once you return from your holiday, schedule an evaluation meeting with your colleagues to get feedback on how everything went during your absence.
• If necessary, make changes for the next time.

Handing over your tasks in Billit: create an additional user

Do you use Billit for invoicing and one of your colleagues will be taking over that task during your holidays? No problem!

The easiest way is to add that colleague as an additional user for your company in Billit This allows you to assign rights according to exactly what that colleague is going to do. If necessary, you can block access to certain functionalities.

Automating tasks in Billit

By selecting maximum automation, you can save your colleague a lot of work:

• Activate the link with your bank so that payment verifications of your invoices will occur automatically.
• Use automatic payment reminders so that your colleague will not have to send them manually. Just make sure the text of the reminder emails is set correctly in advance.
• Have UBL-formatted documents processed automatically. As a general rule, there is no longer any need to check such documents, which have a fixed structure.

Also read these help pages:

• Linking a bank account
• Sending automatic reminders
• Processing UBL files automatically

Some points to consider

Does this mean your colleague will have nothing to do? Not at all, because, depending on your company's situation, these can be important points to consider:

• Following up on payments still to be allocated
• Following up on outstanding purchase invoices
• Processing documents in Quick Entry (except UBL documents)
• Following up on quotations 
• …