Before vacation, appoint responsible staff and backups, hand over unfinished tasks, and document the limits of independent decisions. Set a deadline and a result employees can use to check completion for every task.
Agree on which issues the team can resolve independently, when it sends updates, and when it must contact you immediately. Test this process with one shift handover and one purchase approval before you leave. The owner remains involved in decisions that require their approval.
Record tasks, assignees, and completion criteria
Prepare a work plan for the entire period you will be away. Replace a general instruction such as “keep an eye on the store” with specific actions. List the employee’s name and backup beside each role.
Below is a hypothetical example of how work might be assigned. The roles and deadlines illustrate the handover process; agree on the details for your store before you leave.
| Task | Assignee and backup | Deadline | Completion criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| Check the stock of selected products | Person responsible for inventory; backup — shift manager | Before purchase approval | Stock checked; discrepancies and explanations passed to the shift manager |
| Prepare a purchase | Person responsible for supply; backup — appointed administrator | Before the order is sent | An authorized person has approved the list, quantities, and amount |
| Receive a delivery | Receiving employee; backup — person responsible for inventory | When the delivery is physically received | Products and quantities checked, received goods recorded, discrepancies passed to the responsible person |
| Hand over sales summaries and open tasks | Shift manager; backup — appointed administrator | Before handing over to the next shift | The next manager has accepted the summary; each unresolved task has an assignee, next action, and deadline |
Hand over unfinished tasks with a next action
Set up a shared work handover log. Record the status, any decision already made, known problems, next action, assignee, and deadline. Add documents and process explanations the team can access.
- Unfinished customer order. Record that the product is not yet ready for handover. Assign an employee on the next shift to check its status and communicate the agreed next step.
- Stock discrepancy. Note that the cause has not yet been determined. Ask the person responsible for inventory to check the physical stock and documents, then report the result by the agreed deadline.
- Expected delivery. Pass the approved product list to the receiving employee. On the day it arrives, they must check the delivery and report any discrepancies.
Decide who receives the log at each shift change. Pass unresolved tasks on with their status and next action until they are complete.
Reconcile stock using the Torgsoft Turnover Statement
Before purchasing, agree on the check date and the list of items. The Turnover Statement in Torgsoft lets you analyze product stock as of a specific date. Give this data to the person responsible for inventory so they can compare it with the actual stock of selected items.
Ask the employee to explain any discrepancies found and pass unresolved issues to the shift manager. Use the statement data together with the results of the physical check; record discrepancy corrections according to the store’s agreed procedure.
Decide who checks replenishment needs
In Torgsoft, the additional feature “Automatic Calculation of Stock Levels” calculates the minimum product quantity using data on delivery and sales periods. Activate this additional feature before using it. Use the result when preparing a purchase.
Assign an employee to compare the calculation with actual stock and expected deliveries. Set a time for the check and a process for approving quantities and budget. Assign the supplier order to a specific person; a minimum-level calculation alone does not guarantee that products will be available.
Hand over the process for ordering and receiving products
When creating a supplier order in Torgsoft, enter the required quantity in the “My Order” field. Ask the responsible employee to enter the approved quantities. They must get separate approval for changes to the list, price, or amount above the set limit.
In the “Supplier Order” mode, you can create a receipt for selected products. If an order contains a product tracked by batch, you cannot create a goods receipt note for that order. Before leaving, review such orders and agree with the responsible employee on how to record the actual goods receipt.
For a partial delivery, record only the products received. For example, this hypothetical plan calls for 12 units, but 8 arrive. Record the 8 received; do not mark the remaining 4 as received. Pass an open task to the person responsible for supply: find out when the rest of the delivery is due and inform the receiving employee.
Agree on authority and access rights
Document which decisions employees can make independently: purchases within the approved list and budget, handing tasks to a backup, and receiving approved deliveries. List separately the matters that require approval. Set specific amounts and deadlines for your store.
A role in Torgsoft determines which menu items and functions an employee can access. Before you leave, ask assignees and backups to check the required permissions using their own accounts. Match access to assigned tasks; record the budget and approval process in the work plan.
Make sure employees receive the instructions
The “Staff Notifications” option sends messages to all or selected employees who use Torgsoft and records that they have read them. To use it, computers must be on the same local network or use a terminal server.
Send the relevant employees the handover and purchase approval procedures. Check that they have read them, and assess completion against the results in the plan. A message being read does not confirm that a task is complete.
Agree on reporting and urgent contact
Set a time to review updates, a reporting period, and an employee who can explain deviations in sales and stock. Choose reporting after an agreed milestone or a regular review, depending on the store’s tasks.
Write down when employees must contact you immediately: a routine operation cannot continue, both the assignee and backup are unavailable, or a decision is needed beyond the agreed authority. List the primary and backup contacts, the expected response time, and two ways to reach them. If the primary contact does not respond, contact the backup in this order.
If power or connectivity is lost, ask the team to notify the designated technical contact and record which task was affected.
Before you leave, rehearse a shift handover and purchase approval. Check contacts, document access, and whether the next actions are clear. When you return, review summaries and open tasks, then make specific changes to the plan.
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