Succession Planning for Key DATABASICS Functionality

It’s an inevitable consequence of the passing of time that employees change roles. These employees change roles for many reasons. The reason why they change, however, is far less material than the fact that they eventually WILL change. Knowing that roles and people change over time, how does an organization plan for important transitions and ascensions?

Succession Planning is often referred to with respect to an organization’s leadership, but one can argue it is equally or even more important for mission-critical processes.

Your actual preparation for change often determines a path of planned peace, prepared change, or active chaos for an organization. Let’s tackle how you can make sure your organization’s timesheets and expense reporting are always in good hands, regardless of what changes may occur.

Why Succession Planning Matters

Succession Planning is critically important to remove risk from a required process. It serves as a contingency for the critical path of necessary information. If a person is critical to the day-to-day or other functionality of an organization, the organization is fully responsible for being prepared in advance with a competent replacement. Succession planning is required for organizations of every size.

Competence is a core concept in Succession Planning, because the goal is not just to fill a role for function; rather, the goal is to provide a seamless transition to a new “owner” so that, meanwhile, the larger organization is unaware of and unaffected by any changes.

Key DATABASICS admins often know how to:

• Configure timesheet workflows for different cost centers or grants;
• Set up and troubleshoot expense policies (think mileage caps, daily meal limits, or multi-step approvals); and
• Pull compliance-ready reports for both internal and external audits.

When those key resources leave or switch roles suddenly, gaps in know-how can hurt everything from project billing cycles to staff reimbursement timelines.

We see this frequently with customers where the DATABASICS admin (i.e., an Accounting or HR Manager) leaves their position and their organization cannot complete the monthly close for expenses and payments or to invoice their customers promptly for services rendered because those previously responsible no longer fill the function.

The Core Principles of Succession Planning—DATABASICS Edition

Let’s review the key steps organizations can use to prepare a Succession Plan with DATABASICS, and for any critical content, including Time & Expense & Leave.

Many organizations use these steps to plan for change:

1. Identify the roles and responsibilities critical to operations. For example, with DATABASICS, your DATABASICS admin is a critical knowledge point to create useful content for management and to fulfill essential functions like client billing or paying employees for Time or Expense along with reconciliation with your ERP, HR, or other systems.
2. Find interested and qualified employees and assess them relative to your CRITICAL knowledge requirements.
3. Develop and apply a plan for effective knowledge transfer and retention of critical corporate memory of processes.
4. Document all these processes.
5. Train your replacements/proxies for all facets of critical functionality and refresh this training periodically via live exercises and further preparation.

Remember: downtime is expensive, and loss of institutional knowledge is even pricier.

Keep Your Timesheet & Expense Reporting Engine Running

Ultimately, DATABASICS tracks more than time and money, giving your organization efficiency, transparency, and peace of mind. Succession planning is how you keep that engine running, even when the road ahead changes. Take the time now to build resilience into your DATABASICS processes, so you’re ready for whatever’s next.

At DATABASICS, we provide customers with a comprehensive 4-hour administrative training experience, including customized training to formalize admin knowledge transfer.

We are happy to assist our customers during a transition, but the best solution is advanced preparation of competent replacements through training. We frequently train the prime admins and back-ups simultaneously.

It’s important for every organization to plan for changes, and DATABASICS is here to help provide all needed administrative continuity as these changes occur.

Curious how other organizations are building resilience with DATABASICS? Check out our case studies, or reach out to our team to learn how you can future-proof your timesheet and expense reporting operations.