Last-Minute Payroll Tips for Business Success Over the Christmas Break

Debbie C.
Dec 16, 2025
5 min read

Updated: Dec 17, 2025

With Christmas just days away on 25 December 2025, many businesses are already deep into the holiday slowdown. Revenue streams may be tapering off due to reduced customer activity and seasonal closures, yet payroll obligations remain relentless—covering salaries, penalties, leave loadings, and more¹. This fixed cost can strain cash flow at the worst possible time, making effective management crucial for safeguarding profitability, compliance, and operational continuity into the new year.

If you haven’t finalised your holiday payroll plans yet, now is the critical moment to act. In this post, we deliver practical, last-minute tips focussed on the business impacts: protecting your bottom line, minimising disruptions, and ensuring resilience amid staff absences and holiday complexities. We cover quick-win strategies for contingency planning, cost control, and tool utilisation—like our new online Executive Dashboard and RUNPAY Master Calendar —to help you navigate the remaining days smoothly. Whilst supporting employees matters alot to us at RUNPAY, the emphasis here is on balancing that with employer and today's business realities, such as sustaining operations and finances during a very low-revenue period for many organisations.

Why Act Now: The Urgent Business Risks of Holiday Payroll Challenges

Even at this late stage, overlooked payroll issues can amplify financial pressures when income is subdued. Key risks still looming include:

Holiday premiums inflating costs: Public holidays like Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day can trigger penalty rates, significantly hiking expenses without corresponding revenue².
Staff absences limiting operations: Widespread leave can reduce workforce capacity, curbing revenue opportunities whilst payroll runs full steam³.
Scheduling irregularities: Last-minute roster adjustments due to staff non-attendance may and can lead to overtime or compliance slips, also risking fines or budget overruns for owners.
Delays cascading into broader issues: Payment errors could disrupt supplier trust, trigger regulatory scrutiny, or erode stakeholder confidence.

Addressing these urgently preserves liquidity and sets your business up for a strong 2026 start.

Last-Minute Preparation for Payroll Team Absences

If key payroll staff are already on leave or about to depart, prioritise immediate backups to avoid operational halts:

Activate designated backups now: Confirm cross-trained team members (e.g., from finance) or line up an emergency consultancy team so they are ready to step in if needed. We can assist in the process of connection here too, so please reach out to us if this is something you are considering and just exploring business options.
Review and share documentation: Quickly circulate existing procedure guides for seamless handovers.
Accelerate any pending runs: If possible, process upcoming payrolls today or tomorrow to front-load before full closures - this can often save you a lot of money if your payrun is usually finalised on one of the public holidays during closure.
Enable remote access if feasible: Ensure authorised personnel can handle tasks off-site.

Immediate Actionable Items (Complete by Thursday, 18 December if possible):

Hold a quick 30-minute virtual huddle with backups team members to walk through any necessary critical tasks for your business.
Test a sample payroll adjustment for holiday penalties, this is more important if you are a new business or if have recently changed payroll systems and have not been through closure before in your new system.
Check with your bank, any payment providers and your accountant of their own hours of operation over the holiday break and notify them of any accelerated schedules or any other necessary operational changes over the holiday break to prevent any processing delays.

This rapid planning response minimises single points of failure and protects cash flow predictability.

Close-up of a spiral notebook page titled "Payrell Comment 214" with a list, a pen checking boxes, red and black text, and a focused hand.

Quick Rostering Adjustments and Cost Control Measures

With rosters likely set by now (but hopefully with some flexibility to adjust), focus on containing labour expenses amid potential revenue dips:

Double-check rates and entitlements: Verify penalty applications for upcoming holidays to avoid overpayments or underpayments leading to employee disputes.
Monitor real-time costs: Flag any emerging variances immediately.
Optimise remaining shifts: Prioritise essential coverage to maximise any lingering revenue windows whilst curbing unnecessary overtime.
Align with demand forecasts: Scale back any non-critical areas of your business operations to preserve financial margins.

Immediate Actionable Items:

Run a final roster review today by using historical data to compare from a previous year, this will help set simple projections considering any business growth or capacity changes of the past.
Model cost impacts of any changes (e.g., leave liability -some payroll software can do this through their reports as long as you have also set up the accounts to optimise this process).
Implement daily check-ins through 27 December for dynamic tweaks.

These steps can quickly curb potential 20–50% holiday wage spikes in many and affected sectors.

Recognising Essential Workers (which does include your Payroll Team!) Without Overextending Resources

For staff working through the break to keep operations alive, timely acknowledgement reinforces loyalty cost-effectively:

Send immediate thanks: Use email or messaging for personalised notes of appreciation, highlighting their business impact to you and the rest of the team.
Tie incentives to budgets: Offer a small bonus or deferred leave if it can be aligned with overall business financial goals.
Leverage for future planning: Note contributions for post-holiday reviews.

Immediate Actionable Item:

Draft and send a recognition message by end-of-day tomorrow to boost employee morale heading into the peak holidays.

Rapid Deployment of Tools for Oversight:

Executive Dashboard & RUNPAY Master Calendar

If not already in use, check in daily to our online Executive Dashboard for instant visibility and updates. Our RUNPAY Master Calendar maps remaining holidays, deadlines, and reminders to avoid any potential misses during closures.

Immediate Actionable Items:

Subscribe to RUNPAY to stay better informed through to the new year and beyond on payroll specific insights, news, reminders and alerts.
Set up an automated daily calendar notification to check our Executive Dashboard for legislative updates or day specific events.
Schedule a brief executive review session this week internally or with us via our Executive Advisory service to interpret current business metrics and discuss any obvious changes needed for your business to truly succeed in 2026.

These tools turn potential chaos into controlled oversight, reducing those surprises we all hate as employers.

Final Push: Secure Your Business Through the Holidays

As Christmas approaches rapidly, these last-minute actions—focussed on contingency, cost vigilance, and strategic tools—can fortify your operations against holiday strains. Prioritising business stability ensures you meet obligations without compromising growth prospects.

Urgent Checklist for the Next 48–72 Hours: