How to plan your agency's Christmas shutdown: notices, cover and payment cut-offs

It's November, the year's work is still landing, and you'd like the team to have a real break. The risk is the familiar one: a client emails on 29 December, nobody replies for two weeks, and January starts with an apology and a pile of unpaid invoices.

A good shutdown takes about an hour of planning now and a few short jobs in December. This guide gives you a dated countdown for the 2026–27 break, the staff leave rules to check, a client notice you can copy, a simple cover plan and the payment cut-offs that matter in Australia.

You're not alone in finding it hard to stop. In BizCover's 2026 survey of 1,500 of its small business customers, 32% said they had never taken a full week off while running their business. A planned close-down is how you make the week off happen.

The short version: a countdown for the 2026–27 break

Here is the whole plan on one page. The dates assume you close at the end of Wednesday 23 December and reopen on Monday 11 January 2027. Move them if your break is different.

Which days are public holidays over the break?

Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year and Boxing Day on a Saturday, so most states add a public holiday on Monday 28 December. Public holidays inside your shutdown don't come out of anyone's annual leave.

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, 2026 public holidays and 2027 public holidays. Check your state's list for any regional holidays.

Can you make staff take annual leave over the break?

Often, yes: for most staff the rules come from their award or enterprise agreement. The Fair Work Ombudsman puts it this way: an employee can be directed to take annual leave during a shutdown if their award or agreement allows it. For staff with neither, you can require it if the requirement is reasonable.

• Check notice first. Under the shutdown rules added to many awards in 2023, you must give at least 28 days' written notice to everyone affected, unless you and most of them agree to less.
• Plan for short balances. Someone without enough leave can agree to other arrangements for the gap: time off in lieu they've built up, annual leave in advance or unpaid leave. It needs their agreement.
• Pay public holidays. Full-time and part-time staff who'd normally work on a public holiday get the day off at their base rate, shutdown or not.
• Contractors are different. Freelancers aren't covered by your leave rules. Tell them your dates as you would a client, and agree what happens to work due over the break.

How to tell clients (with a template)

Send the first notice in the week of 30 November, then a short reminder in mid-December. Lead with the dates, then say what clients need to do before you go. A common cause of friction is a client finding out on 22 December that their approval was needed on the 18th.

Put these in every notice:

• The last day you're working and the day you're back, with the weekday.
• The last day you can accept files, feedback or approvals for work due before the break.
• What happens to work in progress: paused, finished before the break, or scheduled for January.
• Who to contact if something urgent comes up, how, and what counts as urgent.
• When your final invoices go out and when they're due.

Copy this and change the parts in square brackets:

Hi [first name], a quick note on our Christmas break. We're closed from [Thursday 24 December] and back on [Monday 11 January].

To get [project] finished before then, we need your feedback on [item] by [Friday 11 December]. Anything that arrives after that will be first on our list in January.

If something urgent comes up while we're away, such as [your website going down], call or text [name] on [number]. Everything else can wait until we're back. Thanks for a great year, [your name]

Who covers urgent work while you're closed?

Decide what counts as urgent before you close, and say it in the client notice. For most agencies it's a short list: a client's site or shop is down, a paid campaign is spending money it shouldn't, or something legal or security-related. A change request isn't urgent.

Then pick one of three set-ups:

If an employee is on call or doing check-ins, agree it with them in writing, including pay.

Since 26 August 2025, employees of businesses with fewer than 15 staff have had a right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact outside their working hours, from you or a client, unless refusing is unreasonable. Extra pay for being available is one of the things that counts. The owner covering it is often simplest.

Whoever covers it needs enough context to act alone. Give them a one-line status for each client, the access they might need and who to call. Our guide to handing over a client without losing context has a format you can reuse.

Payment cut-offs: invoices, wages, super and BAS

Cash is the part of the break that can hurt. Many clients close too, so an invoice that lands on 21 December can sit until their accounts person is back in mid-January.

• Invoice early. Send final invoices by about 11 December, with a due date before you close. Bill retainers for January before you go if your terms allow it.
• Chase overdue invoices in the first week of December. Clients still have money to approve and people at their desks.
• Pay wages and super in one run. Since 1 July 2026, Payday Super means super must be paid with wages and reach the employee's fund within seven business days. After a pre-Christmas payday, that window falls while you're closed, so don't leave super for January.
• Know your BAS dates. The October–December quarterly BAS is due on 28 February. If you report monthly, check December's date: the usual rule is the 21st of the next month, but some businesses get until 21 February.
• Schedule your own bills. Pay or schedule supplier bills that fall due over the break, so nothing goes overdue while you're away.

What to switch on before you leave

Do these on your last afternoon. Each one takes a few minutes and stops a message going unanswered.

1. 01Turn on email auto-repliesIn Gmail or Outlook, for every address clients write to, including the shared one. Give the return date and the urgent contact, and set the end date so it switches itself off.
2. 02Change your voicemail or phone hoursRecord a closed message with your return date. If calls forward to a mobile, check they go to the person on call.
3. 03Block the break in your calendarEveryone with a booking page adds an event marked busy across the shutdown to their own calendar, so it doesn't offer times while you're away.
4. 04Schedule your January emailsThe reminders and follow-ups you'd otherwise write on your first morning back, set to go out once you're back at your desk.
5. 05Post a notice where clients lookYour website, your client portal and your email signature, if clients will see them.
6. 06Set up the first week backTasks with due dates for the follow-ups, renewals and kickoffs you've parked, so day one starts with a list.

Worked example: an eight-person studio closes for two and a half weeks

This is a made-up example. Kestrel Creative is an eight-person design studio in Melbourne: the owner, five staff on an award with a shutdown clause, and two contractors. It closes after Wednesday 23 December and reopens on Monday 11 January.

• Leave: the shutdown covers 9 working days for each full-time employee (24, 29, 30 and 31 December, then 4 to 8 January). Christmas Day, 28 December and New Year's Day are public holidays, so they don't come out of leave.
• Notice: staff get written notice on Monday 16 November, ten days before the 28-day cut-off. One designer has 6 days of leave left and agrees in writing to take 3 days of leave in advance.
• Clients: first notice on 1 December, reminder on 15 December. The two retainer clients with live online shops get the owner's mobile for urgent issues only.
• Cash: final invoices go out on 9 December on 14-day terms, so they're due on 23 December. The last pay run and its super go out together on 22 December.
• Cover: the owner reads the shared inbox at 10am on 29 December and 5 January and replies only to the urgent list. Everything else waits for 11 January.

How Stack helps (and what it doesn't do)

If you run your inbox, calendar and client work in Stack, a few of the jobs above happen in the same place:

• Scheduled email. Write your mid-December reminder and your January follow-ups now and pick a send time with Schedule send. They wait in the Scheduled folder until then.
• Invoices. Send your final invoices from Money with a due date before you close, and check the reminder days in Settings → Money, so overdue invoices are chased with a pay link while you're away.
• Booking links. Stack's booking pages only offer times the host's own Google Calendar shows as free, so each person with a booking link should add a busy event across the break to their own calendar.
• Phone hours. If your business number is set up in Stack, its call flow has open hours, a setting to close on your state's public holidays and a list of other closed days. Add your shutdown dates there, then make sure your steps are marked Open hours only or Outside open hours, so callers reach your closed message instead of ringing an empty office.
• Client portals. Post a progress update on each client's portal with your dates and what's due. Clients can still message you and upload files while you're away: messages wait in your inbox, and files land on the client's record.
• Penny. Penny can draft your notices and January follow-ups. She never sends an email or text to a client without someone confirming it.

Start here

1. Today: put your closing and reopening dates in your calendars, and list every client deadline within two weeks of them.
2. This week: check the award or agreement for each employee, and diarise your written notice for at least 28 days before the shutdown starts.
3. Before 4 December: send clients the notice above, then schedule the mid-December reminder. If you want a regular slot to keep the plan on track, add it to your weekly operations review.