Cover while you're away

When a budget holder or approver goes on holiday or leave, work can get stuck waiting for them. Cover while away lets a person hand their sign-offs to a colleague for set dates: purchase requests, supplier go-live approval and releasing payments after a change of bank details. The colleague can then sign off in their place, and every sign-off they give is recorded as given on the absent person's behalf, so the audit trail shows exactly who did what.

Where to find it

Open Stakeholders from the main menu. Each person's row has a Cover while away button (it says Change cover once cover is set).

You can set cover for yourself (the stakeholder linked to your sign-in).
Admins can set or change cover for anyone, for example when someone is off sick and can't do it themselves.
Nobody else can set someone's cover. The database checks this too: "Only the person themselves or an admin can set their cover."
View-only people and auditors can't set cover.

How to set cover

On Stakeholders, select Cover while away on the row of the person who'll be away.
In Who covers, choose the colleague. Everyone on the Stakeholders page is listed with their team.
Set From and To. The start can be today or later. The end can be up to 6 months ahead.
Add a Note (optional), such as "Annual leave" (up to 200 characters).
Select Save cover. You'll see, for example, "Sam Patel now covers Priya Shah's sign-offs from 3 Nov 2026 to 14 Nov 2026."

The audit trail records "Cover set: name signs off for name from date to date", with the note if you added one.

Messages you might see

Message	What to do
"Choose who covers."	Pick a colleague in Who covers.
"Choose the start and end dates."	Fill in both dates.
"Cover must end after it starts."	Move the end date later.
"Choose an end date from today onwards."	Cover can't be set in the past.
"Cover can be set for up to 6 months at a time."	Choose an earlier end date. You can set it again when it ends.
"Name is away then too. Choose someone else."	The colleague you chose is covered by someone else today. Pick another person.
"The person covering must be in Stakeholders"	Add them on the Stakeholders page first.

Changing or ending cover early

Select Change cover on the person's row.
Change the colleague or the dates and select Save cover, or select End cover now.

Ending cover shows "Cover ended. Name's sign-offs come back to them." and is recorded in the audit trail as "Cover for name ended". Cover also ends by itself after the To date.

What the person covering can do

From the From date to the To date, the colleague covering can give three kinds of sign-off on the absent person's behalf.

Purchase requests

Budget holder sign-off, where the absent person is the request's budget holder.
Extra sign-off levels from your purchase sign-off limits, where the absent person is the named person for the level, or is in the team the level needs.

The person covering finds these under Purchase requests › Waiting for me.

Supplier go-live

Some tiers need go-live approval from a particular team. By default, Strategic (T1) suppliers need someone in the Executive team. If you're not in that team but you're covering for someone who is, you can select Sign off and go live on the supplier and approve it on their behalf. See Onboarding.

When the separation-of-duties rule "A supplier's manager can't approve their own supplier to go live" is on, nobody can approve on behalf of the supplier's manager.
For tiers that don't need a particular team, any named person can already give the sign-off, so cover isn't needed.

Releasing payments after a change of bank details

An admin can limit who may release payments after a change of bank details, in Settings › Organisation › Who can release new bank details. When names are ticked there, someone covering for one of those people can select Verify and release payments on their behalf. When no names are ticked, any second person can release after the checks, so cover isn't needed. See Bank details and fraud checks.

Nobody can release on behalf of the person who recorded the change or the person who made the call-back.

How it's recorded

The person covering signs in as themselves and selects the usual button. Each sign-off is recorded as given by them, covering for the absent person, and wherever the approver is named it shows "name, covering for name". For example "Budget holder signed off by Sam Patel, covering for Priya Shah", "Approved for go-live (…) by Sam Patel, covering for Priya Shah", or "New bank details verified and released by a second person (Sam Patel, covering for Priya Shah)".

Cover doesn't hand over form approvals.

The rules that still apply

Cover never weakens separation of duties. The database enforces all of these:

Nobody can sign off a request they raised themselves.
Nobody can sign off on behalf of the person who raised the request: "Nobody can sign off a request on behalf of the person who raised it".
One person still can't sign two steps. If you've already signed a request yourself, you can't sign another step on it as cover, and if you've signed for someone, neither you nor they can sign a second step: "You've already signed this request. Each sign-off must come from a different person".
Cover only works on the dates set: "You aren't covering for that person today, so you can't sign off on their behalf" (or "… release on their behalf").
Sign-offs are always recorded as the signed-in person.
Nobody can approve go-live on behalf of the supplier's manager when the go-live separation-of-duties rule is on.
Nobody can release new bank details on behalf of the person who recorded the change or made the call-back: "Nobody can release on behalf of the person who recorded the change or made the call-back". The person who made the call-back can't release, whether for themselves or as cover.
When names are ticked in Who can release new bank details, only those people, or whoever is covering for them, can release: "Only the people named in Settings, or whoever is covering for them, can release new bank details".

Where cover shows

Where	What you see
Banner at the top of every page, for the person covering	"You're covering for name until date. Their sign-offs come to you (purchase requests in Purchase requests › Waiting for me, plus supplier go-live and bank detail releases), marked as given on their behalf, and their tasks show on your Overview."
Banner for the person who is away	"You're away: name signs off for you from date to date." (or "Cover is set:" before it starts), with a Change button.
Supplier history, audit packs, the bank detail change history and the ISO 27001 supplier controls report	The approver shows as "name, covering for name".
Purchase requests › Waiting for me	Includes requests waiting for the person you're covering for, as well as your own.
The bell	"Purchase request to sign off: title (covering for name)".
Dashboard	A "Covering for name" panel with their open tasks, so nothing they own is missed.
Stakeholders	The absent person shows "Away until date: name signs off" (or "Away from date …" before it starts). The colleague shows "Covering for name".
Sign-off tasks	When a request reaches an extra sign-off level whose person is away, the task goes to whoever is covering, with ", covering for name" added to its title. For a team level, SupplierVault picks someone in the team who isn't away first.

Good to know

Cover doesn't move anyone's tasks or suppliers. To move work permanently, for example when someone leaves, use Hand over work on the same page. See Stakeholders and templates.
The budget holder's own task stays with the budget holder. The person covering finds the request under Waiting for me and in the bell.
The person covering must be on the Stakeholders page, and to sign off in the live service their sign-in must be linked to their stakeholder entry (by email).
Go-live approvals and bank detail releases given as cover don't appear under Waiting for me. Open the supplier to approve or release.
Cover is included in every plan.
Audit and evidence packs show each sign-off with who gave it and on whose behalf.
The database checks all of these rules too, not just the screen.

Still have a question?Email hello@suppliervault.co.uk or use the contact form. Try anything safely in the live demo.