How to take a week off as a café owner: a coverage plan, a decision list and a handover sheet

Plenty of café owners haven't had a full week off since they signed the lease. Not because the café would fall apart, but because they've never written down what they actually do all week, so nobody else can do it. The first trip away turns into a week of answering texts from the beach.

A week off is a project like any other. It needs a person in charge for every shift, a clear list of who decides what, everything you carry in your head on one sheet, and a check-in that's short enough to keep. This guide walks through each, with templates you can copy. If you're still at the stage of handing off your first tasks, start with our guide to delegating as a new restaurant owner.

Step 1: Pick the week, four to six weeks out

• A normal week, not a big one. Not the week of a holiday rush, a menu change, a large catering order or a new hire's first shift.
• Not right after a staff change. The team you leave in charge should have worked together for a while.
• Tell the team early. Four to six weeks gives you time to write the handover, test it and fix the schedule.

Step 2: Name a person in charge for every shift

The Food Code expects someone to be in charge whenever you're open: the permit holder "shall be the PERSON IN CHARGE or shall designate a PERSON IN CHARGE and shall ensure that a PERSON IN CHARGE is present at the FOOD ESTABLISHMENT during all hours of operation" (FDA Food Code 2022, §2-101.11(A)). The same Code says "The PERSON IN CHARGE shall be a certified FOOD protection manager" (§2-102.12(A)), though states and counties adopt this part differently, so check what your health department requires. Our guide to food manager certification in Florida shows one state's version.

Build a simple grid for the week, and check it against the schedule:

The names are examples. If one person ends up in charge for every shift all week, that's not a coverage plan, it's a second owner with no days off. Share the load, and make sure each person in charge has done the job on their own at least a few times before. Our guide to promoting your first shift lead covers what they need first.

Step 3: Write down who decides what

Most texts to an owner on holiday are really one question: "Am I allowed to decide this?" Answer it before you leave, in three columns.

Fill in the dollar amounts yourself; there's no right number, only one your people know. Add your own rows, then read the list with each person in charge and ask what's missing.

Step 4: Put everything in your head on one handover sheet

Write it as if you'd be unreachable. Keep it to two pages, in a folder by the office desk and on the phones of the people in charge.

Handover: [café name], [dates]

People in charge: [names and phone numbers]
Owner's daily check-in: [time], by [text / call]
Emergency: 911, then [owner's number], then [second contact]

Contacts
- Espresso machine repair: [company, phone, account number]
- Refrigeration repair: [company, phone]
- Plumber / electrician: [names, phones]
- Landlord / building manager: [name, phone]
- Alarm company: [phone, passcode holder]
- POS support: [phone, account ID]
- Health department: [phone]

Deliveries this week: [vendor, day, time, who receives]
Bank deposit: [who, when, where]
Payroll: [what's due this week and who approves it]
Events and catering this week: [date, order, who's in charge]
Known problems: [the ice machine leaks if..., the back door sticks...]
Where things are: [breaker panel, water shutoff, first aid kit,
spare keys, the emergency plan]

Two things stay off this sheet: shared passwords and the safe combination. Give each person their own login (see staff accounts and shared tablets (coming Nov 15)), and track who holds which key or code in your access log. For the emergencies, point to your emergency action plan rather than rewriting it.

Step 5: Agree one check-in a day, and keep it short

Pick one time, such as 6 p.m., and one format. The closing person in charge sends:

1. Sales for the day, and labor hours or labor % if you track it
2. Anything from the "tell me" column
3. Anything they're unsure about for tomorrow

Then put the phone down. The point of the list in Step 3 is that you don't need to check in every hour, and the team learns faster when you don't. If the check-in is the same shape every night, a manager shift log entry can be the check-in.

Step 6: Practise before the real week

• A day off first, a few weeks before. Don't check in until the evening. Write down every question that came up.
• Then a long weekend, with the full handover sheet.
• Fix the sheet after each one. Every question you got is a missing line.

Step 7: When you're back

• Read the week's notes before you walk in, so you don't ask questions they already answered.
• Ask the people in charge what was hard, what was easy, and what they'd change in the handover sheet.
• Back their decisions in front of the team, even the ones you'd have made differently. Talk about those privately.
• Thank them properly. If someone took on a bigger role for the week, recognise it, and if you pay a lead differential, pay it.
• Plan the next week off while it's fresh.

Your week-off checklist

• [ ] A normal week chosen, four to six weeks out, and the team told
• [ ] A person in charge named for every shift, with backups
• [ ] Certified manager coverage checked against your health department's rule
• [ ] A decide / tell me / call me list, read with each person in charge
• [ ] A two-page handover sheet, with contacts, deliveries, money and known problems
• [ ] Own logins for everyone; no shared passwords on the sheet
• [ ] One daily check-in at a fixed time
• [ ] A practice day and a practice weekend first
• [ ] A debrief and a thank-you when you're back

Where Mays fits

• Managers who can run the location. Give your people in charge the Manager role for their location, so they can change the schedule, approve punches and see the location's tasks and logbook without your login. See Roles and permissions and Location access for managers.
• Requests go to them, not you. In the app, the managers' Approvals screen holds shift trades, shift pool claims, time off and availability requests. See The approvals inbox.
• The daily notes in one place. The logbook keeps each day's notes for the location, with comments and follow-up flags, and you can read it from the app. See The manager logbook.
• The numbers come to you. A Labor % Threshold alert tells you the morning after a day ran over the labor % you set, and a weekly Labor Summary or Prime Cost report can come every Monday, to your phone or by email. See Alerts and scheduled reports.
• Certified manager coverage. With food safety certificates on, where the location's state or county requires a certified food protection manager (or a certified person on every shift), the location's panel shows whether someone there holds a valid certificate. See Food safety certificates.

What Mays doesn't do: a role you give for the week doesn't expire on its own, so change it back when you return if it was only for the week.

The café that runs without you

The first week off is the hardest one to plan, and the most useful: everything you wrote down for it makes the café easier to run when you're there too.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll set up manager access, the logbook and your weekly report with you.