Sick Leave: An Underestimated Business Risk for the Finance Department

The month-end close is approaching. Routines are established, deadlines are set. The unexpected absence of a key person can disrupt this plan, bringing critical reports and analyses to a halt. What was once a purely personnel challenge is now a tangible financial risk. The rising cost of sick leave for SME Switzerland is a growing concern, with a recent study showing that these costs have increased for 42 per cent of SMEs over the last five years (AXA 2026). The issue of cost reduction is therefore not just a task for the HR department. For finance leaders, it becomes a matter of operational stability and risk management. A significant vulnerability here is the dependency on manual, person-specific processes.

The direct and indirect costs of an absence

An employee absence can incur costs that go beyond continued salary payments. The direct costs are regulated by law. According to the Swiss Code of Obligations, an employer must continue to pay the salary for three weeks in the first year of service. After that, a 'reasonably longer period' applies, the duration of which depends on cantonal scales (WEKA Business Media AG 2026). These direct salary costs are budgetable but often represent only part of the burden.

The indirect costs are often higher and more difficult to quantify. If a person responsible for reporting is absent, tasks must be redistributed at short notice. Colleagues unfamiliar with the specific procedures need more time and may make mistakes. This can lead to delays in the month-end close, liquidity planning, or the creation of reports for management. Deadlines for VAT returns or other regulatory filings can come under pressure. The additional workload for the remaining team can result in lower productivity and an increased susceptibility to errors.

Process dependency as the core of the problem

The disruption is often not caused by the absence alone. A key cause is the process's dependency on a single individual. In many SME finance departments, critical workflows are heavily dependent on individuals. This particularly affects the chain from the ERP export to the finished report. Data is exported from the ERP system — be it Abacus, SAP, bexio, or another solution — and then manually processed in Excel. Formulas are adjusted, data from various sources is merged, and manual corrections are made.

These Excel-based processes have often grown over years. They are powerful but not always standardised or fully documented. The knowledge of the exact steps, the correct filters, or the origin of certain figures often exists only in the mind of the responsible employee. A lack of or unclear process documentation leads to an increased risk during staff turnover or unexpected absences (BAV 2024). If this key person is absent, the chain can break. It is not always possible for someone else in the team to replicate the process with certainty and within the required time. The result can be a delay. In the worst-case scenario, a faulty report is produced, which can lead to incorrect business decisions.

Automation is not a question of company size

It is often assumed that automating finance processes is only relevant for large corporations with expensive IT projects. This assumption is often incorrect. The automation does not have to involve the ERP system itself. Skopa does not replace a company's existing ERP system. The starting point is rather the Excel layer that surrounds the ERP, where a large part of the manual work often takes place.

The goal of automation is to reduce the recurring, manual steps between the data export and the final report. It is about creating a robust and traceable logic that functions more independently of the person executing it. An automated process runs according to a defined logic. It is documented and validated. This makes it reliable. The finance department gains resilience. The month-end close and reporting can continue even if a key person is not present.

What a robust process chain looks like

A robust process chain in financial reporting is stable, transparent, and efficient. It begins with a standardised export from the ERP system. Instead of this data being manually copied into a complex Excel file, an automated workflow takes over. This cleans the data, validates it for plausibility, merges it with other sources, and calculates the necessary key figures.

The result is a cleanly structured report. Cluttered spreadsheets are replaced by clear visualisations. The role of the controller or CFO changes positively as a result. Instead of spending time on manual data preparation, they can use it for analysing, interpreting, and commenting on the results. They oversee the process rather than executing it themselves. The time saved can be used for more strategically important tasks. The quality and reliability of the financial data can thereby increase.

What you can do this month

Reducing process dependency starts with small, concrete steps. You do not need to launch a major project for this. Begin with a simple analysis to better understand the risk in your department. You can implement the following three steps this month:

• Identify the most critical process: Which report or analysis in the month-end close is most dependent on a single person? Ask yourself: What happens if this person is absent for three weeks starting tomorrow?
• Have the process documented: Ask the responsible person to write down every single step. This starts with the name of the export file from the ERP and ends with the cell where the final result is located. A simple checklist is better than no documentation.
• Conduct a test: Give this documentation to another person in the team. This person should try to carry out the process using only the instructions. Every question that arises and every step that is unclear reveals a weakness in the documentation and a hidden dependency.

This exercise creates transparency about your operational risks. It is the foundation for taking targeted measures to strengthen your financial processes.

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