Businesses run into the unexpected — illness, an accident, a sudden absence. If one person holds all the account authority, a crisis for them becomes a crisis for the company’s finances too. A little preparation removes that risk.
Put cover in place
- Make sure at least two people hold administrator or signatory roles, so no single absence blocks the account.
- Name a fallback contact so important notices still reach someone.
- Keep your own internal note of who is authorised, in case you need to prove it quickly.
If it happens without cover in place
If a sole authorised person becomes unavailable and no one else has access, contact us. We’ll need to verify the authority of whoever steps in — typically another director or a formally authorised person — before granting access, because that verification is exactly what protects the company at a vulnerable moment. Setting cover up in advance avoids that scramble.
Whenever a change touches money, access or your company’s data, we verify the request is genuinely from an authorised person before we act. We will never ask you to confirm full security details by email or phone to release information or push through a change — if a message pressures you to do that, treat it as suspicious and contact us to check.
See also: How to add a backup contact, How to add a second authorised signatory, Account access after a director leaves.