A good Christmas shutdown checklist for your business systems has seven checks:
- Clear your sync errors before people leave.
- Send integration failure alerts to someone who is actually working.
- Confirm who holds the admin logins and app connections.
- Bring pay runs and super forward around the public holidays.
- Lock the periods you've finished.
- Load January's price and rate changes into every system.
- Agree the order you'll switch things back on.
Each check prevents the same problem. A few weeks with nobody watching turns into a January spent retyping, chasing and reconciling.
Why integrations fail quietly over the break
Most businesses close the office for a few weeks, but their systems keep working. Online orders still come in, bank feeds keep arriving, and the overnight sync between your job, stock or CRM system and Xero or MYOB keeps trying to run. What stops is the people who normally notice when something goes wrong.
That is when you get information that stops before it's needed. An invoice raised in the job system never reaches Xero. A stock receipt never lands in MYOB. Nobody sees it until the first week back, when the bank feed doesn't match and someone starts digging.
Your monthly checks assume someone is around to act on what they find. This checklist covers a different situation: leaving systems unattended for a few weeks and then restarting cleanly.
Seven checks to do before you shut down
1. Clear the sync error queue
Most integrations keep a sync error queue, which is the list of records the integration tried to send to your accounting system but couldn't. Common causes include:
- a customer that was archived in Xero
- an item code that doesn't exist in MYOB
- a tax code that doesn't match
- a period that's already closed
Work through the queue before the break and fix the cause of each error, not just the record. For example, if your team usually retypes failed invoices straight into Xero, that's double entry (the same information typed into two systems). The integration may later retry and post a duplicate. Clear the queue properly, then retry.
2. Send failure alerts to someone who is working
Integration failure emails often go to whoever set the integration up years ago, to a shared inbox nobody reads, or to someone who'll be on leave with an auto-reply. Pick a person who will be working over the break. Agree how often they'll check, for example a quick look twice a week. Write down what they should do if something fails and who to call.
Check your software vendors' holiday support hours too. Many of them close as well.
3. Confirm who holds admin and app-connection logins
List who has admin access to Xero or MYOB, to the integration platform, and to each connected system. Then find out whose account authorised each app connection. In Xero, connections are authorised by a specific user. If that person's access is removed or changed, the connections they authorised can stop working.
Watch for multi-factor codes that only arrive on one person's phone. Also don't tidy up a departing staff member's access just before the break without checking what depends on it. If only one person knows how all of this hangs together, that's worth fixing in its own right. See only one person knows how it works.
4. Check pay runs and super around the public holidays
Banks don't process payments on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day, or on substitute days when a holiday falls on a weekend. That pushes payment dates out. Run through each of these:
- Pay runs: bring them forward so pay lands on time.
- Timesheets: if timesheets flow from a field app, rostering tool or job system into Xero Payroll or MYOB payroll, confirm the last pre-break sync has completed and been approved before the approvers go on leave.
- Leave paid in advance: check that any leave paid ahead of the shutdown has gone through correctly.
- Super: confirm your super payments will be submitted early enough to arrive by the due date. Check the current ATO due dates and allow for clearing house processing and the bank closures.
5. Set lock dates once a month is reconciled
Xero lets you set lock dates, and MYOB lets you lock periods. Lock the last month you've fully reconciled before the break. That's usually November. Lock December once it's reconciled in January.
This matters for integrations because a record that failed weeks ago can retry and post itself into a month you've already reported on. With a lock in place, the integration fails loudly instead of quietly changing a closed month. This is how systems end up disagreeing, which we cover in why your systems give different numbers.
6. Load 1 January price and rate changes into every system
Write down every price list, supplier cost, freight rate, contracted customer rate or charge-out rate that changes on 1 January. Then list every system that holds it. That might be your stock system, the items in Xero or MYOB, your online store, your quoting tool and your job costing.
If the change only goes into one of them, your systems disagree and invoices go out at last year's price. The better fix is a single source of truth (one place everyone takes the number from). Decide which system owns the price and let the integration carry it to the others. If your software supports effective dates, load the changes before the break and let them switch over on the day.
7. Plan the January restart order
Agree the restart order now and write it down, so the first person back isn't guessing:
- Check the integration logs and error queue for anything that failed over the break.
- Reconcile the bank feeds for the shutdown period.
- Confirm January prices and rates are live in every system.
- Release held orders and reopen purchasing.
- Enter anything recorded on paper or in emails over the break, once, in the right system.
- Run your first reports and compare the totals across systems before anyone relies on them.
What it looks like when January starts cleanly
On the first Monday back, the error queue is either empty or holds a short list the person watching has already noted. The January price change shows the same figure in the stock system, the online store and Xero. Nobody is retyping invoices. December is reconciled and locked in the first week or so, instead of dragging on into February.
Most importantly, your numbers arrive on time. December's job margins or stock position are available early in January, when you can still act on them.
When the tidy-up turns up something bigger
Sometimes this checklist exposes more than a seasonal tidy-up. Here are the common signs:
- The same errors fill the queue every month.
- Nobody can explain what the integration does.
- Staff have quietly worked around it with spreadsheets.
At that point the integration needs repair, not another round of retries. Our page on an integration that only half works describes the usual patterns. Our Xero and MYOB integration repair service is how we fix them. We find why records fail, correct the mappings, and set up alerts that reach the right person.
Frequently asked questions
When should we start the Christmas shutdown checklist?
Ideally early to mid November. Clearing a backed-up error queue or reloading price lists can take longer than expected. You also want the fixes done while the people who understand each system are still around, not in the last afternoon before close.
Should we turn our integrations off over the break?
Usually not. Bank feeds and online orders still need to flow, and switching integrations off creates a bigger catch-up in January. If a particular sync isn't needed over the break and has a history of problems, pausing it can be reasonable. Just write down exactly how and when it gets switched back on.
What should the person watching do if an integration fails while we're closed?
Record what failed and when, and contact the vendor or your integration support if it's urgent. Avoid fixing it by typing the record straight into Xero or MYOB unless it truly can't wait. If you do, note it, so the integration's retry doesn't create a duplicate.
Do we need to lock December before we close?
No. December usually isn't finished until the bank feeds and supplier bills arrive in January. Lock the last fully reconciled month before the break, then lock December once it's reconciled.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your integrations before the shutdown, or January has already started badly, book a free initial chat. We'll talk through what's connected, what tends to break, and what's worth fixing first.