Who decides at six forty
Authority to spend, authority to run short, and who holds it at that hour.
Who May Spend Money at Ten to Seven
Agency cover costs real money and the person who needs to authorise it is asleep. What happens next is improvised, and it should not be.
Permission to Accept the Gap
The decision not to cover is a decision, and in most operations nobody is authorised to make it. So it gets made anyway, by default, with no name attached.
The Escalation Nobody Answers
Most escalation routes have never been tested at the hour they exist for. Testing one takes four minutes and usually surprises.
Whoever Picked Up the Phone
The morning is handled by a person whose actual job is something else, with no training for it and no authority. Naming the role is most of the fix.
Deciding Before You Know
At six forty you do not know how long the absence will last or whether anyone else will ring in. The decision cannot wait.
Deciding to Do Less Today
When cover cannot be found, the alternative to running unsafely is to do less. Almost nobody has worked out in advance what that is.
When the Decider Is the One Who Is Off
The absence that breaks the morning is the absence of whoever handles the morning. It is the least planned-for case and the most expensive.