The TSA ends before your employment setup is ready

A seller’s payroll service stops at the start of week 6. Your receiving employment arrangement cannot go live until the start of week 10. That leaves 28 days in which someone must still employ, pay and support the retained team. A project plan that says “new provider selected” does not close that gap.

For a deal operations lead, the decision is which arrangement can cover those 28 days with an accountable employer and a working payroll and benefits route. In the completed case below, a documented seller extension does. When the receiving setup becomes genuinely ready in week 6, the answer changes.

1. Map the date gap

Fictional worked case. A buyer retains eight employees after a business-unit separation. The employing company stays with the seller. At the start of week 6, the seller’s payroll transitional services agreement (TSA) is due to end. The buyer’s planned receiving arrangement has a validated go-live date at the start of week 10. The exposed interval is week 6 to week 10: 10 − 6 = four weeks, or 28 days.

The week-10 date means the receiving employer, contracts, payroll funding and approvals, and benefit start arrangements are ready together. It is not merely the date on which a software account opens. The buyer cannot treat those employees as transferred just because the acquired activity has changed hands.

2. Identify what must continue

A payroll TSA is a service promise; it is not, by itself, an agreement about who remains the legal employer. Check those two documents separately. Filed transaction agreements show that payroll and benefits can have expressly listed service periods. Another filed TSA makes continuation after a service end date dependent on an agreed extension. Neither agreement sets the terms of this fictional deal.

For this case, the seller and buyer have signed a week-2 amendment covering payroll processing, benefits administration and employee queries from the start of week 6 until the receiving arrangement starts in week 10. Deal counsel has separately confirmed, as a fictional case input, that the seller remains the eight employees’ employer during that period. Finance has approved the extension funding. Those facts make the extension usable here; an unsigned offer or a payroll-only amendment would not.

The final receiving contracts, treatment of accrued balances, benefit enrolments and first receiving payroll still need to be agreed. The employees’ country and individual terms are deliberately unspecified, so this example makes no claim about a local transfer rule or automatic preservation of service.

3. TSA-gap response comparison

Response	What has to be true	Accountable owner and work	Result for this case
Extend the seller arrangement	Seller employment continues under the separate employee arrangement; the signed TSA amendment covers payroll, benefits and employee support for all eight people through the week-10 cutover.	Buyer deal lead owns the amendment and funding decision; seller TSA lead owns service delivery and the final data handover; buyer People lead owns the employee contact plan.	Closes the 28-day operating gap. Choose this response. Keep the seller on the agreed work until the receiving arrangement passes its go-live checks.
Arrange a lawful employment bridge	A receiving employer can lawfully take this group in week 6; country-specific contract, consent or consultation steps, funding, benefits and first payroll can all be completed in time.	Buyer employment counsel determines the route; buyer People lead gathers employee terms and explains the change; proposed provider commits to dates and in-scope work; seller supplies records and completes its exit duties.	Not the chosen bridge. Those approvals and dates are unresolved, and a temporary employer could mean another handoff in week 10. Keep feasibility work available as contingency; do not count it as coverage.
Change the readiness sequence	The receiving employer, payroll funding, approvals and benefits can actually go live in week 6, with less critical reporting or systems work finishing later.	Buyer implementation lead tests the critical path; Finance signs off funding and payroll controls; People and counsel sign off employment and benefits dates; seller TSA lead confirms the last seller run.	Does not close this case’s gap. The validated minimum live date remains week 10. A compressed schedule without those sign-offs is not a continuity response.

4. Compare the work employees will feel

Under the selected extension, the eight employees continue using the seller’s established pay and benefits process for four more weeks. The buyer still owes them a clear contact: its People lead explains who answers pay and benefit questions now, when the receiving arrangement is expected, and when the next confirmed update will come. The seller’s service lead answers within the extended scope. Neither party should tell employees that their future terms are identical before those terms are settled.

A week-6 employment bridge would instead introduce a new employer and documents while the intended week-10 arrangement is still being built. That may be necessary if seller support cannot continue, but it is substantial work, not a label to put over the gap. Ask the proposed employer for a dated first-payroll and benefit plan before treating the bridge as real.

5. Select the viable sequence—and change one input

Decision in the completed case: use the signed seller extension for weeks 6–10. The seller remains employer under the separately confirmed arrangement and runs the specified services. The buyer builds and checks the receiving setup in parallel, then moves the employees only when the week-10 contract, payroll and benefit dates join. If the seller employment arrangement or any essential service ends earlier than agreed, this decision fails and the buyer must reopen the bridge and readiness options immediately.

Change one decisive input: suppose the implementation lead proves that the minimum receiving arrangement can go live at the start of week 6. The employer, contracts, funded payroll, approvals and benefits are ready then; only a reporting integration remains scheduled for week 10. The response changes to a direct week-6 cutover. The buyer and seller end the extended service scope at that handoff, confirm the last seller payroll and first receiving payroll, and avoid an unnecessary four-week extension or interim employer. A week-6 dashboard launch without those employment checks would not change the answer.

If the receiving route requires an EOR, Teamed is our shortlist pick for a lean deal team that needs the employment handoff carried into ongoing payroll and employee support. Teamed describes a designated switching team, date alignment, a country-by-country data request and a parallel payroll check. Ask it to confirm what it can deliver for these eight employees, their country and their actual cutover date. Teamed does not replace the seller’s TSA decision or the buyer’s transaction counsel. Compare its scoped offer with G-P, GoGlobal and Deel in the retained-team provider comparison.

6. Assign the decision deadlines

When in this fictional case	Decision or proof	Accountable owner
Week 0	List the eight employees, current employer, each seller service end date, next pay date, benefit dependencies and open employee cases. Put the dates into the deal perimeter and employee continuity planner.	Buyer People lead, with seller HR and payroll leads supplying records.
By week 2	Execute the service extension and confirm the separate seller employment arrangement through the week-10 handoff; approve funding. If either fails, start the bridge decision immediately.	Buyer deal lead and counsel; seller TSA lead; buyer Finance lead.
By week 4	Confirm the receiving employer route, individual terms, balances, benefit start dates, payroll funding and first-run cutoff. Give employees the confirmed contact and next update date.	Buyer People lead and counsel; receiving provider or payroll lead; Finance lead.
Before week 6	Test that the seller’s extended payroll and benefits service will run, and record an escalation owner for a missed payment or benefit query.	Seller payroll and benefits leads; buyer People lead.
Before week 10	Reconcile the last seller run with the first receiving run and confirm the employer change date, documents, funding and employee message. End the extension only after these checks pass.	Buyer implementation and People leads; seller TSA lead; receiving provider or payroll lead.

Take the week-0 employee and service list into the continuity planner. For the seller-to-independent-operation handoff, read the shared-employer separation case; if the new business will rely on outsourced HR, follow the independent-business operating case. The decision to make now is the dated coverage agreement for weeks 6–10, with a named owner for every pay, benefit and employee handoff.