When a rep is out on vacation or leave, their customers keep sending orders. Temporary Account Assignment hands that rep's accounts to one or more covering reps for a set period.
The rep who is out stays the account's rep of record. Commission, attribution, and the name the customer sees all stay with them.
Who can set it up
Supplier admins and DSMs manage coverage in the Pepper Management Center (PMC), under Tools → Temporary Account Assignment. Reps ask their admin to set one up.
What a covering rep can do
While a coverage is active, each covering rep you assign can:
See the covered rep's accounts in their chat and customer list, alongside their own
Receive notifications for those accounts
Read and reply to messages on those accounts
Place and manage orders on those accounts, the same as their own
The rep who is out keeps their accounts and stays the rep of record the whole time.
Coverage is scoped to one rep's accounts, so the covering rep sees only those accounts added to their own. The older workaround of granting someone full admin access opened up the entire customer base.
Setting up a coverage
Open PMC → Tools → Temporary Account Assignment.
Select Add Coverage.
Choose the rep who is going out, the covered rep.
Choose one or more covering reps. Assign as many people as you need to share the load.
Set the expiration date. Coverage can begin immediately, or start on a future date you choose.
Confirm. Coverage that starts now gives the covering reps access right away.
The form enforces three rules: the covered rep cannot also be a covering rep, at least one covering rep is required, and the expiration date has to be in the future.
Finding your coverages
Coverages live in two tabs, each showing a count.
Active holds coverages that are running now or waiting to start:
Active: live right now
Upcoming: scheduled to start on a future date
Past holds coverages that have finished:
Completed: reached its expiration date
Ended early: stopped before the expiration date
Each row shows five columns: Rep on leave, Filling in, Starts, Expires, and Status. Filling in lists every covering rep on that coverage. Select the arrows in any column header to sort by that field, for example sorting by Expires to see which coverages end soonest. Use Search by rep name to jump to a specific rep.
Editing an upcoming coverage
Before a coverage begins, every part of it can change. Select the pencil icon in the Action column to open the Edit Coverage window.
From there you can:
Change the Rep on leave using the dropdown
Add or remove covering reps under Filling in. Search by name and use the checkboxes, and a count below the list shows how many reps are selected.
Adjust the Start Date and the Expiration Date
A line below the dates confirms what happens next, for example "Coverage will be scheduled and activate automatically on Aug 6, 2026."
Select Save Changes to apply your changes, or Cancel to close the window and leave the coverage as it was.
Editing applies to Upcoming coverages. Once a coverage is running, use Extend to move the expiration date out.
Extending a coverage
When a rep's leave runs longer than you scheduled, Extend pushes the expiration date forward while the coverage stays active, so the covering rep's access continues without a lapse.
Find the coverage in the list. Extend works on both Active and Upcoming coverages.
In the Actions column, select the calendar (Extend) icon to open the Extend coverage window.
Under New expiration date, pick the new date. The window shows the current expiration date for reference.
Select Extend Coverage. The coverage runs straight through to the new date.
Extend moves the expiration date forward only. To end a coverage early, use Stop.
Ending a coverage
Automatically, on the expiration date. Coverage ends on the date you set, interpreted in your local time at the end of that day. The coverage moves to the Past tab as Completed.
Manually, at any time. Select Stop on that coverage's row. Access rolls back right away and the coverage moves to the Past tab as Ended early.
Either way, the covering reps lose the borrowed access and everything returns to normal. The covered rep owned the accounts the whole time, so there is nothing to reassign.
Good to know
Coverage overlaps safely. One rep can cover several teammates at once, and several reps can cover one teammate. If two covered reps share a customer and the same person covers both, ending one coverage preserves the access the other coverage still needs.
New accounts are picked up automatically. If the covered rep gains a new account while they are out, the covering reps get access to it on the next data sync, typically within a couple of hours.
Offboarding is handled for you. If the covered rep leaves the company, the coverage ends automatically and shows as Ended early. If one of several covering reps leaves, that person drops off and the others keep covering. Both apply on the next sync.
ERP syncs leave coverage in place. If your rep-to-account assignments sync from your back office system, coverage assignments are protected and survive the sync.
Permanent moves happen elsewhere. To move a book of business from one rep to another for good, use Assigned Accounts in the Representatives tab in PMC.
Common questions
Does the rep who is out lose access to their accounts? No. They keep full access and remain the rep of record the entire time.
Does commission or reporting move to the covering rep? No. Attribution and commission stay with the original rep. Coverage grants access only.
Can I assign more than one covering rep? Yes. Assign as many reps as you need to share the workload.