How to track key dates and notice requirements for Separation Agreements

Track separation-agreement dates by connecting each obligation to its controlling document, triggering event, deadline formula, recipient, delivery method, and completion evidence. For employers, the critical distinction is between a projected date and one supported by verified execution, delivery, and revocation records. Use one tracker to coordinate release effectiveness, severance payments, property return, and continuing notices without treating them as interchangeable obligations. The resulting deliverable is a source-linked schedule with accountable owners, checked dates, and explicit holds where evidence or legal decisions remain outstanding.

When to use this workflow

Use this workflow when employment counsel, HR, payroll, or legal operations must administer a proposed or signed separation agreement. Begin before sending the offer to preserve transmission and revision history. Confirm the schedule against the executed agreement and attachments before releasing dependent payment instructions.

This is a US employer-side workflow, not a fifty-state enforceability survey. Obtain separate analysis of applicable state wage-payment and notice rules, benefit-plan requirements, tax treatment, and NLRA issues. Rights depend on the actual language, governing law, facts, and employment context.

Identify whether the release is an ordinary ADEA waiver or settles a filed charge or court action: the regulation treats these categories separately. Do not assign the ordinary waiver clocks automatically to both. 29 C.F.R. § 1625.22(e), (g)

What you need

Collect the proposed and executed agreements, exhibits, incorporated documents, and last approved draft, together with:

• Employee age, employing entity, work locations, departure category, pending claims, and counsel’s jurisdiction assessment.
• Offer-transmission records, revision history, delivery acknowledgments, signature timestamps, and revocation communications.
• Payroll calendars, earned-compensation records, benefit and equity documents, and approved severance instructions.
• Notice addresses, authorized recipients, designated inboxes, permitted methods, and deemed-receipt provisions.
• HR, payroll, IT, benefits, and legal contacts responsible for actions and evidence.

Separate existing entitlements from incremental release consideration. An ADEA waiver requires value beyond existing entitlements; entering a payment in the tracker does not establish sufficient consideration. 29 C.F.R. § 1625.22(d)

Use the template

Use the Separation Agreements — Key dates and notices tracker below. You can copy this table into your working document or spreadsheet. Create one row per action or notice; separate installments with different triggers.

Use stable document IDs, versions, sections, and pages in ID / source. Keep operative wording and relevant definitions in a linked source note.

Trigger / evidence records the event and proof that it occurred. Deadline rule retains the formula rather than just its calendar result. Keep Verified date unconfirmed until the inputs and counting convention are checked; label forecasts separately.

Recipient / method captures routing requirements. Dependencies / exceptions links prerequisite row IDs and unresolved questions. Status / proof distinguishes provisional, blocked, ready, and complete rows and identifies supporting evidence. Record backups, approvals, and calculation reviewers in the row’s working note where necessary.

Step by step

1. Establish the controlling document set

Assign identifiers to the agreement and every exhibit. Compare the signed package against the last approved draft, checking amounts, dates, definitions, signatures, notice addresses, and attachments. A signed main agreement does not prove execution or delivery of a separately required release.

Identify incorporated equity, benefit, restrictive-covenant, and cooperation provisions affecting administration. For example, paragraph 3 of the SEC-filed Arrow Electronics agreement preserves specified agreements and a retirement plan, while paragraph 7 separately addresses accrued rights. This illustrates document dependencies, not universal payment rules. SEC-filed agreement, paragraphs 3 and 7

Record: Controlling references for each row, missing documents, and an owner for obtaining them.

2. Classify the release clocks before calculating dates

Have counsel confirm the waiver category. Ordinary ADEA waivers require at least 21 days for individual consideration or 45 days for a covered group program, and at least seven days after execution to revoke. Effectiveness awaits expiration of revocation. Required group disclosures must accompany the start of consideration. 29 C.F.R. § 1625.22(e)–(f)

Create separate rows for consideration, execution, release delivery, revocation expiry, and effectiveness where relevant. Do not treat an unsigned offer’s expiry as an executed release’s effective date. Timing review also does not replace substantive waiver review.

Record: Counsel’s classification, disclosure-delivery evidence where applicable, and distinct clocks with unresolved assumptions identified.

3. Extract each operational action and notice

Read for required conduct, not just dates: release delivery, property return, expense submissions, agreement-related benefit elections, cooperation requests, breach notices, cure opportunities, and payments. Identify the acting party and the employer contact responsible for administration.

For notices, distinguish dispatch from receipt. Capture required contents, addresses, methods, copies, and exceptions. Compare specific revocation instructions with the general notices clause; refer inconsistencies to counsel.

Do not convert every notification clause into an enforceable task. SEC guidance identifies permission to report to agencies coupled with a notification requirement as potentially violating Rule 21F-17(a). SEC Whistleblower Protections

Record: One actionable instruction per row, its source, recipient, method, and exceptions; block disputed instructions pending review.

4. Verify triggers and control revisions

Reconcile offer transmissions, employee signatures, employer countersignatures, and release-delivery evidence. These may represent different events. Use the trigger specified by the controlling provision, subject to applicable legal requirements.

The ADEA consideration period runs from the final offer. Material changes restart it unless the parties agree otherwise; immaterial changes do not restart it. Preserve the revision history and obtain counsel’s decision rather than treating a new filename as decisive. 29 C.F.R. § 1625.22(e)(4)

Retain conflicting evidence and identify what would resolve it. Establish who checks relevant revocation channels and when.

Record: Accepted evidence, conflicts, revision treatment, reviewer, and any resulting hold on dependent dates.

5. Calculate dates and connect payment dependencies

Preserve the formula before calculating the date. Confirm calendar versus business days, treatment of the trigger day, holidays, time zones, cutoffs, and any deemed-receipt rules. Resolve ambiguous wording rather than adopting an undocumented spreadsheet convention. Have a second reviewer check consequential calculations.

Trace each payment through its actual prerequisites. Do not apply a severance release condition to earned compensation without a separate legal and contractual basis. Keep internal payroll targets distinct from binding payment deadlines.

Paragraph 14 of the Arrow Electronics example conditions benefits on release delivery and effectiveness, subject to paragraph 11’s tax-timing provisions. Read such cross-references together; the filing does not establish that its conditions were satisfied. SEC-filed agreement, paragraphs 11 and 14

Record: Checked date, prerequisite row IDs, calculation reviewer, and any payment hold or tax-review question.

6. Assign ownership and prepare notices

Assign an accountable owner and backup for employer actions. For employee obligations, designate the employer contact who receives evidence and evaluates the next step. Set internal preparation dates separately from contractual deadlines.

Before transmitting a notice, verify its factual basis, required contents, recipient, method, and cure provisions. Confirm that the instruction preserves protected agency access. EEOC guidance explains that agreements cannot prevent filing a charge or participating in EEOC proceedings. EEOC waiver guidance, question 3

Record: Owner, backup, preparation date, approval requirement, and required transmission or receipt evidence. Escalate uncertain obligations instead of sending precautionary demands indiscriminately.

7. Close rows only against evidence

A scheduled payment is not payment confirmation; a drafted notice is not proof of dispatch or receipt. Specify acceptable completion evidence for each row: payroll confirmation, transmission record, required receipt evidence, property-return acknowledgment, or a documented revocation check.

Review open rows according to their deadlines. When a trigger changes, reassess linked rows and notify affected teams. Preserve the earlier calculation and reason for change; clearly withdraw superseded payroll instructions.

Record: Completion evidence, date, reviewer, and residual issues. Assign every unresolved issue an owner and next review date.

Worked example

Fictional scenario: Cedar Quay Instruments LLC offers Morgan Vale, age 54, an individual separation agreement. SA-01 v3 § 5 promises $36,000 in incremental severance within ten calendar days after separately signed and delivered Exhibit A becomes effective. Exhibit A § 4 provides seven days after execution to revoke by email to a designated address, with effectiveness after that period expires without revocation. SA-01 § 8 requires laptop return within five calendar days after separation.

Counsel has confirmed the ordinary individual ADEA waiver classification and the consideration-period treatment. Morgan separates on October 2, 2026, and signs the main agreement that day. The package contains an unsigned Exhibit A, but no executed copy or release-delivery evidence. IT acknowledges laptop receipt on October 6. Payroll proposes calculating severance from the main signature.

The three representative tracker entries are:

The tracker prevents payroll from deriving severance timing from the wrong signature. Legal must establish release execution, delivery, and revocation outcome before confirming effectiveness. The missing evidence does not prove that Morgan never signed; it means the employer cannot yet verify the trigger. Laptop return closes independently and does not resolve the release gap.

Common mistakes

• Using separation as the universal trigger. Map execution, delivery, effectiveness, and separation independently.
• Overwriting dates after negotiation. Preserve prior calculations and document counsel’s revision decision.
• Applying one notice method everywhere. Check specific revocation, breach, and cooperation provisions against general notice language.
• Tracking only headline severance. Separate installments, insurance support, equity actions, and existing entitlements when conditions differ.
• Treating every notification clause as routine. Review agency-reporting exceptions before assigning enforcement tasks.

Final quality check

• Every row identifies the controlling version, section, and page.
• Required exhibits are present or assigned as evidence gaps.
• Counsel has confirmed the waiver category and timing assumptions.
• Calculated dates have verified inputs and checked counting conventions.
• Payment rows distinguish release consideration from existing entitlements.
• Notice recipients, methods, exceptions, owners, and backups are confirmed.
• Closed rows have evidence; open issues have owners, review dates, and stated downstream effects.

Complete the workflow with DecoverAI

DecoverAI is the Legal Intelligence Platform for litigation and transactions. Its contract review capabilities support employer-side review in Word using deal-specific instructions, with findings that quote clauses, locate text, rank severity, and identify missing language as not present. Tabular review supports work across documents. Use that review to prepare this tracker while retaining lawyer responsibility for clock selection, calculations, approvals, and administration. Book a demo to discuss reviewing separation-agreement timing and notice provisions.

Frequently asked questions

Can payroll calculate payment from the employee’s signature date?

Only when the controlling provision supports that trigger. Check separate release delivery, revocation, effectiveness, and cross-referenced timing conditions before authorizing payment.

Should the tracker include earned wages?

Yes, as a separate administrative category where relevant. Obtain jurisdiction-specific payment analysis; do not derive the earned-wage deadline from the severance schedule.

What changes when an offer is revised?

Retain both versions and transmission evidence. Obtain counsel’s timing decision, then update affected rows without deleting the earlier calculation or its basis.

Does an empty revocation inbox prove effectiveness?

Not alone. Verify execution, the applicable period, operative notice terms, and relevant receiving channels. Document who checked what and escalate incomplete or disputed evidence before clearing dependent payments.

Sources

• EEOC: 29 C.F.R. § 1625.22, ADEA waivers
• EEOC: Understanding waivers in employee severance agreements
• SEC: Whistleblower protections
• Arrow Electronics: SEC-filed separation and release agreement

Scope: General professional workflow guidance, not advice for a particular separation.

This guide is general information about legal workflows, not legal advice for any matter. It was drafted and reviewed with AI assistance. The worked example is fictional. Contract rights and procedure depend on the governing law, the actual wording, and the facts, so check the cited sources and the rules that apply in your jurisdiction before relying on it.