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Year-End Global Mobility Checklist: 10 Things to Review Before January

Written by Emily Jahn | Dec 16, 2025 3:30:00 PM

If you work in global mobility, you know that year-end isn’t just filled with eggnog, snow-delayed flights, and PTO countdowns. Distributed work is amazing, especially during the holiday season… until you’re the one responsible for tax, immigration, or payroll compliance. That’s when year-end turns into a high-stakes scavenger hunt.

 If we’re going to be really honest with ourselves, it’s the season of:

  • Tripping surprise thresholds
  • Payroll catching up on 11 months of corrections
  • Legal asking for documentation from… February
  • That one traveler who swears they didn’t work abroad (they did)

Luckily, with the right tools (hi, it’s us 👋), year-end goes from chaotic to completely manageable. So before you close the books on 2025, here’s everything worth double-checking to set yourself up for a smoother 2026.

1. Get the Real Story on Where Employees Worked

Let’s be honest: self-reporting is an approximation at best and a creative writing exercise at worst. 

People forget. People “round.” People swear they never worked from a specific location, even though their social media says otherwise. Year-end tends to be crunch time to replace “I think…” with actual location data.

Use this time to:

  • Compare reported vs. actual activity
  • Pull real day counts by city, state, and country
  • Spot surprise presence in new jurisdictions
  • Identify anyone who quietly went “work-from-mom’s-house” for two months

Topia automatically tracks work locations across borders (privacy-first, of course) and gives HR, Finance, Payroll, and Mobility teams a shared, real-time view. You don’t have to chase people down. You just… know.

2. Run a Risk Check Before the Ball Drops

You know how people say “nothing happens in December”? WRONG. If there’s ever a time when tax and immigration thresholds creep up on you, it’s this one.

Double-check:

  • U.S. state day counts
  • International presence thresholds
  • Permanent Establishment exposure
  • Business traveler immigration limits
  • Payroll and withholding obligations

Topia makes this a two-click job. If people get close to danger zones, Topia flags it, like a compliance smoke alarm, but way less annoying.

3. Clean Up Your Assignments & Projects List

Assignments shift. Projects run long. Contractors become employees. “Short trips” aren’t short. All of these scenarios seem like simple one-off issues that can be corrected. But in reality, they quietly add up, creating a perfect snowball effect to ruin your end-of-year bliss.

December is the perfect month for confirming:

  • Assignment durations match actual time on the ground
  • Host/home country compliance is current
  • Shadow payroll is accurate
  • Any extended stays didn’t trigger unexpected obligations

With Topia, it’s simple to match “planned” vs. “actual” and clean up anything drifting off-course. The platform uses automation and connected workflows to keep these details clean, so year-end isn’t an archaeological dig.

4. Check Your Policies Against Reality

With business travel, personal travel, and relocation on the year-over-year mend, companies are re-realizing that people will work from absolutely anywhere that has a Wi-Fi connection.

Now is the time to review:

  • Remote work rules
  • Business travel policies
  • Work-from-anywhere guidelines
  • Assignment frameworks
  • Exception trends (did that one-off become the new standard?)

Topia helps by building policies directly into workflows, so employees get instant guidance and approvals. We help you create and enforce the rules you actually want, and not the ones that accidentally evolved through Slack threads or one-off “quick approvals”. 


5. Make Sure Your Data Can Survive an Audit

Documentation isn’t glamorous, but future-you will be grateful. 

Imagine it’s March and a government agency emails you: “Hi! We’re conducting a review. Could you send your documentation from last year?” Your soul leaves your body… unless you’ve prepared properly.

Year-end is when you want to:

  • Gather location logs
  • Consolidate travel calendars
  • Download threshold reports
  • Finalize payroll adjustments
  • Update immigration records
  • Organize assignment files

With Topia, all of this data is already structured and audit-ready, which means a future version of yourself can relax and actually enjoy spring.


6. Forecast 2026 (Without Guesswork)

Your Finance team wants to close their books. Your HR team wants the projected headcount. Your Mobility team wants…well, clarity.

Before budgets and plans lock in, align with your internal teams to:

  • Update cost projections for existing assignments
  • Identify 2026 high-risk jurisdictions
  • Simulate potential tax and payroll exposure
  • Forecast hiring or relocation needs
  • Create country-by-country risk estimates

Topia uses AI-powered modeling to take the guesswork out of 2026 planning. No more crossed fingers. No more “should be fine.” No more shrugging and saying, “Well… last year looked like this?”

Set yourself up with actual data so that you can create accurate forecasts.

7. Spot the Bottlenecks You Don’t Want to Repeat

Be honest. You know exactly which parts of 2025 drove you to the brink.

Was it:

  • Chasing employee travel plans?
  • Last-minute payroll fixes?
  • Manual threshold calculations?
  • Immigration surprises?
  • Siloed systems?

Topia consolidates everything, location tracking, risk management, payroll automation, reporting, and policy governance, all into one connected platform.

One login. Zero chaos.

8. Prep for New Laws & Requirements in 2026

There will be new rules. Let me repeat that. There are always new rules.

Use year-end to:

  • Scan upcoming tax legislation
  • Confirm immigration changes by region
  • Review payroll/social security updates
  • Map remote work rules by jurisdiction
  • Create timelines for any countries with big changes

With Topia, you can scan in real time and attach location data, day counts, and compliance tasks to each jurisdiction so you’re never caught unprepared.


9. Check in With Your People (The Human Side Matters)

Mobility isn’t just logistics. Behind every threshold, cost projection, and day count is a person trying to build a life somewhere new. It’s new homes, new roles, new schools, new routines… new everything.

Take a moment to ask:

  • How were relocations handled this year?
  • Did employees feel supported?
  • Were expectations clear?
  • Were any points confusing or stressful?
  • Where can the experience be smoother?

Topia’s employee experience portal keeps moves, travel, and remote workflows clean and transparent, so people focus on living their lives, not tracking their days.

10. Celebrate the Wins & Start Fresh

Before you log off for the year, take a breath and look back at what you actually accomplished:

  • Celebrate the projects that went right
  • Thank the teams who kept everything moving
  • Document the ups and downs of the year 
  • Set clear goals for 2026

Mobility is not easy. It touches tax, immigration, payroll, HR, legal, finance, employee experience… basically every department with a pulse.

Yes, mobility is complex. But it’s also the work that opens doors for people. You’re the team making it possible for people to say yes to new roles, new cities, and new chapters, while keeping the business protected behind the scenes.

Topia’s role? Making that complexity manageable, automated, and dare we say… enjoyable.

Ready to Make 2026 Your Easiest Year Yet?

Global mobility doesn’t get simpler on its own. Regulations shift. Work models evolve. Employees move in ways no one predicted. But with the right technology, your entire year can become more predictable, compliant, and manageable.

Topia helps bring order to the chaos, giving you clear visibility into where people are, automating and bringing AI assistance to the tasks that drain your time, and keeping compliance clean and audit-ready. It’s everything you need to support your workforce, all in one place.

If you’re curious how this looks in real life (not just in theory), we’d love to show you! Chat with a team member today.