Template

Handover checklist: what to write down when someone leaves or changes role

Last updated 24 October 2026

A good handover document covers seven things: recurring work, work in progress, people, systems, approvals, exceptions, and what a new person gets wrong. The first four are standard. This one adds the last three: the things people rarely write down on their own.

Free to copy and print. Works without any software. No email address needed.

Use it for a retirement, a resignation, a promotion, a move to another team, before parental leave or a planned long absence starts, or when a new manager takes over a team. It works for people who are staying too. It is not an HR offboarding checklist. Access, equipment and payroll have their own processes, and this page does not replace them or give legal advice.

What should a handover document include?

Fill in groups 1 to 4 from what the person already knows. Do groups 5 to 7 by talking to them.

Groups 1 to 4 are standard in handover plans. Cal Poly's Offboarding Knowledge Transfer Plan, for example, asks for lists of current projects and deadlines, ongoing regular tasks, open items, key contacts and documents on the systems the person uses. Its table of who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed for each task, with a transfer date, is a good way to fill in group 5. Exceptions, informal approvals and what new people get wrong are easy to leave out. Those are groups 5 to 7.

The checklist

Copy this into a document. Replace each line with specifics: names, amounts, dates and where things are kept.

1. Recurring work

Daily tasks, with the time of day and how long each takes
Weekly tasks and the day they are due
Monthly and quarterly tasks, including month-end and year-end
Anything done once a year that nobody else sees
Where the steps are written down, or a note that they are not

2. Work in progress

Every open project, with its owner, status and next step
Every deadline in the next 90 days
Promises made to customers or colleagues that are not yet done
Things waiting on someone else, and who
Files and folders for each item, and where they are saved

3. People

Internal contacts: who to ask for what
External contacts: customers, partners, suppliers, agencies, with what each is good for
Who needs to be introduced before the person goes, and who will do it
Who to ask when the usual contact is away
Stakeholders who need advance notice of changes, and what they care about

4. Systems and accounts

Every tool and system the person uses, with what for
Spreadsheets, folders, saved searches and shared inboxes the work relies on
Who grants access to each (names, not passwords)
Where credentials are kept, such as the password manager. Never write passwords, codes or logins in this document
Any scheduled job, export or report that runs, and who sees it

5. Decisions and approvals

What the person can decide alone, and the limit (amounts, discounts, deadlines)
What needs approval, from whom, and the threshold that triggers it
Who approves when the approver is away
Which approvals happen informally, such as a quick message, and to whom
Who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed for each recurring decision

6. Exceptions

Customers, partners or cases that are handled differently, and why
Rules that are bent in practice, and when
Verbal agreements that are not in a contract or system
Cases that always go to someone else, and where the line is
For each one: when it applies, what to do, why, and the person's own words

7. What a new person gets wrong

The mistakes new people usually make in the first month
Requests that sound urgent but are not, and the other way round
Numbers or reports that look right but should not be trusted
What to check before doing the task alone for the first time
One thing the person wishes they had known in their first week

Then check it. Have someone other than the author read the document, ideally the person taking over or the manager. A note nobody has checked is a guess with a name on it.

What does a filled-in handover look like?

Billing Operations Specialist

Group	Entry
1. Recurring work	Credit note run every Friday at 15:00. Month-end reconciliation on working day 3.
2. Work in progress	Disputed invoice for a large account: waiting on their finance team since 12 Oct. Next step: call on Monday.
3. People	Dana (finance lead) for credits. Sam at the payment provider for failed batches. Introduce the new specialist to Sam before the handover date.
4. Systems	Billing tool, the "late payers" spreadsheet in the shared finance folder, the payment provider portal. Access: ask IT. Credentials: password manager.
5. Approvals	Credits up to €200 can be issued alone. Over €200: ask Dana. If Dana is away: Lee. Dana usually replies within the day.
6. Exceptions	Annual-plan customers who cancel after month 6 get a prorated credit. Quote: "Officially annual plans are no refunds, but after month six we give a prorated credit."
7. New person gets wrong	Issuing a refund to the card instead of a credit note for annual plans. Trusting the "paid" flag before the payment provider confirms.

What if there is no time to write it all down?

Do the exceptions and approvals first (groups 5 and 6). Everything else is easier to rebuild than a rule nobody remembers.

A person can often say more in a 30 to 45 minute conversation than they will write in an empty document. Ask the questions in the knowledge transfer question list. If you only have 20 minutes, ask the five starred ones. Write the answers in the person's own words.

What should a team that runs an AI agent add?

If an AI agent answers customers or staff for this role, add this checklist. The agent only knows what it can read. Rules in the person's head do not reach it. A search over your help centre cannot find a rule nobody wrote down: why a help-centre search isn't enough.

List the exceptions from group 6 that the agent could be asked about
For each one, check whether it is written down somewhere the agent reads
If it is written down, check the wording is current and does not contradict another article
If it is not written down, write it as a rule: when, do, why, with the person's own words
Name who approves the wording before the agent uses it
Do the same for the approvals in group 5: thresholds, who signs off, who covers
Decide what the agent should do when no rule applies: say it does not know and pass the case to a person
Set a date to check again, since rules change

Support role add-on

For a support or help-desk role, also:

Pull the last 90 days of conversations the agent handed to this person. Each one is a case the agent could not answer
Test five questions where no rule applies, and check the agent says it doesn't know instead of guessing
List the person's unique tags, views and filters, and what each one is for

Can Keeplore do this for you?

You can fill in this checklist without Keeplore. What Keeplore does:

A private text chat of about 30 to 45 minutes. The person can pause and resume.
It follows up when someone says "usually" or "it depends".
Each answer becomes a rule with when, what to do and why, plus the exact quote. Rules whose quote isn't in the transcript are dropped.
A manager approves, edits or rejects every rule.
Your agent queries the approved rules through an API, or you export them as JSON or Markdown. Keeplore doesn't push into your systems; your agent pulls.
The person gives consent before the interview starts.
The app and database run in the EU (Frankfurt); interview text is processed by Anthropic in the US.
There is a data processing agreement, and you can delete an interview and its rules in one click.
No connections to email, Slack or calendars, on purpose.

Keeplore does not handle access, equipment or payroll. More in how Keeplore works and security.

Try 2 interviews free: 2 interviews free with a work email, no card.

FAQ

Questions

Anything else, ask us on a 20-minute call. Book a demo.

01Does a handover need to be written by the person who is leaving?

It can be written by them or recorded as an interview, for example by a manager asking questions. Either way, someone else should read it and check it. Tell the person what the notes are for, who will read them, and that they can correct them.

02How is a handover checklist different from an offboarding checklist?

An offboarding checklist covers access, equipment, paperwork and payroll. A handover checklist covers how the work gets done. A person who leaves needs both. A person who changes role or goes on leave needs the handover and not necessarily the offboarding.

03Should HR be involved, and who owns the document?

Involve HR for timing and for whether a works council needs to know. The handover document is normally a work document the team keeps. Settle who can read it before you start, and check your policy and contract if it matters. This is not legal advice.

04What if the person doesn't want to do it?

They are not obliged to share more than their role requires, and pressure makes the notes worse. Offer a shorter version: groups 5 and 6 only, a short conversation instead of writing, or the five starred questions in the question list. If they still decline, tell their manager and build the document from tickets, approvals and the people who work with them.

Try it before you decide.

Pick one person whose knowledge your agent is missing. Send them the interview link. Read the rules that come back.

Try 2 interviews free Book a 20-minute demo