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A handover document is a written guide to your work for the person taking it over, whether you are leaving a job, going on leave or passing on a project. A good one covers your regular tasks and how to do them, every piece of work in progress with its next step, the people involved, the systems and who grants access, where the files are, and the open problems nobody has written down. The free handover document template below has all of those sections. Copy it, or download it and paste it into Word or Google Docs. After it: how to write a handover in seven steps, which format to use, a handover checklist, a filled-in example and the email to send with it.
Most handovers fail in the same place. The person leaving writes down what they do, but not what they know: the client who only answers on Thursdays, the invoice that always needs a second look, the workaround for the broken export. The template below has a section for exactly that.
It works for an employee handing over a role, and for anyone running a business alone who needs someone else to cover their work for a few weeks.
The Handover Document Template
How to use this
Fill in
- Every highlighted value. Delete any row that does not apply.
- Give every task a link to where the work happens, not a description of it.
- Give every piece of work in progress a next step and a date.
Check before sending
- Someone who has never done your job could start on Monday using only this.
- No passwords are written in it. Section 05 says who grants access instead.
- You have booked a walkthrough before your last day, not after it.
What goes wrong
- A list of tasks with no "how", so the new person has to ask about every one.
- Work in progress described as "ongoing" with no next step.
- Section 07 left empty. That is where the real problems live.
- Rows marked "per item" or "per contact" repeat: copy the group once for each project, contact or system.
- Keep the document where the new person can edit it, so their questions and answers go into it too.
- Store it with the same access limits as the work it describes.
What Is a Handover Document?
A handover document is a guide to a piece of work, written by the person who has been doing it, for the person who is about to take it over.
The recruiter Reed describes it as a document written by an employee who is leaving their role, permanently or temporarily, and in effect a how-to guide to the job written by someone with first-hand experience of it (Reed, How to write a handover).
The same guide lists who should write one: people leaving the company, taking a sabbatical, going on maternity leave or off sick. Add one case it does not mention. If you run a business alone, you need a handover whenever someone else covers your work, even for two weeks, because there is no colleague who already half knows it.
A handover is not the same as a process document, even though it often points to one:
| Handover document | Standard operating procedure | Runbook | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Covers | One person's work at one moment | One repeatable task | What to do when something breaks |
| Written when | Someone leaves or goes away | A task is done the same way often | Before the incident happens |
| Goes stale | Within weeks | When the task changes | When the system changes |
| Main reader | The person taking over | Anyone doing the task | Whoever is on call |
If your regular tasks already have a standard operating procedure, the handover links to it instead of rewriting it. If you keep a runbook for when things break, link that too. The handover is the layer on top: what is happening right now, and who is involved.
How to Write a Handover in Seven Steps
- Start early. Reed suggests starting at least two to four weeks before you leave, so you have time for feedback and to fill gaps (Reed). For a short absence, a week is usually enough.
- Agree the scope with whoever is affected. That is your manager in a job, or your client if you are a freelancer. Decide what is being handed over, to whom, and what can simply wait.
- Finish what you can. Every task you close before you leave is a section you do not have to write.
- List your regular tasks, then add the how. Go through two weeks of your calendar and sent email. For each task, link to where it happens rather than describing it.
- Write up every piece of work in progress with its status, its next step and its date. "Ongoing" is not a status.
- Write down what only you know. The problems, the workarounds, the client who needs a phone call rather than an email. This is section 07 of the template, and it is the part people skip.
- Walk the new person through it, then let them edit it. A handover is a conversation as much as a document. Reed makes the same point: plan it with your manager, and talk to the people who are taking on your tasks.
Aziz's take: Do step 6 first, not last. Write down the five things that would go wrong if you vanished tomorrow, before you list a single routine task. The routine tasks are the easy part to reconstruct. The exceptions are not.
What Is the Format for a Handover Document?
There is no official format. Use one document, in a tool the new person can edit, ordered from what they need on day one to what they need later.
Reed's list of what most handovers should cover is a good baseline: day-to-day tasks, key software and systems, processes, where documents are, useful contacts, ongoing projects with their status and deadlines, and general housekeeping (Reed).
What changes is the weight you give each section:
| Situation | Spend most time on | Can be short |
|---|---|---|
| Leaving a job | Regular tasks, people, what only you know | Work in progress, if you finish it first |
| Going on leave | Work in progress, deadlines while you are away | Regular tasks that can wait until you return |
| Handing over a project | Status, files, open decisions, who signs off | Daily routine |
| Someone covering a one-person business | Clients, payments due, access, what to do if something breaks | Anything that can wait two weeks |
Two format rules apply everywhere. Keep passwords out of the document: say who grants or resets access instead, because a handover file gets forwarded and copied. And date it, because a handover describes one moment and stops being true soon after.
How to Make a Handover Checklist
A handover checklist is the short version you tick off in the last week. Make one by turning each section of the template into a yes-or-no question:
- Is every regular task listed, with a link to where it happens?
- Does every piece of work in progress have a next step and a date?
- Has every key contact been told who is taking over, and when?
- Has access to every system been granted to the new person, or arranged for their first day?
- Are the files in a shared location, not on your own laptop or personal drive?
- Is section 07, what only you know, filled in?
- Has the walkthrough happened, with the new person's questions written into the document?
- Is it clear whether you can be contacted afterwards, and how?
If any answer is no on your last day, the handover is not finished. The same yes-or-no approach is how a quality control checklist works: a check nobody can fail catches nothing.
A Handover Document Example
An illustrative example, not a real business: a freelance bookkeeper with eight small-business clients is taking three weeks off and has arranged for another bookkeeper to cover. Here is how the main sections read when filled in.
| Section | Filled in |
|---|---|
| 01 Details | Temporary, 1 to 21 December. Escalate to each client's owner directly. Covers bookkeeping only, not tax returns. |
| 02 Regular tasks | Weekly bank reconciliation for all eight clients, every Monday, in the accounting software. Payroll for two clients on the 25th. |
| 03 In progress | Client C: year-end accounts, waiting on three missing receipts, chase on 5 December. Client F: VAT return due 7 December, figures ready, needs submitting. |
| 04 People | Client A's owner only replies by text. Client D's office manager sends receipts in a single batch on Fridays. |
| 05 Access | Each client has added the cover bookkeeper as an accountant user. Access is removed on 22 December. |
| 07 Only I know | Client E's bank feed drops every few weeks and has to be reconnected by the client. Client B always pays late; it is fine, do not chase before the 10th. |
| 08 Sign-off | Walkthrough on 28 November. Reachable by email for emergencies only. |
Notice where the value is. The task list in section 02 could be guessed by any bookkeeper. Sections 04 and 07 could not, and they are the ones that prevent an awkward phone call to a client in the second week.
Aziz's take: If you run a business alone, write this document before you need it. A handover written in a calm week, kept up to date, is the difference between taking a holiday and taking your laptop on holiday.
When the person covering is a contractor or a virtual assistant, the handover doubles as their brief. Our guide to outsourcing tasks covers what to hand over first.
What to Send With It: The Handover Email
Send the document with a short email, so the new person and everyone affected know it exists and where it lives. Reed's advice is to keep it concise and direct, with the handover document attached (Reed). Something like:
Subject: Handover for [role or project], from [your last day]
Hi [name], here is my handover for [role or project]: [link]. The three things that need attention first are [item], [item] and [item]. I have booked [date] to walk you through it. Until then, add any questions straight into the document and I will answer them there. From [date], please contact [name] about [anything you are not covering].
Copy in your manager or, for a freelancer, the client whose work is being covered. Then tell your key contacts directly, because an email to the new person does not tell the client who to call.
What Goes Wrong With Handovers
- Writing it on the last day. There is no time for the walkthrough, so questions surface after you have gone.
- Describing tasks instead of linking to them. "Update the client tracker" is useless if the new person cannot find the tracker.
- Leaving out what only you know. The routine is easy to rebuild. The exceptions are what cause the mistakes.
- Putting passwords in the document. It will be forwarded. Arrange access through whoever controls it.
- Telling the new person, but not the people they will deal with. Clients and colleagues keep emailing you.
- Treating it as finished once sent. The best handovers are edited by the person receiving them in their first week.
A handover is one of the documents that keeps a small business running without you in the room. The business operations guide shows where it sits alongside the others.