Service Completion Handover Checklist: Evidence, Access and Open Items

The handover checklist

• Baseline: the accepted scope and approved changes.
• Deliverable: each named output and evidence location.
• Checks: who checked it, when and against which requirement.
• Customer review: comments, acknowledgements and decisions actually received.
• Access: account owner, authorised operator and recovery route; never passwords in the checklist.
• Ongoing work: responsibilities and any agreed support boundary.
• Open items: owner, next action and agreed review date.

Use one line per deliverable. “Everything finished” is difficult to verify when the project contains several outputs.

A fictional website handover

Delivered: the agreed five public pages at their live URLs. Evidence: approved content version and recorded link/form checks. Access: named client editor account; domain ownership remains with the identified owner.

Open item: an agreed correction to an image caption, owned by the delivery team for review on Thursday. Record it explicitly; do not describe the handover as having no open work. Separately record whether the customer has reviewed the completed pages.

A message you can adapt

“Hello [name], the agreed [outputs] are available at [locations]. We checked [specific requirements] on [date]. Please review against [baseline] and send comments through [approver]. The remaining item is [item], with [owner] taking [action] by [agreed review]. Your ongoing contact for [scope] is [route].”

Remove placeholders and link only material the recipient is authorised to see. Do not represent an internal check as customer acceptance.

Verify that ownership continues

Ask the customer to confirm they can access the delivered material and know where to request help. Record any access problem as an action rather than assuming a sent invitation means usable access.

Use the actual agreement to interpret acceptance, warranty or support obligations. An acknowledgement email can document communication, but this checklist does not determine its legal effect.