How to write a handover document: template and example

A handover document lets the person taking over get through their first week without asking you. Split it into five sections: what you own, work in progress, recurring work and dates, people and access, and things to watch out for. It centers on where things stand now and what has to happen next, not on what you did.

Who is a handover document for?

It’s for your successor. They are seeing this work for the first time, so they don’t know the things you take for granted: which channel requests come in through, whose approval you need, what piles up at month-end. Once you hand over, you’re busy with other work or already gone, so they won’t get many chances to ask.

Your manager reads it too. They use it to check that nothing is missing and that nothing is too much for one new person. Work the manager didn’t know about often shows up here for the first time.

What goes in a handover document?

Five sections cover most jobs.

• What you own: the areas you were responsible for. Don’t stop at task names; add what you were deciding and judging in that role.
• Work in progress: for each item, where it stands, the next step, the deadline, and where the files are.
• Recurring work and dates: what comes back daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, and when it’s next due.
• People and access: who you work with, what to ask each of them, and which accounts and permissions need to move over.
• Things to watch out for: what you learned the hard way and never wrote down. Common incidents, exceptions, verbal agreements with other teams.

The last section is the one successors value most. They’ll figure out the rest in time, but this section is usually learned only after something breaks.

How do you hand over work in progress?

For each item, write the current state, the next step, the deadline, and where the files live, together. If you only write in progress, your successor won’t know where to pick up and will end up asking you anyway. Rewritten, it looks like this.

If you have a lot in flight, first decide what you’ll finish before you leave and what you’ll hand over. Finishing something in your last week usually costs less than explaining it.

Handover document template and example

Here is a handover document from Minsu, a payments developer moving to the Finance team, to Doyun, who is taking over. Keep the section names and order, and change the contents.

Every item in progress has a next step, and every recurring task has its next date. The three watch-out lines weren’t in any document, so without this handover Doyun would have learned them the hard way.

What are common handover mistakes?

Listing task names only, copying existing documents in full, writing it all on your last day, and sending the document without walking through it.

Listing task names only

Payments ops, refunds, card issuers: three lines like that tell your successor almost nothing. For each one, add where requests come from, what needs judging, and who to ask.

Copying existing documents in full

Pasting design docs and runbooks into the handover makes it too long to read. Link what already exists and write only what isn’t written anywhere.

Writing it all on your last day

Written from memory at the last minute, a handover misses work that comes around once a month or once a quarter. Your successor finds out the day it comes due, when someone asks why it didn’t happen.

Sending it and walking away

Don’t stop at sending the document. Set aside even 30 minutes to read it together. Your successor’s questions show you the gaps, and you can fill them on the spot.

What should you keep day to day so the handover is quick?

The hardest sections to recall are recurring work and things to watch out for. If recurring work is already set as repeating tasks in your calendar or to-do app, that list is the section. Things to watch out for live in the notes you left the day you finished something: what slowed it down, what to check first next time.

If you logged finished work with dates and requesters, the what-you-own section comes from there too. Work many people asked for, and work that came back every month, stand out in the list. More on logging in How to keep a work log.

Doing this in DDirong

DDirong is a web app that keeps tasks, schedules, work logs, and weekly reports in one place, and its recording features are free. You add a task as one line, with # for a workspace and @ for who asked. Check one off and a result memo box opens for a line or two.

For a handover, set the period to All and copy completed tasks as performance review text. You get completed work grouped by workspace with dates and requesters, which is where you pull what you own and what kept recurring. Memo text isn’t included, so read the memos in the app and write the watch-out section yourself.

If you worked in a shared workspace with your team, reassign your open tasks to your successor. Completed tasks stay in the History view with their result memos, so your successor can look back at past work.