PRACTICAL GUIDE · KCCS
Small business IT handover checklist
Seven steps for owners and office managers at businesses with 1–20 people, before a staff change or a switch of IT providers.
A handover should help the next person find what the business uses, who to call, where approved access lives, and what still needs attention. Use this checklist with your provider; you can start in an ordinary document.
1. List the systems your office depends on
Start with the services people need every day: email, file storage, accounting, phones, internet, website hosting, point-of-sale tools, printers, and specialist business software. Include cloud services and physical equipment. For each system, record its purpose, the responsible person inside the business, and the support provider. Mark whether it is active, being replaced, or no longer needed. Start with your five most important systems and expand the inventory when those records are accurate.
2. Document support contacts and escalation paths
Collect current support details for your IT provider, internet provider, software vendors, and anyone who manages your website or accounting system. Record support hours, the preferred way to open a request, and who can authorize paid work. Confirm the details against a current agreement or provider portal. Include a backup contact where one exists. A name without a working contact route is an unresolved task, not a completed handover.
3. Identify approved access locations
Record where administrative access is maintained without copying passwords, recovery codes, or private keys into the handover file. Note the approved password-manager record and the authorized custodian. Include the business-owned account responsible for vendor notices and renewals. Ask your provider to verify the process for granting and removing access. Restrict the completed handover document too: it can reveal sensitive information about your business even when it contains no passwords.
4. Gather recovery evidence
Record what backups cover, where they are managed, who coordinates recovery, and the date and scope of the last successful restore test, if one occurred. Link to the test evidence in approved storage. A successful backup report alone does not prove that every business service can be restored. If a restore has never been tested, write “unverified” and assign a next action. Plan disruptive tests with your provider; do not interrupt production merely to fill in a worksheet.
5. Capture open tasks and known issues
List unresolved support tickets, upcoming renewals, expiring domains, aging equipment, employee offboarding, and planned changes. Give each item an owner, a next action, and a target date. Describe what evidence will show that the task is complete. Separate urgent operational work from routine improvements. If a detail is unknown, record the question rather than guessing. The incoming person needs enough context to continue the work without reconstructing the entire history.
6. Hold a focused handoff meeting
Bring together the outgoing and incoming responsible people, the office manager, and the support provider when possible. Walk through the inventory, support contacts, access locations, recovery evidence, and open tasks. Ask the incoming person to locate one support route and one recovery instruction using the document. Record unanswered questions and assign owners and dates. Confirm who makes decisions after the transition and where the approved working copy will live.
7. Set a review date
Choose a near-term review, such as 30 days after the transition, to confirm contacts, ownership, and outstanding work. Review records again when systems, providers, or responsible people change. Keep the review date and reviewer with the document so someone can assess its freshness. Retire outdated copies through your normal document-control process. A handover is useful when it reflects current arrangements; a completed template does not guarantee recovery.