User guide

Handover Pro makes sure that when someone hands over their work in SharePoint, nothing is lost and nobody keeps access they should not. Everyone opens the same page. Handover Pro shows each person only their part, and the top of the Overview always says what to do next.

Help inside Handover Pro

• Help, at the top right of Handover Pro, opens a panel about the page you are on: what it is for, what to do there, good practice, and more about Handover Pro. It shows only the steps for your part.
• Take a tour of this page (in the Help panel) points at each part of the page in turn. Use Next and Back, and Close or Escape to stop.
• The first time you open Handover Pro, New to Handover Pro? offers Take the tour, Open help or Not now. The first time you open a handover you take part in, a card lists your part in order, with Show me around. Each is shown once in your browser; Help is always there.

Who does what

Kinds of handover

Every handover starts by saying what kind it is. The kind sets the words used, the questions asked, the decisions suggested for access, and what happens to the person's own access at the end.

For people who are staying there is a second, optional date: the return date for cover, or the day the overlap ends for a role change, work or client. Until the overlap ends, the person keeps access to anything shared with the new owner. Use 15 days after the handover date (role change), 14 days (work) or 21 days (client) fills in a date that follows common practice. On that day the handover is flagged on the Handovers page and on its Overview. Handover Pro never takes access away on its own: after sealing, the coordinator or a site owner ends the cover or the overlap.

The stages

On the Overview, under Stages, you can see where a handover is:

1. Map: the sites, lists and folders in scope are scanned. Names, owners, dates and permissions are read; file contents are not.
2. Gaps: anything that would be lost or left exposed, such as files only the person has edited or can open, files checked out to them, sharing links on items they created, their place in SharePoint groups, sites where they are the only owner, their site collection admin rights, and anything the scan could not read. Each gap gets a decision.
3. Interview: questions about the gaps and about the work, answered by the person handing over.
4. Document: a handover document drafted from everything above. Every statement shows where it came from, or says plainly that something is missing.
5. Sign-off: the person handing over signs the approved document.
6. Access plan: the access changes, first planned and approved, then applied.
7. Acceptance: the people taking over accept what is handed to them.
8. Seal: the coordinator seals a package with every record and a certificate. The handover becomes read only.

The person handing over and the people taking over see only Interview, Document, Sign-off, Acceptance and Seal.

Coordinator

Start a handover

1. On the Handovers page press New handover. (It is greyed out when your licence's limit of handovers running at once is reached.)
2. What and who: choose the kind of handover. Except for someone leaving, say what is handed over. Choose the person, the date (it starts two weeks ahead), who takes over (or covers) and, if you want one, an Approver (optional). You are the coordinator, so you cannot also be the approver. You can take over yourself; then name an approver if someone else should check the access given to you. Press Next. If no more handovers can run at once under your licence, the page says so before you start.
3. What to map: tick the lists and libraries. To hand over only part of a library, press Choose folders, tick the folders and press Use these folders. Add more sites with Add another site and Add site, or copy the sites, lists and approver of an earlier handover with Start from a previous handover (optional). Press Next.
4. Check and start: tick I have told [name] that this handover is starting and how their information will be used., then press Start handover. It opens on the Map tab.

The sites, lists and folders cannot be changed once the handover has started. To change them, cancel it and start again with Start from a previous handover. Leaving the wizard before Start handover, by any way out, asks first, as nothing is saved until then.

Run it

Follow the next step shown at the top of the Overview and above every tab. The usual order is:

1. Map tab: press Start scan. A 20,000-item site takes a few minutes; you can Stop and Resume scan. If more than one person takes over, use Who takes over each list to share the lists out; anything not assigned goes to the default owner: the first person taking over, unless changed in Manage this handover.
2. Gaps tab: press Find gaps. Then go straight to the Interview tab and press Prepare interview, so the person can start.
3. Tell the person: Open a Teams message to [first name], or press I told [first name] another way. Handover Pro sends no messages by itself.
4. Back on the Gaps tab, choose a Decision for each gap, or tick several and decide them together. When the person's answers settle a gap, Review suggestions offers those decisions to apply in one go. Accept the risk always needs a short reason; so does Leave access as it is when the person is leaving, moving role or giving up a client.
5. Access plan tab: press Build plan. Nothing changes in SharePoint yet. The approver presses Approve plan; with no approver named, you approve it yourself.
6. Document tab: press Draft document, then Send for approval (with no approver the button is Approve and send for sign-off). A draft is never sent if answers were saved after it or if it names different people taking over: press Redraft first. When someone comments, answer by redrafting, or press No change needed on the Overview.
7. Access plan tab: press Apply changes, usually once the person has signed off (for someone leaving, removing their access can stop them opening this page). If the plan checks in or discards files, press Confirm changes that cannot be undone first. Stop after this change pauses; Apply remaining changes carries on. Verify again checks every change later, and Roll back undoes changes before sealing, except check-ins and discarded check-outs.
8. Sign-off and seal tab: when everything under Before sealing on the Overview is done, press Seal. A licensed seal uses one handover pack.

Share and remind (at the top of the handover) helps throughout: Remind [name] to [task] prepares a Teams chat or a message to copy; Add deadlines to my calendar saves a calendar file (for a client handover it adds a check-in 60 days after the handover date); Book a handover meeting opens a new Teams meeting with everyone invited and an agenda for the kind of handover; Copy link to this handover copies the link.

If something changes

• The person cannot sign (for example they have already gone): press Record why they cannot sign on the Sign-off and seal tab and give a reason. It appears once the document is approved.
• People or dates change: press Edit people and dates in Manage this handover on the Overview. Once the document is sent for approval the button becomes Change the coordinator: only the coordinator, and the return date or overlap end, can change then. A new coordinator must be a site owner, and cannot be the person handing over or the approver. They can be one of the people taking over; then name an approver if someone else should check the access given to them.
• The handover is not going ahead: press Cancel handover and give a reason (roll back any applied access changes first). It becomes read only and stops counting against the licence. Later, Remove handover moves it to the site recycle bin.
• You stop being a site owner: you can no longer run the handover; a site owner takes over.
• After Scan again, press Find gaps again. After changing decisions or list owners, Rebuild plan (it needs approving again) and Redraft.

After sealing: cover and overlap

• Cover: when the person is back, press End the cover on the Sign-off and seal tab. It puts access back as it was before the cover. If a change could not be undone, usually because someone changed that access since, the cover stays in place: check the Access plan tab and press End the cover again. Site owners can press Start the handback (one for each person who covered): a new handover in which that person hands the work back.
• Overlap: when the overlap is over, press End the overlap. Each removal is checked first: where the new owner no longer has the same access, the person's is kept and the overlap stays open. If the person keeps the access for good, press Keep their access. It is refused only while some removals have been made and others are still to do.
• Change the date with Change the date (or Set a date). Ending a cover or an overlap shows its progress; if SharePoint is busy it stops part-way and says so, and pressing the button again carries on.

Handover Pro does not remove sharing links or change site collection admin rights or Microsoft 365 group owners. Do those in SharePoint, Teams or Outlook, then choose Fixed outside Handover Pro.

The person handing over

1. Read the notice How your information is used and press I have read this.
2. On the Interview tab, answer each question and press Save answer. You can come back at any time.
   • If you do not know, press I don't know; anything you typed first (for example who else might know) is kept.
   • Not relevant to me records that the question does not apply.
   • Later moves on and keeps the question under Still to answer.
   • To correct an answer, press Change answer.
   • Never type passwords or other secrets. If an answer looks like one, Handover Pro warns you and saves it only if you press Save anyway.
3. When you have finished, press I have finished.
4. The Overview then points you to the draft. Check that your answers are in it; if something is wrong or missing, add a comment on the Document tab.
5. When the document is approved, read it and press Sign off. If you are leaving, please sign before your last day.

Once the document is sent for approval, answers are locked: comment on the document instead. If you are leaving, your access to the handover's records ends when it is sealed; if you are staying, you keep read access. The Activity tab lists every entry in the audit trail; Download my entries saves your own (if you are leaving, do it before sealing).

People taking over (or covering)

1. While the handover runs you can read the interview answers and the draft document, and comment on it.
2. When the document is approved, the Document tab shows everything handed to you by name and how many open items it lists (questions not answered, risks accepted, anything not finished). Read them, then press Accept. If you expected to take something over that is not named, add a comment instead.
3. After sealing, copies of files only the person edited or could open, handed to you, are in your evidence folder in the package. You can open the rest of the package except its records folder.

Approver

• Access plan tab: read the changes, then press Approve plan, or Ask for changes and say what.
• Document tab: read it, then press Approve, or Ask for changes.

Your approval names the exact version you read: if the coordinator changes it, you are asked again. You can also read the Map, Gaps, Interview and Audit tabs, and download the audit log.

Site owners

You can see every handover in the site. In a handover you do not take part in, you can press Take over as coordinator while it is running (answers and sign-offs already given still count; with no approver named, approve the document and the plan again yourself). You can also Repair access, Finish setting up, Finish sealing, Delete working data, end a cover or overlap, remove a cancelled handover, download a person's data on the Audit tab, download site reports from the Handovers page, and change Settings. Where you take part yourself, you see only your part.

After sealing

The Sign-off and seal tab (called Sign-off for the person handing over and the people taking over) shows Open the package folder, Certificate (PDF), Read the handover document and Check package, which checks that every file you can open still matches its fingerprint. Search the handover searches the document and the answers (and, for the coordinator, approver and site owners, the names of mapped files).

The coordinator or a site owner can press Delete working data any time after sealing; site owners are reminded after the retention period. It cannot be deleted while a cover, or an overlap with removals still waiting, is running.

Auditors and reviewers

A site owner can name reviewers in Settings (for example HR or compliance). They can open every package sealed after they were named, including its records but not evidence copies, directly in the Handovers library. Each package has a README.txt that explains it, and SHA256SUMS.txt lets anyone check every file with standard tools. The certificate shows the kind of handover, the people, the sign-offs, the outcome and the fingerprints.

Keyboard and screen readers

Every action works from the keyboard. Moving to another screen or tab announces its title, and long jobs announce progress in steps rather than constantly. On a narrow screen or in a one-third column, the Handovers list, the gaps and the sign-offs become lists; other tables scroll sideways.