Website handover checklist for agencies
What agencies should collect, confirm, and verify before calling a web project safely handed over.
Website handover usually sounds simpler than it is. Teams say the site is finished, the files were shared, and the client can already see the live result. That can all be true while the agency still lacks real control.
A useful website handover checklist should cover more than design files and a CMS login. It needs to cover the routes that let the agency maintain, recover, and safely hand the site on again later.
Files and editable resources
- ✓ Source code repository
- ✓ Design source files
- ✓ Content exports
- ✓ Deployment or rollback notes
Systems and routes
- ✓ CMS admin access
- ✓ Hosting access
- ✓ Analytics admin access
- ✓ Domain and DNS control
Verification
- ✓ Latest branch confirmed
- ✓ Live environment route tested
- ✓ Analytics ownership checked
- ✓ Domain access independently verified
What safe looks like
The agency can update, recover, and hand the site on again without needing the outgoing supplier.
That means the editable resources are current, the live routes are reachable, and the critical admin paths have been independently verified.
Project record
Client website build
Critical blocker
Hosting route still missing
Follow-up
Analytics access recorded, not confirmed
Warning signs
The agency has a ZIP of files, but not the repository.
The site is live, but no-one has logged into hosting recently.
Analytics is visible, but nobody knows who actually administers the property.
If this is missed
A site may look complete until the first urgent fix reveals that the live route is still owned elsewhere.
If this is missed
The team can inherit responsibility for a website without inheriting the ability to maintain it safely.
If this is missed
The client experiences the handover as complete while the agency is still quietly dependent on the outgoing supplier.
How Custody helps
Custody helps agencies turn handover into a visible record of what is missing, what is still externally held, and what has actually been verified.