In this guide
A digital handover succeeds when the incoming person can carry out the work. A folder containing passwords and an assurance that “everything is in there” is not enough. Your co-op needs a record of what exists, evidence that access works and a clear route for unresolved problems.
Start while the outgoing person is still available. Treat the exercise as discovery, especially where volunteers have kept services running informally for years. Ask what they do each month, what breaks, which reminders they receive and which suppliers know them personally. Avoid assuming the visible website represents the whole system.
Find the systems behind the familiar tasks
Trace three ordinary activities: receiving a new enquiry, paying a supplier and preparing member papers. For each, identify the inbox, files, form, account and person involved. Then inspect invoices and recurring payments with the authorised finance person. Forgotten subscriptions often become visible through these records.
- Who registered the domain, and who can renew or recover it?
- Which administrator accounts exist, and are they separate from routine accounts?
- What relies on a personal email address, phone, laptop or payment card?
- Which files, automations and website licences belong to a departing account?
- Where are backups, and when did somebody last restore from them?
- Which suppliers need written notice of the new contact?
Do not make speculative changes while discovering the system. A nameserver change or account deletion can affect services you have not identified. Mark uncertain dependencies and investigate them before changing access.
Build a register without putting secrets in it
For each service, record its purpose, sign-in address, organisational owner, operational contact, backup contact, renewal date, payer, recovery route and instruction location. Store actual credentials in an approved password manager, with the register pointing to the relevant entry. Restrict the register where it exposes sensitive infrastructure or recovery details.
A worked entry might read: “Main domain; public website and email; registrar account controlled by the co-op; operations administrator handles changes; secretary is backup; renewal reviewed each April; organisation payment method; recovery procedure in restricted administration folder; DNS changes need a second check.” The dates and roles are illustrative. The value lies in making the next action unambiguous.
Use a status column with “verified”, “needs action” or “unknown”. A verified entry means someone has checked it, not merely copied it from an old spreadsheet. Include the date and person who verified it.
Run a practical handover session
- Orient: walk through the register and explain which systems are critical to trading or member participation.
- Demonstrate: show one normal task and where its instructions live.
- Reverse roles: let the incoming person perform a different example while the outgoing person observes.
- Rehearse trouble: locate the support contact and recovery instructions without relying on the primary inbox.
- Record gaps: assign each unresolved item an owner and deadline.
- Confirm transfer: record what was accepted, what remains outstanding and the agreed end of temporary access.
A committee member should be able to find the approved minutes, receive a role mailbox message and identify the next renewal using their own account. They do not need unrestricted access to all worker or member records to demonstrate this.
Close old access after transferring the work
Review offboarding before deleting an account. Transfer files, workflow ownership and necessary records first, in line with your retention decisions. Google explains that files in an organisational shared drive persist when their creator leaves; personal storage and other platforms can behave differently.
Remove obsolete sessions, delegated access and recovery methods as well as passwords. Check external services that use the departing account to sign in. Confirm shared credentials were changed where the former holder could still know them, and retain an authorised route for any remaining transition work.
Schedule a short follow-up after the incoming person has completed a real working cycle. Renewals, monthly reports and an unfamiliar support incident often reveal gaps that the initial session missed. Improve the instructions while those details are fresh.
Build a usable register and meeting outline with the digital handover tool.