Handover before annual leave checklist
A handover exists so you're not needed. Everything here is aimed at that, rather than at making you feel indispensable on your way out the door.
17 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Leave request approved and in the calendar with enough noticeBooked doesn't mean approved. Chase the actual confirmation, not just the calendar invite.
- Out-of-office set with a return date and who to contact instead
- A single page of what's currently live
- What's due while you're away
- What can wait until you're back
- Cover agreed with a named person, not "the team will manage""The team" is nobody in particular, which means it's nobody at all when something actually comes up.
- That person briefed in person, not just sent a documentA document answers the questions you thought of. A conversation answers the ones they think of.
- Access they'll need checked and working before you leaveShared logins, approval permissions, a locked cabinet — test it while you're still there to fix it.
- Anything with a deadline in the next fortnight flagged explicitly
- Recurring meetings reassigned or cancelled for the period
- Clients or key contacts told in advance, with the cover's nameBetter they hear it from you than discover it when an email bounces back with an auto-reply.
- A line on how urgent is urgent enough to actually contact youDecide this once, in writing, rather than negotiating it by phone on day two.
- Anything genuinely only you can approve, delegated or timed aroundIf nobody else can sign it off, either that gets fixed before you go or it waits — it shouldn't quietly wait on you not answering.
- Password manager and any shared credentials the cover needs, checked
- Expenses and anything financial submitted before you go, not after
- Phone left alone once you've actually goneThe handover exists so you don't have to check it. Checking it anyway means you did the handover for nothing.
- A short list of what to catch up on, waiting for your returnWritten by the cover as they go, so your first morning back is a list, not an archaeology dig through three weeks of messages.
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- How far in advance should a handover start?
- A week for anything routine, longer if something genuinely only you can approve. Rushed handovers on the last afternoon are where things get missed.
- Should I check messages at all while away?
- Ideally not. A handover exists specifically so you don't have to — checking in anyway undoes the point of arranging one.
- What's the one thing people forget to hand over?
- Anything that's only in their head — a workaround, a quirk of a system, a client who needs handling a particular way. Write it down; nobody else knows it exists.