Consulting Engagement Handover Template
Four documents and two sheets that name each deliverable's owner, log whether the transfer was demonstrated or only explained, and record what later check-ins found.
Free download · No account needed
Artefact Register
[Engagement name] — Handover [date]
| Ref | Artefact | Type | Owner | Check-in cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A-01 | [Deliverable name] | — | [Name, role] | — |
| A-02 | [Deliverable name] | — | [Name, role] | — |
| A-03 | [Deliverable name] | — | [Name, role] | — |
Type is either Living Model or Static Report. Only one of the two ever gets a check-in cadence.
Every consulting handover template confirms the same thing: that a meeting happened. An attendance sheet, a signed acceptance, sometimes a walkthrough of the model on a shared screen. None of them return afterward to check whether anything actually stuck, because the signature gets treated as the finish line instead of one data point collected on day one. This pack starts once the decision workshop has approved what gets handed over, and it runs the check a signed handover skips.
Kirkpatrick Partners' own training-evaluation model names this gap by accident, since it was never built as a handover framework. Level 2, Learning, measures whether someone can perform a task in the room, which is what a signed handover confirms. Level 3, Behavior, measures whether they perform it later, unprompted, at their own desk. The same source states that checking it "cannot begin at 90 days after learning." A single 90-day check does not lighten that discipline. It arrives too late to fix anything, so this pack's first check-in lands at 30 days instead.
Copperfield Logistics, a fictional 140-truck trucking company, received five deliverables closing out a pricing engagement. Three were living models needing an owner to keep feeding them, and two were static reports that already answered their question. Two models got a demonstrated transfer, the owner's own hands on the keyboard, and both stayed active at every check-in. The third, a Fuel Surcharge Recovery Calculator, got only a screen-share walkthrough. By the 90-day check-in it had not been opened once, and the $6,200 a month it existed to catch had gone uncollected since handover, $18,600 total.
What's in the pack
Artefact Register
Names every deliverable once, typed Living Model or Static Report, with its owner and the check-in cadence that type actually gets.
Knowledge Transfer Tracker
Logs whether each transfer was demonstrated or only explained, then the specific fact every 30, 60 and 90-day check-in actually found.
Handover Document
The one summary read start to finish: what was delivered, how each transfer happened, and what is still open.
Model Guide
One section per living model, naming its key assumptions, where each one lives, and the condition that makes it stale.
Maintenance Instructions
What to check on each living model, on what cadence, and who to contact when a figure looks wrong.
How Explained and Demonstrated Transfer Predict What Survives
The Kirkpatrick distinction itself, and the worked example showing why a demonstrated transfer survived and an explained one didn't.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or take it blank
Open the pack in River and send the deliverables you're handing over, or download the Word documents and CSV sheets and fill them in yourself.
- 2
Register every deliverable
Name each artefact once, typed Living Model or Static Report, with its owner, since the type decides whether it gets a check-in at all.
- 3
Log how the transfer happened
Classify each transfer as Demonstrated, the owner's own hands on the keyboard, or Explained, a walkthrough only, never assumed from how the session felt.
- 4
Run the 30, 60 and 90-day check-ins
Ask each living model's owner for the last specific change they made and when, never whether they are still using it, and let the automation flag what's overdue.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. The zip is Word documents and CSV sheets, no account and no card. Edit with AI is the optional half: the agent registers every artefact from what you send, logs how each transfer happened, and sets the check-in schedule. More sit in the template library.
What format are the downloaded files?
Four Word documents and two CSV sheets in one zip. The Handover Document, Model Guide and Maintenance Instructions open in Word, Pages or Google Docs. The Artefact Register and Knowledge Transfer Tracker open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets with every column intact.
How is this different from a normal handover checklist?
A normal checklist confirms a meeting happened: an attendance sheet, a signature, a walkthrough. This pack logs whether each transfer was demonstrated, hands on the keyboard, or only explained. Then it runs 30, 60 and 90-day check-ins asking each owner's specific last change, never whether they are 'still using it.'
What's the difference between a Living Model and a Static Report?
A Living Model has an input that changes after handover, a fuel price, a headcount, a rate, and needs an owner to keep feeding it. A Static Report answered its question as of the engagement date and needs nothing further, so it carries no check-in cadence at all on the Artefact Register.
What happens when a check-in finds an artefact hasn't been touched?
It gets logged as Unconfirmed rather than rounded up to a yes, and the weekly automation drafts the exact question to send the owner, the last change they made and when. Nobody edits the tracker on a vague reply. The fact has to come from the owner directly.
Where do the deliverables being handed over come from?
Wherever the engagement produced them: a findings report's approved recommendations, quantified in a ledger-based business case, and decided at the workshop that approves what actually ships. This pack starts once those deliverables exist and the engagement is ending.
Leave the client able to continue without you
Take the Word documents and CSV sheets blank, or send River what you're handing over and get back an Artefact Register with a check-in schedule already set.
Edit with AI