What a handover should include

A build ends when the developer sends the final invoice and a login. That is where most handovers stop. It is why so many founders message a developer six months later to ask how to change a banner. A website you cannot run is not an asset. It is a subscription to someone else’s free time. This is the standard a founder should hold any developer to. It is the one I hold myself to.

Credentials, all of them, in your name

The store or hosting account. The domain registrar. The DNS. The theme licence. Every app and plugin licence. The email sending service. The analytics properties. The pixel and the ad accounts. Each one registered to an address the business controls, not to the developer’s Gmail.

The test is simple. If the developer vanished tomorrow, could you log in to everything? If the answer is no for any of them, the handover is not done. I keep a shared sheet with every service, the login email, where two-factor codes go and who the owner is. I walk the client through it on a call.

Documentation a non-developer can use

Not a technical spec. A short guide with screenshots, for the ten things the business will really change: the homepage banner, the announcement bar, a product, a collection, the menu, the footer, delivery charges, a discount code, the contact details and the legal pages. Each one is a page with numbered steps. A Notion doc or a PDF, whichever the client will open.

Next to that, a one-page map of the site. What each template does. Which sections are custom. What each custom section’s settings mean. That page is what the next developer reads first. It makes the next developer cheaper.

Editable content, structured properly

If changing the text under the hero means editing code, the build is not finished. Every piece of content the business owns should be a setting in the theme editor, a metafield, or a custom field in WordPress. Custom sections must offer their text, images and links as settings. Hard-coded content is the most common kind of developer lock-in. It is usually an accident.

A staging environment that works

On Shopify, this is an unpublished copy of the live theme, named with the date, that the client can preview before publishing. On WordPress, it is a real staging site on the same host with a one-click push. The client should be able to try a change, see it, and throw it away without touching the live store. If the only way to test something is on the live site, the handover has left a loaded gun on the table.

Honest limits

The most useful page in the documentation is the one that says what not to touch. The checkout settings that affect cash on delivery confirmation. The section that controls the courier integration. The plugin that must not be updated without a backup. The theme file that is safe to edit, and the ones that are not. A developer who says "you can change anything" is either wrong or has not thought about it.

This includes the limits of the platform. If the client is on a bought theme with a change that will break on update, I say so in writing and explain the update path. Surprises later always cost more than the truth now.

The last week

A proper handover takes about a week after launch. Day one is the walkthrough call, recorded, so the client can watch it again. On days two to four the client makes their first changes themselves, while I am still there to answer. Day five is the credentials audit and the document sign-off. Then I check in at 30 days, because that is when the real questions arrive.

What to demand

If you are about to pay for a build, put the handover in the contract before the price. Credentials in your name. A plain-language guide for the ten common changes. All content editable without code. A staging environment. A written list of what is safe to change. Any developer worth hiring will agree at once, because they were going to do it anyway.

This week

Try to change your own homepage banner. Do not ask someone to. Do it yourself, on the live store, right now. If you can, you own your site. If you cannot, write down every step where you got stuck. Send that list to whoever built it. That list is the handover you were owed.