How does an agency hand over AI work to a client?
Run the handover as a five-step procedure: build the record from the finished job, check its steps and source states once, write the three-line summary, send the one link to the named approver, and take the client's decision on the record. File the export with the account's records the same day.
Agencies hand over work badly when the handover is treated as packaging: files gathered, a summary written from memory, everything sent in a bundle whose story lives in the covering email. The procedure here inverts it. The record is the handover; the email is three lines and a link.
Build the record from the job as it stands, because the handover inherits whatever the job recorded: steps in order, saved results, producer labels, and source states with their honest labels. Then read it once as the client will, because the last internal check catches the step whose result is unclear and the source that should have been flagged in the summary. The summary's three lines are: what was delivered, what needs their decision, and anything flagged (an unresolved source, a held item) named before they find it.
The decision closes the procedure. The client accepts or holds on the record itself; a hold names the step, the fix lands as a new step, and the record's state tracks the whole exchange. File the export the same day, with the account's index updated, and the handover is complete in the only sense that matters later: anyone can reopen it and see what was delivered, what it rested on, and who decided what, when.
Procedure: the five-step agency handover
1. Build: create the handover from the finished job; confirm every step's result reads clearly. 2. Check: read the record as the client; note flags (unresolved sources, unchecked steps). 3. Summarise: three lines in the delivery message (delivered, decision needed, flags). 4. Send: one link to the named approver, in their working hours. 5. Close: decision recorded on the handover; export filed; account index updated with link and decision date. Timing rule: steps 1 to 4 happen the day the work finishes.
Worked example
A completed handover in public form: https://zambo.dev/handover/45434a17-4afc-486a-9646-e689bcee4297 shows the end state of the procedure, steps presented, summary carried on the record, and the client's decision recorded with the release state visible. Every agency handover should close looking like this object.
Frequently asked questions
Who inside the agency owns the handover?
The person who ran or managed the job builds it, and the account lead checks it as the client. Splitting build and check across two people is the cheapest quality gate in the whole procedure.
What if the job has internal steps the client should not see?
Keep internal work in its own jobs from the start, so the deliverable job is client-readable by construction. Separation by job is the rule; editing a record for presentation breaks the thing that makes it evidence.
How does this differ for a one-off project versus a retainer?
The procedure is identical. Retainers add rhythm: handovers accumulate under the account index and feed the monthly packet, which the retainer page in Part 2 of this file specifies.
By Brennan Zambo, founder of Zambo.
Last verified: 2026-10-17.
Try a handover
A handover gives your client one proof link with verifiable receipts to review, then Accept or Flag.
try it: say 'use zambo to hand this over to <client>' in your ai