What records should a client receive when an AI project is handed over?
The client receives the complete delivery set: every deliverable's handover link and export, the acceptance history showing their own decisions, the open-items list with each item's state and next action, the source and asset inventory, and the project index that maps the set. The test: their team can run the project from the records without phoning yours.
A final handover differs from a delivery the way moving out differs from visiting: everything the client needs to continue must cross, in a form their side can use without the producers in the room. Records assembled per delivery during the project make this a packaging exercise; records assembled at the exit make it an excavation conducted under deadline and, often, deteriorating goodwill.
The set's core is the deliverables layer: each deliverable's handover, with its steps and the client's recorded acceptances, plus exports in the client's own storage, because links into a departing vendor's systems are a courtesy, not a transfer. The decisions layer matters almost as much: the acceptance history and the change notes are the project's constitution, the record of what was agreed, and the successor team, internal or external, will govern by them. The open-items list is the honest layer: everything unfinished, undecided, or in dispute, with states and next actions, recorded by both sides as the true position at exit.
Close with the index and a joint walkthrough: one meeting where the client's side opens records from the index unaided, while your side watches for anything they cannot find or read. What they cannot find in that meeting, they will not find in March. Fix it in the meeting, record the transfer on the final handover, and let the client's acceptance of the set be the project's last, best-documented act.
Template: the final handover set
1. Project index: every deliverable, decision, and open item, mapped. 2. Deliverables: handover links plus exports in client-controlled storage, verified openable by the client side. 3. Decisions: acceptance history and change notes, complete and in order. 4. Open items: state, owner on the client side, next action, agreed dates. 5. Sources and assets: inventory of inputs, licences, and working files transferred, with locations. 6. Transfer record: the set itself delivered as a final handover; the client's acceptance of the set recorded on it. Walkthrough rule: the client side opens three records unaided before the acceptance is requested.
Worked example
The unit the set is built from: https://zambo.dev/handover/45434a17-4afc-486a-9646-e689bcee4297 , a deliverable with its steps and its client's recorded acceptance. A final set is that shape, multiplied across the project and indexed; the walkthrough's three unaided opens are the moment both sides learn whether the multiplication was real.
Frequently asked questions
Should the client also receive our internal working records?
The delivery set covers deliverables, decisions, open items, and the inputs inventory. Internal working material beyond the jobs' records, drafts never delivered and internal reviews, stays yours unless the contract says otherwise; the contract is where that line belongs, agreed before the exit, not during it.
What if the relationship is ending badly?
The set matters more, not less: completeness, exports in their storage, and the joint walkthrough protect both sides. A clean, documented exit is the last professional act of the engagement and the one most likely to be examined later, by successors, auditors, or lawyers.
How long do we keep our copies after transfer?
Per your retention schedule: the contract's window plus its dispute horizon. The client's set is theirs outright; yours is the archive that answers the six-month question if it comes, and the two should match, which the transfer record proves.
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