The website handover file your business should keep

Record the accounts and who looks after them

Use an account register with the provider, account owner, recovery contact, renewal date and person responsible for each service. Store passwords, recovery codes and other secrets in an appropriate password manager. The register should tell an authorised person where access is held.

Keep the domain registrar and DNS provider as separate entries even when the same company handles both. The registrar manages the registration; the DNS service holds the records that direct website and email traffic. Hosting and email can be supplied elsewhere again.

Check the recovery route while you have help

Ask an authorised person in the business to verify they can access the relevant accounts. If recovery relies on a former employee or a supplier address, discuss correcting it before there is an urgent problem. Use individual accounts and appropriate access roles where the provider supports them.

For .uk domains, Nominet Online Services provides access to domain and contact information. Its account help explains that recovery uses the email registered against the domain, and directs registrants with outdated email details to their registrar.

Domain processes vary between extensions and registrars. Check the instructions for your own registration before requesting a move or changing contact details. A working website alone tells you little about whether the right person can recover the account.

Source: Nominet: Online Services; Nominet: accessing your account

Separate what you own from what you license

Keep the signed scope and ownership terms with the handover record. Ask which design files, content and code the agreement lets you take, and what format you can receive. Access to an editor does not answer those questions.

List paid plugins and services that use a supplier licence. Ask what happens to updates and renewal costs if the relationship ends. Photography, fonts and stock assets may also have terms that affect future use.

I'd rather have a named gap in the record than assume everything transfers. If a platform can export products but cannot export the design as a working site, write that down and allow for it when planning a move.

Add the instructions someone will need

Include how to publish a change, who tests it, how backups are restored and which integrations must keep working. For a shop, record the payment and delivery services. For bookings, identify the calendar, notifications and person who handles cancellations.

Keep a list of important URLs and a basic acceptance test: a received form enquiry, a checked booking or a safe test checkout. Someone taking over support can use it to learn the site without guessing which pages matter most.

Put the supplier contact details and an escalation route beside the responsibilities. If emergency support is chargeable or only available during particular hours, keep that agreed scope in the record too.

Give the record an owner

Save it somewhere the business controls, with access restricted to the people who need it. Name the person who updates it after a supplier, licence or recovery-address change.

At the next renewal, check the account details against the register. That is a manageable time to catch an old contact address or a service nobody realises they are still paying for.