Client offboarding
The end-of-project handover: files, source, logins, docs, and ownership transferred so the client can carry on without you.
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What it is
Client offboarding is the deliberate end of an engagement: source files, repos, design files, domain and DNS control, analytics and hosting logins, third-party accounts, brand assets, and whatever documentation the next person needs. It also includes the paperwork half: final invoice, confirmation that IP has transferred on payment, and a written note of what is now out of your hands.
Reach for it the moment the last deliverable is accepted, and treat it as a fixed checklist rather than a mood. The strong version is a short handover doc plus a recorded walkthrough (Loom-style) covering 'here is where things live, here is how to change the three things you will want to change'. That video can take a real bite out of the free support requests that arrive six weeks later, because the questions that come back are mostly the same three questions, and now they have somewhere to look them up.
Two traps. First, credentials in your name: accounts you opened with your own email or card quietly make you the client's permanent sysadmin, so transfer ownership or hand over and remove yourself. Second, offboarding is not the same as goodbye. A clean handover plus a 'here is what I would do next' note is the highest-converting referral and re-engagement moment you get, and it is the natural place to ask for the testimonial while the work still feels new.
Ask AI for it
Write a client offboarding checklist for a freelance web design and build project. Group it into five sections: (1) asset transfer (source files, design files, repo, exported originals), (2) access and ownership (domain, DNS, hosting, analytics, CMS, third-party accounts, with a step for removing me as owner), (3) documentation (a one-page handover doc plus a recorded walkthrough of the three most common edits), (4) commercial close (final invoice, confirmation that IP transfers on full payment, what support is and is not included after today), and (5) relationship (testimonial request, referral ask, recommended next steps). Give each item as a single checkbox line with who is responsible, and keep it under one page.