Documents and version control
Transferring ownership of event working files
The coordinator who built every event spreadsheet is moving to another team on Friday.
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The short answer
Transferring working files means moving ownership, not just copying files: the new owner receives the files, the account permissions, the explanation of how they work and a list of what is still open.
Do it on a set date with both people present, record what moved, and only then remove the old owner's rights.
Separate file ownership from file access
A file can sit in someone's personal drive and still be shared widely. When that person leaves, the owner account may be closed and shared files may be lost or locked.
Move the files into an organisation-owned location first, and then assign owner roles to named people. Check this against your access matrix.
Make an inventory
- Every working file, folder and shared sheet, with its location.
- Who owns it now and who will own it.
- Which supplier or committee depends on it.
- Any scheduled automation, such as reminders, forms or linked sheets.
- What is open: tasks, decisions and promises made to others.
Do a walk-through, not just a handover note
Ask the departing owner to show the new owner how each file is used: where the inputs come from, which cells are calculated, what is updated weekly and what the traps are.
Record the session or take notes in a short how-to page stored with the files.
Confirm and then close
- New owner opens every file from their own account and confirms they can edit.
- Check shared links and supplier access still work from the new location.
- Update the source register with the new owner and deputy.
- Remove the old owner's edit rights only after confirmation, following the access revocation checklist.
Personal data and retention
Working files often hold contact lists and notes. Ask your data protection contact what may move, who may hold it and what must be deleted or retained when the previous owner leaves.
Worked example · Fictional example
A coordinator leaves with three weeks to go
Fictional organisation and figures, for illustration only.
A fictional hospitality association is planning a two-day forum for about 250 delegates. The coordinator keeps the speaker tracker, the supplier sheet and the registration reconciliation in a personal drive.
In a one-hour session she and the incoming secretariat officer list nine files and two forms. They move them into the shared drive, confirm edit access, write a one-page how-to for the supplier sheet, and agree that her access ends the next working day. Four open decisions pass to the decision log.
Use this yourself
Ownership transfer record
Complete one record for each handover and keep it with the files.
- Event and date of transfer:
- Outgoing owner, incoming owner, deputy:
- Files and locations moved (list):
- Forms, automations or linked sheets involved:
- Suppliers or committees that rely on each file:
- Walk-through held on, notes stored at:
- Open tasks and decisions passed over (with log reference):
- New owner confirmed access on (date):
- Old access removed on (date), by whom:
- Personal-data questions referred to the data protection contact on (date):
Open the tool: Conference materials and translation-version checker
Handle it in-house, or bring in help?
Your team can usually handle this when
- Few files, a cooperative outgoing owner and time for a walk-through.
- The files are already in organisation-owned storage.
Outside planning help earns its fee when
- Files sit in personal accounts and the person has already left.
- Several people share ownership and nobody can say what depends on which file.
Handover under time pressure?
A conference project lead can run the inventory and walk-through, confirm the new owner's access, and make sure open decisions and supplier dependencies pass over with the files. Questions about personal data go to your data protection contact.
Questions organisers ask
Is copying the files to the new owner enough?
No. Copies lose shared links, comments, permissions and automations. Move or transfer ownership inside the organisation's storage instead.
When should the old owner's access end?
After the new owner has opened and edited every file and suppliers have confirmed their access still works.
What if the person has already left?
Ask your IT administrator or whoever manages the organisation's accounts what can be recovered, and refer any retention questions to your data protection contact.
Related resources
Content record: Draft. Written from the cited sources and checked by automated rules; not yet independently reviewed.