Keep a deliverables register through review

The register is the inventory, not the sign-off

A deliverables register answers a narrow question: what exists, where the current version is, who is responsible, and what evidence shows that someone accepted it. It does not accept the work for you. A file sitting in a folder is not acceptance. A status word you typed is not acceptance either, unless the evidence cell points to the review that actually happened.

WorkFormKit’s deliverables register is a blank Word document, Excel workbook, and printable PDF. There is no browser editor and no Load example button on that page. The sample wording on the template page is there to show the columns. The downloaded files are empty of that story. Use Excel as the inventory you update. Use Word when you need a covering note. Use the PDF only as a blank sheet to print. It is not an interactive PDF form.

The project handover tool is a different document. Its handover items are Item, Location / reference, Owner, and Status, and Status must be Not ready, Ready for review, Accepted, or Not applicable. The handover guide covers scope, the first-week walkthrough, and open items. This guide covers the living register and the column mapping you need before you paste into that tool.

Update the register, then build the handover snapshot

1. Download the register and fill the header. Project name is the body of work. Updated on is the day this inventory was last edited. Register owner keeps the list; that person is not automatically the owner of every deliverable. In Review / acceptance process, define the words you will type in Review status. A workable set is Submitted, Ready for review, and Accepted. State who may set Accepted, and that a link without their confirmation stays at an earlier word.
2. One row is one thing a reviewer can open. ID stays stable, such as D-01. Deliverable is a name a stranger can recognise. Location / version is a path or document title plus the version, not “the share” and not a password. Owner is the person who will answer questions about this item. Target date is when you plan to submit or review it, not the day it was accepted. Put the acceptance date, if you have one, in Acceptance evidence together with the reviewer’s name.
3. When an item is merely drafted, Review status is not Accepted, and Acceptance evidence says what is still missing. When it is ready for someone else to look at, say Ready for review and name the request. Change the status to Accepted only after you can point to the confirmation. The workbook will not check the link, the version, or the reviewer.
4. For a handover, open the handover tool and choose Start blank unless you are studying the fictional example. Load example fills a Northstar story and labels it as fiction. Replace or discard it before a real transfer. In Basics, write the scope and the exclusions. In Write, state what the receiving person must do to accept the work. The tool will not turn that paragraph into a signature.
5. On Track, add handover items for the slice being transferred, not necessarily every register row. Map D-01’s Deliverable to Item, Location / version to Location / reference, and Owner to Owner. Choose Status from the four allowed values. “Submitted” is not one of them. If the register says Submitted and nobody can review it yet, choose Not ready. If a reviewer can open it now, Ready for review is the closest fit. Do not paste Acceptance evidence into a fifth column; the paste will be rejected. Put a short pointer in Location / reference, such as “sign-in-tests-v1.docx; evidence in register D-01”, or summarise the condition in Acceptance criteria / confirmation.
6. Use Open items for work that is explicitly not delivered. That table is Open item, Owner, Next step, and Due date. Do not hide unfinished work by marking a deliverable Accepted. Export Word for the pack, Excel for the tables, or Print / save PDF through the browser dialog after you check the page breaks.

Common mistakes, and the correction

Edge cases in review and transfer

Not applicable. The handover tool can mark an item Not applicable. The register has no menu, so type those words in Review status and say why in Acceptance evidence: “Not applicable: billing is outside this handover.” Keep the row if the exclusion matters. Do not delete it to make the sheet look finished.

The receiving person cannot open the location. Status stays Not ready even if the author thinks the file is finished. Location / version must be a reference they can use. Test it before the handover meeting. The tool does not open the link or check permissions.

Placeholders. The fictional handover example uses brackets such as “[Approved document location]” because the sample must not pretend a real path exists. In your register, brackets mean the cell is still empty of a fact. Replace them before you set Ready for review.

Accepted in the tool, not in the register. Choosing Accepted in the handover dropdown does not write the register and does not create evidence. If you set it, make sure Acceptance evidence in the register already names the reviewer and the outcome. The export checks do not verify that.

More items than the tool will hold. Handover items and Open items each stop at 50 rows. A paste that does not fit is refused entirely. Hand over one scope, or export the full register as the attachment and put only the in-scope rows in the tool. The register spreadsheet is not limited to 50 rows by the builder.

Target date already passed. Leave the original target visible. Record the new plan in Acceptance evidence or in the handover’s open items, so the missed date is not quietly overwritten.

Credentials. An access transfer can be a deliverable. Record the request ID. Do not paste a password, token, or private key into Location / version. The handover example says the same thing because people do put secrets in the only field that looks like a “location”.

What the register will not do

• It will not sign, approve, or time-stamp a review. Evidence is a sentence you type.
• It will not notice that a newer version exists somewhere else. Location / version stays as you last edited it.
• It will not import into the handover tool as a workbook or as JSON. The handover tool accepts a JSON backup of a handover document only.
• It will not keep the Word, Excel, and PDF copies aligned. If you edit Excel, the Word file does not change. Pick one source.
• It will not calculate completeness. A blank evidence cell is not a percentage, and the site does not report how many rows are accepted.

Fictional next step for Northstar: Jordan can review the sign-in report, so D-01 stays Ready for review. Access transfer is a second row, D-02, Review status Not ready, evidence “Access request not yet raised; no credentials in this register.” On the handover, D-01 maps to Ready for review and D-02 maps to Not ready. The open item is the alert test still to run, with Sam Lee as owner and a due date of 2026-10-20. None of those labels is a signed acceptance. The acceptance paragraph in the tool should still say that Jordan records acceptance separately, after checking the references.