This checklist is part of the management contract transition guide. The 15-minute meeting agenda gets the first answers; this page keeps them current until access ends.
The three dates and where each comes from
Before you tick anything, fix the end points. Each date has a document behind it, and the document matters more than the date.
| Milestone | Usual source | When it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Termination notice | The notice letter or the board decision to change managers | You are early; milestone one can be done calmly |
| Handover | The transition schedule agreed between the departing manager and its successor | Record who sets it and check again in two weeks |
| Access shutoff | The maintenance system license, the property software contract or an IT ticket | Leave it open; the item becomes "find out who decides" |
Mark each item confirmed (a person with authority said so), open (unknown, with a named person to find out) or at risk (the current plan loses it). "We think the owner gets it" is open, not confirmed.
Keep the sheet to configuration and ownership. No tenant names, unit numbers, vendor invoices, photos or work order text belong in it.
Milestone one: before the termination notice is announced
Before the notice goes out, nobody is negotiating over records yet, so answers are franker. This is where control gets settled on paper.
| Confirm | Owner | If skipped |
|---|---|---|
| Which clause of the management agreement covers books and records, and whether it mentions system data | Controlling company's owner or counsel | Control is argued after access ends, when nothing can be fixed |
| Whose license the maintenance system runs under, manager's or owner's | Systems lead | The history is assumed portable when it is not |
| Which records are portfolio-wide process data and which are property-level books | Head of operations | One company tries to license records another company controls |
| How many years of closed work orders the current system holds | Systems administrator | The archive is valued on a guess |
The second column usually splits two ways. Property-level books often follow the owner, and professional codes back that up: the Institute of Real Estate Management's ethics code expects members to make accurate records available to the client, including former clients. The manager's own playbooks, contractor list and sign-off standards across its whole portfolio are more often its own operating history. Write down which is which, in the words of whoever read the clause.
Milestone two: before the handover date
Most handover lists at this stage are about keeping sites running on the first morning. Finished jobs get reduced to a spreadsheet. These items protect the links that make the history evidence.
| Confirm | Owner | If skipped |
|---|---|---|
| Closure sign-off and follow-up inspections attach to each work order, not a shared drive | Operations lead | Verification is separated from the repair it verified |
| Vendor invoices link to work orders by ID | Accounting lead | Cost and work performed can no longer be compared |
| Asset IDs carry through, so repeat failures on the same asset can be found | Systems administrator | Recurring faults vanish into unrelated tickets |
| Any export planned for the owner or the successor keeps status history and timestamps | Systems administrator | Dates survive; the sequence between them does not |
The last row is the quiet one. Systems store the work order sequence as timestamped fields; AppFolio's partner API documentation, for example, lists a work order status and a CompletedOn timestamp for when it changed to completed. A one-sheet export often keeps one date per row and drops the rest.
A one-work-order trace
Illustrative. A 180-person industrial property manager is handing 60 warehouse sites back to their owner's in-house team. Before handover, its systems lead traces one roof leak report through the plan:
| Record in the chain | Kept after handover? | Mark |
|---|---|---|
| Occupant report and priority | Yes, in the manager's read-only copy | Confirmed |
| Roofing contractor dispatch and bill | Bill goes to the owner's ledger; ticket number kept on it | Confirmed |
| Roofer's completion photos and re-inspection | Attachments left out of the planned spreadsheet export | At risk |
| Earlier leaks on the same roof section | Depends on whether site and asset codes carry over | Open |
One at-risk row and one open row, both fixable before handover. That is the kind of finding this milestone exists to produce.
Milestone three: before access is switched off
After shutoff, nothing on the list can be recovered. This milestone is about who keeps a readable copy and who can decide about it.
| Confirm | Owner | If skipped |
|---|---|---|
| Whether a read-only copy of the system remains, and under whose license | Systems lead | The history exists only until the license lapses |
| A written retention period for closed work orders and attachments | IT or compliance lead | "We'll keep it" turns into deletion at the next clean-up |
| Who can open the archive after the project team disbands | Systems administrator | Records survive that nobody can find |
| Who can authorize a licensing discussion, and whether that changes on handover | Owner or CEO | An interested company has nobody able to say yes |
Comparable checklists for other transitions, such as the IT handover checklist for a business sale, the office closure checklist and the support outsourcing transition plan, make the same point: the last day of access is the last day to decide.
From a finished checklist to an introduction
When the three milestones are marked, read the result back to the controlling company's decision-maker in four lines: who controls the closed history and under which clause, whether closure evidence stays linked, where the readable copy will live and for how long, and who can authorize. That is a full metadata-level answer to the core question.
If the decision-maker wants to explore licensing:
- Disclose first. Say you are a SourceX referral partner and may receive a reward if a qualifying license completes, funded separately by SourceX and never deducted from the company's payout. SourceX licenses approved business data directly from companies for AI training and evaluation, and manages agreement, rights review, data preparation, delivery and payout.
- Check fit. The company needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), a documented operating history, rights to license the records, and an authorized contact. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English.
- Introduce. Sign the Channel Partner Agreement, then send the annotated introduction email. The first valid introduction within the 90-day window is credited when the company submits a verified application, one partner per company. Illustrative only: a $250,000 qualifying payout to the company would mean a $62,500 default reward; see the rewards page.
Buyer need, the rights review result, any tenant or owner restrictions and any offer stay unknown until SourceX reviews the application. For ownership questions in general, see who owns property management records.
Next step
Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000. Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
If the checklist shows one company controls linked work order history beyond the shutoff date and its decision-maker wants to talk, register as a partner, check who qualifies, and review the program terms.