A room for Teams working with vendors

Vendor Handoff Table

Keep expectations, decisions, dates, and open questions clear on both sides.

Why this might help

When your team hands work off to a vendor, things can get messy fast. Who agreed to what? When is the deadline? What's still unanswered? A partner handoff note keeps all of that in one place so nobody has to dig through old emails or guess. It's a simple, shared record that both sides can read and trust. Think of it like leaving a clear note on the fridge — whoever picks it up next knows exactly what's going on and what still needs doing.

Does this feel familiar?

  • Your vendor starts a task differently than you expected because the brief was never written down clearly.
  • Someone on your team asks 'did we ever confirm the delivery date?' and nobody's sure.
  • A question gets asked in a meeting, everyone nods, but two weeks later nothing happened because it wasn't captured.
  • Your vendor sends work back and your team realizes a key decision was never actually made.

Try this together

  1. Before the handoff call, jot down every open question you can think of — even the ones that feel obvious.
  2. Agree on one person from each side who owns the note and keeps it current.
  3. Write decisions in plain language right after they're made, not a day later when details blur.
  4. Set a short check-in date — even just a 15-minute call — so both sides can flag anything that's drifted.
  5. When something changes, update the note and tell the other side directly rather than hoping they'll notice.

Partner Handoff Note

  1. Open a new partner handoff note and name it with the vendor name and the project — something like 'Apex Design — Homepage Refresh'.
  2. Fill in the context section: what the vendor is doing, why it matters, and any background they need to know.
  3. List every decision that's already been made, with the date and who agreed to it.
  4. Add a section for open questions, and next to each one write the name of the person responsible for answering it.
  5. Share the note with your vendor contact and agree together that it's the single place you'll both update as things change.

Questions worth talking about

What's one thing our vendor probably doesn't know yet that could slow them down?

If someone new joined the vendor's team tomorrow, would our handoff note give them enough to get started?

Which open questions are actually blocking work right now, and who's responsible for answering each one?

A few common questions

How is a partner handoff note different from just sending an email summary?

An email gets buried and nobody updates it. A handoff note stays live. Both sides can see the latest decisions and open questions without hunting through threads. It's less about the format and more about having one place everyone actually checks and trusts.

What if the vendor doesn't want to use our tool or process?

That's common. The note itself can be as simple as a shared document. What matters is that both sides agree it exists and agree to keep it current. Start small — even one page covering decisions, dates, and open questions is enough to prevent most mix-ups.

Can Tindlo help with vendor handoffs?

Yes, in a practical way. You can create a work item in Tindlo for the handoff itself, attach the partner note as a linked file, add context in the Brief field, and schedule it on your team's shared Week view so everyone can see where it sits alongside other work.

Keep the story close to the schedule

A date makes more sense when you can also see the reason, the owner, and the work around it. Tindlo brings those pieces together when a calendar alone isn't enough.

See how Tindlo works →

Where would you like to go next?

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