A CCTV handover checklist should record every commissioning test you ran (aim, day and night image, recording, playback, remote access), the login and retention settings you left, where the signs went and who to call when something fails. AI can draft the customer guide from your completed sheet, but the installer runs and signs off every test.
Generic checklists and downloadable PDFs often stop at "system tested". What the customer needs is something they can open at seven in the evening when a camera shows offline, and what you need is a record of what you checked and what you left behind. Both come from the same sheet, which is why the sheet comes first and the AI draft second.
Commissioning tests, camera by camera
Run these on every camera and write the result on the sheet, with a photo where a picture settles the argument. "Pass" means you saw it, not that it was fitted correctly.
| Check | Why it matters | How to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Mount and seal | A loose bracket or a wet housing becomes a callback | Tug the bracket, check glands and junction box, leave a drip loop, make sure no cable is under tension |
| View against purpose | A camera that shows the wrong area fails even when it records perfectly | Compare the live view with the camera schedule (detect, observe, recognise or identify); for the last two, measure the scene width and work out pixels per metre |
| Focus at the far point | Focus set in daylight can shift after dark when the infrared lamps come on | Focus on the farthest point that matters, then check again after dark |
| Day image | Windows and low sun turn people into silhouettes | View at the brightest time you can; adjust backlight or wide-dynamic-range settings; note what you set |
| Night image | Infrared reflecting off a near wall, or the camera's own dome, whites out the picture | View after dark with the site's normal lighting; look for flare, short range, insects and cobwebs; photograph the result |
| Motion and analytics zones | False alerts get notifications switched off, and then the real one is missed | Walk-test inside each zone; exclude trees, roads and reflections; list the zones on the sheet |
| Privacy masks | The camera should not record areas you have no reason to record, such as a neighbour's window | Check the live view for the masked areas and screenshot them for the file |
| Time and date | Footage with the wrong time is hard to use and hard to defend | Time source set, time zone and daylight-saving correct, overlay matches the recorder and a phone clock |
| Names and overlays | The customer will search by location, not by channel number | Camera names match the schedule and the labels on each cable |
| Cable and power | Marginal cable shows up as dropouts weeks later | Link at the expected speed, no PoE fault, power draw within the recorder's budget; keep the tester result for each run |
| Recording and playback | A system can show a live picture and record nothing | Let it record, then play back footage from each camera; check for gaps and that each channel shows the right camera |
| Export | The first time a customer needs footage is usually under pressure | Export a clip to a USB stick, or through the app, and open it on an ordinary computer; check the player is included |
The "view against purpose" row is where a quote becomes a result. If the quote promised faces at the door, that is the identify level, usually put at about 250 pixels per metre, so divide the camera's horizontal pixels by the scene width you measure at the door and write the answer on the sheet. A camera 2,688 pixels wide looking across a 4 m entrance gives 672 pixels per metre, comfortably clear. The same camera covering a 12 m shopfront gives 224, which falls short, so the sheet records a shortfall to discuss with the customer rather than a pass. The quote tutorial sets out all four levels and works the sum through for a six-camera unit, and the placement tutorial covers choosing positions in the first place.
Recorder, network and login checks before you leave the cupboard
| Check | Why it matters | How to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Location and ventilation | Heat shortens drive life, and a locked-in recorder can be pulled out by anyone | Air can move round it, the fans are clear, access is restricted to the people who should have it |
| Power and restart | A power cut should not leave it off or corrupt the drive | If a UPS is fitted, pull the mains and watch the runtime; confirm the recorder starts recording by itself after power returns |
| Drive detected and healthy | An unformatted or failing drive means no recording | Drive shows as formatted and healthy in the recorder; note the model and serial number |
| Recording mode and bitrate | These decide how many days of footage the drive holds | Per-camera mode, resolution, frame rate and bitrate match the quote; write them down |
| Default passwords changed | Default credentials are the first thing anyone tries | A new, unique administrator password for this site; no shared "admin" login handed to staff |
| User accounts and roles | Not everyone should be able to delete or export footage | View-only or limited accounts for staff; list every account and who it belongs to |
| Firmware | Old firmware can carry known flaws | Recorder and cameras on a stable version you have agreed with the customer; write the version numbers down |
| Remote access method | Opening the recorder directly to the internet exposes it | Use the manufacturer's secure remote service or a VPN, not direct port forwarding; test from a phone on mobile data, not the office Wi-Fi |
| Notifications | Faults only matter if someone hears about them | Alerts for video loss, disk error and network disconnect go to a named person; test by unplugging one camera |
| Network record | The next engineer needs to know what is where | An address table (camera, address, switch port); note any router changes you made |
| Configuration backup | Replacing a failed recorder is quicker with the settings to hand | Export the configuration file and store it with the job record |
Direct port forwarding is the one I would argue about with a customer. It is quick, it works, and it puts the recorder's login page on the open internet. A manufacturer's relay service or a VPN takes a little longer and removes that exposure. Whichever you choose, put the method on the sheet so the customer's IT person knows what was set up.
Retention: working out the days, and who decides the number
The number of days of footage is the setting customers ask about most and understand least, so it needs both a calculation and a decision. The calculation is the one used to size the drive at quote stage, now run on the settings you actually left: one megabit per second of video is about 10.8 GB a day, so add up the cameras' bitrates, multiply by 10.8, then divide the drive's capacity by the result.
The decision belongs to the customer. Data-protection guidance on video devices, first published in 2019, says footage should in most cases be deleted, ideally automatically, after a few days, and that the longer the period, especially beyond 72 hours, the more justification the owner needs. Its example of a small shop says 24 hours is normally enough, with closed weekends or longer holidays as reasons to keep footage longer. That guidance belongs to one set of data-protection rules, and the rules that apply to your customer may differ. Your job is not to pick the number. It is to ask, write down who chose it and why, set the recorder to match, and show that it does.
Take a five-camera office, an invented example, with each camera at 3 Mbps recording continuously. That is 5 x 3 x 10.8 = 162 GB a day. The office manager chooses 14 days because the building closes for up to two weeks at a time over holidays and a break-in could go unnoticed that long, and 14 days needs 2,268 GB. A 4 TB drive more than covers it, and here is the catch. Left alone, and with overwrite switched on as it usually is, the recorder keeps recording until the drive is full and then replaces the oldest footage. At 162 GB a day, 4,000 GB lasts about 24 days, so the office would hold footage for longer than the 14 days it decided on.
Many recorders have a setting that deletes footage older than a chosen number of days; check whether yours does, set it to the agreed period, and write the setting on the sheet. If the model has no such setting, either size the drive close to the need or tell the customer plainly that footage is kept until the disk fills, about 24 days in this case, and let them decide. A remote check at day seven closes the loop. Seven days at 162 GB should show roughly 1,134 GB used and the oldest footage seven days old. If the numbers disagree, the bitrates are not what the sheet says.
Signs: what they say, where they go, what goes in the file
The same guidance describes the first layer of information, the warning sign. It should give the most important details: the purposes, who is responsible for the system, the rights of the people filmed and the biggest effects on them, plus anything likely to surprise them, such as footage being passed to others or how long it is kept. If a sign says nothing about storage, people are entitled to assume the cameras are only watched live. The sign should point to where the fuller privacy notice can be found and sit where people see it before they enter the monitored area, at about eye level. It need not reveal where each camera is, as long as it is clear which areas are covered.
Decisions about wording belong to the customer and their adviser, and the signage tutorial covers drafting them with AI. For the installer's checklist the useful parts are practical. A plain draft that matches those elements might read as follows, with the blanks filled by the customer.
CCTV IN OPERATION
Images are recorded for the safety of staff and visitors and to prevent
and detect crime.
Operated by [business name]. Footage is kept for [number] days.
Contact [phone or email]. You have rights over recordings of you:
see the full privacy notice at [where to find it].
- Signs ordered in the agreed quantity and sized to be read from the distance people approach.
- Fixed at each entrance to the monitored area at about eye level, and at the car park entrance if it is covered.
- A dated photo of each sign in place, filed with the job record.
- The customer told in writing that the full privacy notice, and the handling of requests for footage, are theirs to arrange.
- Audio recording off. The same guidance says functions that are not necessary, audio recording among them, should be switched off.
The handover pack, page by page
Keep the pack short enough to be read. Ten short pages beat forty. Each of these should be drafted from the sheet, not from memory.
- Cover and contacts. Site, installation date, your support line and its hours.
- What you have. The camera schedule with each camera's purpose, and a marked-up plan or photographs.
- Viewing live and recorded footage. Steps for the app and for the recorder's own screen.
- Saving a clip. The export steps, where the player lives and what to write down about the clip.
- What is recorded and for how long. Recording mode, the retention setting and the day the customer chose it.
- Who has access. The accounts, where the administrator credentials are held and how to add or remove a user.
- Signs and privacy. Where the signs are, what audio and masking settings were chosen and who is responsible for the privacy notice.
- If something goes wrong. The call table below.
- Looking after it. Keep lenses and recorder vents clear and do not unplug or switch it off to save power; what servicing is on offer.
- Sign-off. The tests, the settings left and the signatures.
Who to call: the table that lives inside the recorder cupboard
This is the page a customer will use most. Print it separately and stick it inside the cupboard door.
| What is happening | First check | Who to call | Have ready |
|---|---|---|---|
| A camera shows offline or a black picture | Check the camera's cable is seated and the router and recorder have power | Installer support line, in hours | Camera name, when it stopped, any lights on the recorder |
| The recorder beeps or shows a disk warning | Do not switch it off; note the message | Installer support line | The message and the date |
| You cannot view on your phone | Check broadband works for other devices; try mobile data | Your internet provider if other devices are offline, otherwise the installer | The error shown in the app |
| Someone asks for footage | Follow your own procedure and use the export steps on page 4 | Your named contact first; the installer only if the export fails | Date, time and camera names |
| A crime is in progress | Call the emergency services | Not your CCTV support line | Your address |
| A sign is damaged or missing | Replace it as soon as you can | Installer, for a new sign | Which sign and where |
Drafting the pack from your completed sheet
With the sheet complete, an assistant can write the pack in a few minutes, provided it is held to the sheet. The prompt does that with three kinds of rule: use only the sheet, mark gaps instead of filling them, and make no claims you cannot back.
Draft a customer guide of no more than two pages from the completed
commissioning sheet below.
Audience: an office manager with no technical background. Plain English,
short sentences.
Use ONLY facts in the sheet. If a field is blank or says TO CONFIRM, write
[TO CONFIRM] in the guide.
Never say a test passed unless the sheet says Pass.
Never state a retention period unless the field "retention set and verified"
says so.
Never include passwords, codes or IP addresses. Do not say the system is
secure, compliant or guaranteed. Do not promise any service that the sheet
does not list.
Sections: What you have; Viewing live and recorded footage; Saving a clip;
What is recorded and for how long; Who has access; Signs and privacy;
If something goes wrong (use the call table exactly as given); Looking
after the system.
[sheet pasted here, passwords removed]
A section of the draft (illustrative) might read like this.
What is recorded and for how long
Your five cameras record all day and night. The recorder is set to keep 14
days of footage and to delete older footage automatically. We will check
this remotely every month by looking at how far back the footage goes.
Sound is not recorded. The parts of the car park camera's view that show the
pavement and a neighbour's window are blocked out.
The decision to keep footage for 14 days was made by the office manager on
[TO CONFIRM]. Please tell us if it changes.
It is good, and it still needs two edits. "We will check this remotely every month" is a service commitment the sheet does not contain, because it lists a single check at day seven, so the sentence must either say that or become an offer of a maintenance plan. And the sentence about automatic deletion is only true because this recorder has an expiry setting. For a model without one, the correct sentence is that footage is kept until the disk is full, about 24 days at the current rate. The assistant cannot know which applies unless the sheet says, which is why the sheet has a field for it.
Where AI gets handover documents wrong
- It invents a test result. A blank night-test field becomes "all cameras were tested after dark". The prompt rule about Pass and [TO CONFIRM] stops it, and your read-through of the output catches the cases it does not.
- It describes features that are not switched on. "You will receive alerts on your phone" appears because the app can send them, not because you set them up. Compare each promise with the notifications row on the sheet.
- It states an estimate as a fact. "Footage is kept for 30 days" when the sheet holds a calculation and no verification. Retention is a setting plus a test, not a sentence.
- It reassures too much. "Your system is fully secure" or "complies with data-protection law" are claims you cannot make, and a handover pack is not the place to try. The prompt bans them.
- It repeats credentials. If a password was in the sheet, it may appear in the guide. Never paste one in, and never ask the assistant to include one.
- It gets the phone numbers wrong. Paste your support details in verbatim and check them against your own records before printing.
A filled-in sheet for a five-camera office
This is the sheet for the same five-camera office, in abbreviated form. The cameras first.
| ID | Position | Purpose | Day image | Night image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Reception, facing the entrance | Identify | Pass | Pass | Photo 21 |
| C2 | Rear fire door, inside | Identify | Pass | Pass | Photo 22 |
| C3 | Car park, above rear door | Observe | Pass | Pass after adjustment | Infrared flare from a white wall; tilted down 5 degrees and retested; pavement and neighbour's window masked |
| C4 | Ground-floor corridor | Observe | Pass | Pass | Photo 24 |
| C5 | Server cupboard door | Identify | Pass | Pass when lit | Corridor light is on a motion sensor; picture is dark until it triggers; customer told |
Then the settings that the cameras cannot show.
| Setting | Value on the sheet |
|---|---|
| Recorder and drive | 8-channel PoE recorder, 4 TB drive, healthy, serial recorded |
| Recording | Continuous, 3 Mbps a camera, estimated 162 GB a day |
| Retention | 14 days, chosen by the office manager; expiry setting available and set to 14 days; day-7 check due [date] |
| Accounts | Administrator credentials changed and held by the office manager; three view-only staff accounts; no installer account left active |
| Remote access | Manufacturer's secure relay; tested from a phone on mobile data: Pass |
| Notifications | Video loss and disk error to the office manager by app and email; tested by unplugging C4: alert received |
| Time | Time source set, daylight-saving rule checked |
| Signs | Three fitted: entrance, rear door, car park; photos 31 to 33 |
| Audio | Off on all cameras |
| Configuration backup | Exported and filed with the job record |
A sheet like this feeds the guide, the sign-off page and the first remote check. It also gives the next engineer, or you in two years, everything they need without a phone call to the customer.
The 20-minute walk-through: the customer drives, you watch
A pack nobody has tried is a pack nobody finds when it matters. Before anyone signs, spend about 20 minutes with the person who will look after the system and let them do each task themselves, on their own phone and at the recorder, while you watch and say as little as possible.
- Log in on their own phone. With their own account, not yours, and over mobile data rather than the office Wi-Fi. If it fails now, it would have failed on the night of a break-in.
- Find yesterday afternoon. Play back a set time on a named camera. Searching by time and camera name is the first skill they will need.
- Export a clip and open it. On their own computer, not your laptop, and note how long the export took, because someone will ask.
- Find the call table. Show them where it is fixed inside the cupboard door, and which number to ring for what.
- Add and remove a user. Or, if their account cannot, show them who can. Staff leave, and their access should leave with them.
Write the result of each task on the sign-off page. In the five-camera office, the export from C3 took four minutes and the playback search went smoothly, but the manager's app showed every camera offline on mobile data. The relay had been tested with the installer's login, and the manager's own login had never been added to it. Fixing it took ten minutes on the day instead of a support call the following week, and it is the reason the walk-through comes before the signature. A task that fails and cannot be fixed on the day goes on the sheet as an open item with a date, and the guide says [TO CONFIRM] for that step until it is closed.
Signing off: what you complete and what the assistant never certifies
The assistant writes words. It does not see the site, run a test or touch the recorder, so it can never certify that something works. The installer completes and signs the tests, the customer is shown the key steps (viewing, exporting, who to call) and signs to say so, and the signed sheet goes into the job file. If your contract or insurer needs particular sign-off wording, use theirs.
The handover is also the natural moment to offer the next step. A customer who has just watched an export and read a call table is ready to hear what a maintenance plan adds, and the maintenance contract tutorial shows how the day-seven remote check becomes the first of a regular routine.
Questions installers ask about CCTV handover
Who should hold the admin password after handover?
The customer, with your own access documented separately or through a support account they can switch off. Hand the password over in person or through the customer's password manager. The pack should say where the credentials are kept, never what they are, and nobody should type them into a chatbot.
Does the customer have to sign the handover sheet?
I can't point to a rule that says so, but a signed sheet showing the tests you ran, the settings you left and what the customer was shown protects both sides when memories differ. Keep a copy with the job record, and use any wording your contract or insurer requires.
What if the customer wants footage kept longer than the guidance suggests?
That is their decision and their responsibility. You can size the drive and record the instruction. Suggest they write down the purpose that justifies the longer period and take advice, because the justification they may have to give grows with the length of time.
Further reads
- AI Camera Software for CCTV Installers: Analytics You Can Sell Clients — Analytics you can sell on top of a handover, and what each costs.
- Alarm Maintenance Contracts: Renewal Letters and Reminders With AI — Renewal letters and reminders for the sister trade, alarms.
- AV Service Agreements: Support Terms and Renewals Drafted With AI — Support terms and renewals in another install trade.
- AI Receptionist for Tradespeople: What It Costs and When It Pays — Answering the support line while the team is on site.
- AI Footfall Cameras for a Retail Store: What They Count and Privacy — What a footfall camera really counts, how to turn the numbers into a better rota, and the privacy checks and signage to settle before you install one.
- AV Installation Checklist: Commissioning Tests and Punch List With AI — A grouped AV commissioning checklist with the tests to record, then AI steps for a room test sheet, a punch list from walkthrough notes and the sign-off page.
- Boiler Installation Checklist: AI Sorts the Photos, You Sign the Records — A 24-photo boiler install shot list, AI prompts for sorting photos and drafting the handover pack, and warranty prompts. The engineer signs every record.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: data-protection guidelines on processing personal data through video devices (first published 2019, final version adopted January 2020) for warning-sign content and position, storage periods, privacy masking and switching off unnecessary functions such as audio; a camera vendor's DORI guide citing EN 62676-4:2015 for the identify level. The office example, dates and figures are invented for illustration.