Templates For executive and admin assistants

Hand off a task to someone else, for executive and admin assistants

Turn a task you do in your head into a plain hand-off for another person, with the materials listed, the steps written, nothing sensitive left in, and a fresh reader's questions answered.

This is the version for executive and admin assistants. The steps and checks are the same as in the general template; each prompt carries one added line about your setting, and the examples are from your kind of work.

Sample results: runs and scores on this page are illustrations while testing is set up. How we test

Bring: The task and how you do it, Who is taking it over

Use This TemplatePrepare a prompt for your own AI chat.

Who it is for: Executive assistants and administrative assistants who hand a routine, such as the monthly expense report or travel booking, to a cover assistant before leave or when a new assistant starts.
Time: 20 minutes

Edit this version

Other Formats and Files

The Step 1 chat prompt under Use This Template is the quick start. Choose a full prompt chain, checklist, Claude skill or n8n file when that destination fits your work. Checked Instructions, below, run the whole job with a hard check after every step.

Choose one format

Prompt chain
Copy each step into ChatGPT or Claude, one after another.
Checklist
Follow the steps and check off the checks by hand.
Claude skill
A folder Claude loads, so it follows the steps by itself.
n8n file
Import into n8n and connect your own AI account.

This job also comes as Checked Instructions: the whole job in one set, with a hard check after every step. See the Checked Instructions on the general template.

Using a download:How to use this in n8n How to install a Claude skill

The same job, with and without the template

Sample

This comparison uses the Typical sample. Try an input below for a result guide matched to each sample.

One plain prompt

Turn these notes into instructions for the person covering my monthly expense report. (The same notes are pasted below.)

Monthly expense report: instructions

Collect the receipts.
Put them into the expense sheet.
Get approval for the large ones.
Send the report to finance on time.

Tip: Be organized and keep the receipts safe.

Problem:It drops the 75 dollar approval rule and the date of the 3rd, loses the four categories, and never warns that the old expense sheet gets bounced.

With this template

What this task is

Each month you prepare your executive's expense report and send it to the finance team by the 3rd.

Before you start

Open the shared "Receipts" folder and the current expense sheet. A second copy called "Expense sheet (old)" exists. Finance changed the template in July and the old one gets bounced, so check the name. Have the email to finance ready.

Steps

On the last working day of the month, collect your executive's receipts from the "Receipts" folder.
Enter each receipt in the expense sheet with its date, vendor, amount and category. The categories are travel, meals, supplies and other.
For anything over 75 dollars, check that your executive's written OK is in the same folder. If it is not, ask for it before you submit.
Send the finished sheet to the finance team by the 3rd, with this email: "Hi, please find attached the expense report for [month]. Thanks."

Watch for

Use only the current expense sheet. Anything over 75 dollars needs the written OK first. Send by the 3rd.

Stop and ask me if

A receipt does not fit one of the four categories.
An amount over 75 dollars has no written OK.
You cannot open the "Receipts" folder.

Still to fill in

ASK: Who gives me access to the "Receipts" folder, and where is the current expense sheet? ASK: Which finance address do I send the report to?

Check:Each piece is hand over, keep or decide first: Every piece of the task has one of the three marks.
Check:The list of removed items is there: The line is there and says none were found.
Check:Nothing sensitive is left in: No password, account number, phone number, address or private detail was found.
For your read:You checked it for private details: Go through it line by line as if it might be forwarded.
For your read:A fresh reader could follow it: Could a cover assistant do the first three steps without asking? Two questions are listed under Still to fill in.

Use This Template

Add your material below. Logic Lab prepares Step 1; you copy it into your own AI and check the answer there. The site does not run the workflow.

Example materialSample

Choose a sample

Typical: Preparing the monthly expense reportEasy: Ordering the Friday team lunchTricky: Booking travel for my executive

A short, simple weekly chore with a clear routine and nothing private in it; the hand-off mostly needs the steps written in order.

The task and how you do it (needed)Who is taking it over (needed)Files, links or text you can include (optional)

Step 1 Chat Prompt

Review the exact prompt, then paste it into your own AI. For later steps, use the chat chain in Other Formats and Files.

You are an experienced office manager who is good at handing work over.
The task is part of an assistant's routine for an executive or a team, such as expense reports, travel booking or calendar care, and the person taking it over is covering or new.

Your task is to break the task below into its pieces, then sort each piece by who should do it.

The task:
Every Thursday by noon I ask the team for their lunch choices in the team chat. I send the order to the caterer by 2 pm. The budget is 15 dollars a person. When the caterer confirms the delivery time, I tell the front desk so they can let the driver in.

Who is taking it over: A cover assistant who has never ordered lunch for the team

Rules:
- Write each piece as a short action.
- Mark a piece "hand over" if the new person can do it with plain steps, "keep" if it needs your own judgment or permission, and "decide first" if you must make a choice before handing it over.
- Add pieces that you do without noticing, such as checking something first or telling someone afterward.
- Do not write the steps yet. Do not invent pieces that the task does not suggest.

Return one markdown table and nothing else:
| # | Piece | Who | Why |
The Who column must say exactly hand over, keep or decide first.

Send to AICopy and open ChatGPTCopies this result and opens a blank chat. Paste and review it there.

Before Step 2, check: Each piece is hand over, keep or decide first.

What This Sample Should Produce

Tell the cover assistant to collect orders by noon each Thursday, send the order to the caterer by 2 pm, and tell the front desk the delivery time. Say the lunch budget is 15 dollars a person.

A result guide for this invented input, not an AI reply.

Want to see where the materials, steps and checks fit? Watch the general template being built.

The steps, and the check on each

Step 1: Sort the pieces
Split the task into pieces and sort each into hand over, keep or decide first.
Hands back: A table that sorts every piece into hand over, keep or decide first.
Check:Each piece is hand over, keep or decide first
A plain rule. If it fails, run the step again (the n8n file does this for you).
Step 2: List what to have ready
List everything the new person needs in hand, and write any short template that is missing.
Hands back: A list of materials to have ready and any short templates or examples.
No separate check on this step.
Step 3: Write the plain steps
Write the hand-over steps in plain words that someone new can follow without asking you.
Hands back: A plain hand-over note with numbered steps, things to watch for and when to ask.
No separate check on this step.
Step 4: Sweep for sensitive information
Find anything private or risky in the hand-over and replace it with where to ask.
Hands back: The hand-over with sensitive items replaced, and a list of what was removed.
Check:The list of removed items is there
A plain rule. If it fails, run the step again (the n8n file does this for you).
Step 5: Read it as someone new
Read only the hand-over, as the new person would, and list everything missing or unclear.
Hands back: A table of questions a fresh reader would have, each pointing to the exact words.
No separate check on this step.
Step 6: Close the gaps
Answer each question from what you wrote about the task, and mark the ones only you can answer.
Hands back: The final hand-over, ready to give to the person, with a short list of what you still need to fill in.
No separate check on this step.

After the last step

Check:Nothing sensitive is left in
A second look by the AI. If it fails, the run stops.
Check:You checked it for private details
You check this one. If it fails, the run stops.
Check:A fresh reader could follow it
You check this one. If it fails, it is flagged for you.

What you need first

The task and how you do it(needed)
Describe the task and how you usually do it, in any order. Include where things are kept and what goes wrong. Rough is fine.
Who is taking it over(needed)
Say who it is and what they already know about the work.
Files, links or text you can include(optional)
Paste any templates, examples or lists you already have. Leave empty if there are none. Do not paste passwords.

Ways to adapt it

If the task has a risky step (money, deleting things, messaging customers), add a line to the Write step's rules that the person must check with you before that step.
To hand off a task to a team, change "who is taking it over" to describe the team and add a step that says who does what.
After the first real run, ask the person what was unclear and add the answers to the task description, then run the template again.
Keep logins and secrets out of the hand-over file. Give them in person or through your password manager.

Change this version in the Editor. Its added context stays in every prompt and the general template stays separate.

Notes for executive and admin assistants

Say whose task it is and who they report to by role (my executive, the finance team), as the notes do.
Spell out the deadlines that drive the task, such as the day the expense report is due to finance.
Log-ins, passwords, card numbers, loyalty numbers and an executive's private phone or address do not belong in a hand-off. Say who gives access and leave the rest to that person.
Preferences such as seat choice or meeting hours may stay, but mark private ones so the reader knows not to pass them on.

The scoring guide

Sample

Each template check has a criterion marked met or not met; a person must still make the handed checks. (The guides in Quality rate a whole piece of work on three levels.) Under each one is how the example run scored.

Download the scoring guide (Markdown)

Each piece is hand over, keep or decide first
A plain rule
Meets:Every piece of the task is marked hand over, keep or decide first.
Does not meet:A piece has no mark, or another word such as maybe.
Example built from the before and after:Met
The list of removed items is there
A plain rule
Meets:The line Sensitive items removed: is there, with what was taken out or the word none.
Does not meet:The line is missing, so you cannot tell whether anything was looked for.
Example built from the before and after:Met
Nothing sensitive is left in
A second look by the AI
Meets:The final hand-over has no password, login, account or card number, personal phone number, home address or private detail about a person.
Does not meet:Any of those is still in the final hand-over.
Example built from the before and after:Met
You checked it for private details
You check this one
Meets:You read the final hand-over line by line, as if it might be forwarded, and there is nothing you would not want a stranger to see.
Does not meet:You find a detail you would not want a stranger to see.
Example built from the before and after:For your read
A fresh reader could follow it
You check this one
Meets:Someone who does not know the task could do the first three steps without asking you anything.
Does not meet:A new reader would have to ask you what a step means or where something is.
Example built from the before and after:For your read

Example built from the before and after: met 3 of 3, plus 2 for your read

Learn how it works:Hand-offs Adapting a template

Practice:Diagnose and fix

How to write it:How to write a handover note

The same job as a tool:How-to guide builder

Which one fits?

Use Break a project into steps when the work has not started and you need a plan to follow, not instructions for someone taking over.
Use Remove personal information when you have a text that names people and need it cleaned before it moves on.
Use Turn meeting notes into decisions and actions when the text is a set of meeting notes and you want its decisions and actions in a table, not instructions for someone taking over.

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Write

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Last run: October 17, 2026: Example built from the before and after (sample run)
Tools and versions: Example built from the before and after
What was checked: The files, against each tool’s import format, and 1 sample run, each check’s finding recorded.
Version: 1.0
What changed: First release.

Report a problem with this template How we test

Hand off a task to someone else, for executive and admin assistants

How it runs

The same job, with and without the template

One plain prompt

With this template

What this task is

Before you start

Steps

Watch for

Stop and ask me if

Still to fill in

Runs and scores

Example built from the before and after

Use This Template

Step 1 Chat Prompt

The steps, and the check on each

Step 1: Sort the pieces

Step 2: List what to have ready

Step 3: Write the plain steps

Step 4: Sweep for sensitive information

Step 5: Read it as someone new

Step 6: Close the gaps

After the last step

What you need first

Ways to adapt it

Notes for executive and admin assistants

The scoring guide

Which one fits?

Related templates

Plan

Plan

Write