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From Orcadia Design

Your business is changing hands. Its online accounts should too.

When a business is sold, the website, domain, email and social media often belong to the wrong person, or to nobody at all. We sort that out before completion, quietly and properly.
Start a free health checkGet a quote

Free and private

Start with a free health check

Enter your website address and we’ll check your domain name, website and email from the outside, using public records only.

Free and private. We only look at public records, and it takes about 15 seconds.

What goes missing when a business is sold

None of this shows up on the balance sheet, and most of it only comes to light after completion, when it’s hardest to fix.

  • The domain name is in someone else’s name

    A former employee, the web designer, a relative who set it up years ago. It doesn’t go with the business unless someone moves it.

  • Nobody has the website login

    The person who built the site has moved on, and the password went with them.

  • The email stops working

    Email runs on the domain. If the domain lapses, or moves badly, messages bounce and customers think you’ve closed.

  • The Facebook page belongs to a person

    Business pages are run from someone’s own profile. If that person leaves, the page can go with them.

  • Subscriptions keep billing the old owner

    Hosting, booking systems and email plans renew on the old card, then stop when it’s cancelled.

  • The Google listing can’t be claimed

    The listing customers see on Google Maps is owned by an account nobody can find.

How the handover works

  1. Health check

    We look at your domain, website and email from the outside and tell you plainly what needs doing.

  2. Untangle

    We find the business’s accounts, who controls each one, what it costs and when it renews.

  3. Handover

    We move everything that can be transferred, help the new owner set up what can’t, and give both sides a written record for the solicitors.
How it works in detail

An example

Plain answers, most important first

Every result says what we found, why it matters and what to do about it. Each one is marked Urgent, Needs attention, All clear or Couldn’t check, with its own symbol, so it reads clearly on screen and on paper.

Save your results as a PDF to share with your solicitor or broker.

Health check result

harbourbakery.co.uk

Checked on 4 November 2026

1 urgent item and 1 thing to look at before the sale. We couldn’t check 1 thing from outside. The handover questionnaire covers it.

  • 1Urgent
  • 1Needs attention
  • 1All clear
  • 1Couldn’t check
  • Urgent

    Your domain name expires in 12 days

    If it lapses, your website and email stop working.

    What to do: Renew it now, and agree with the buyer who will hold it after the sale.

  • Needs attention

    Email protection is only partly set up

    One of three settings that stop other people sending email in your name is missing. Buyers’ advisers often ask about it.

    What to do: A quick fix. We can do it for you, or show your web person what to change.

  • All clear

    Website security certificate is valid

    Your site loads securely and the certificate renews automatically.
  • Couldn’t check

    Who controls your social media accounts

    We can’t see this from outside. The handover questionnaire asks who controls them.

Who we help

Selling

Business owners

Hand over the business’s online accounts cleanly, with a written record of what moved where.

Buying

New owners

Make sure you end up with every login, listing and subscription you’re paying for, in your own name.

Advising

Solicitors, brokers and accountants

A clear list of your client’s online accounts, and someone to deal with them, so they don’t delay completion.
Johanna Pieterman

Who you’ll deal with

A safe pair of hands

The Digital Handover is run by Johanna Pieterman of Orcadia Design, which has been building and looking after websites for small businesses from Orkney since 2002. You deal with Johanna from your first message to the final handover.

Advising on a sale?

Solicitors and brokers can refer a client online in two minutes. We report back to you as well as them.

For solicitors and brokers