The difference is that “hand over” is a verb and “handover” is a noun. To be precise, “hand over” is a phrasal verb and “handover” is a compound noun.
So we say: He handed over the money on Saturday.
And: The handover took place on Saturday.
There are many of these in English, and they are particularly popular in business writing. Here are a few more:
| Verb | Noun |
| break out buy out follow up pay back print out sell down sell off spin off start up take away take off take over turn over |
breakout buyout follow-up payback printout selldown / sell-down sell-off spin-off startup / start-up takeaway takeoff / take-off takeover turnover |
Note that some compound nouns are written as one word, and some have a hyphen (and some may be written both ways). Phrasal verbs are always two (or more) words.
Common Mistakes in Business English 
Very helpful. Gracias!!!
I would have expected to see also the adjective form. Something like “the hand-over procedure”
Thanks Hans. As an adjective, I think “hand-over” and “handover” are both acceptable. However, if the hyphen is not necessary in the compound noun I would tend to avoid using it in the adjective.
But in “handover procedure”, “handover” is hardly an adjective. Isn’t “handover procedure” itself a compound noun? Just like “football player” where “football” isn’t an adjective either.
In the phrase “the procedure is complex”, it is clear that “complex” is an adjective. But the phrase “the procedure is handover” doesn’t make any sense because “handover” is not an adjective, neither in “the procedure is handover” nor in “handover procedure”.
In phrases like “handover procedure” and “football player” the words “handover” and “football” are attributive nouns. See the post in this blog entitled “The difference between Shareholders’ meeting and Shareholders meeting”.
Finally some real help ! thumbs up for great explanation !!!
Very good explanation , really helpful