# Client Status Reporting > Produces the weekly 5-block client status report - done, next, blocked, decisions needed, budget/hours - in a 15-minute time cap, from a copy-paste template with [FILL] fields. Use when a freelancer or consultant says "client asked what they're paying for", "how do I keep clients updated", "write my weekly status update", "client keeps pinging me for progress", "they went quiet and I'm worried about the renewal", or "how do I show retainer value". Do NOT use for long-form consulting or research reports - use formatted-report-writer instead; this skill is the recurring one-page operating rhythm of an engagement. - Skill: `skillmedev/client-status-reporting` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add skillmedev/client-status-reporting` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/skillmedev/client-status-reporting/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Docs & Writing - Author: SkillMedev (https://skillmd.com/u/skillmedev) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/skillmedev/client-status-reporting --- # Client Status Reporting Clients do not churn because the work was bad; they churn because they could not see the work at all. "What am I paying for?" is never really a question - it is the announcement that invisibility has already done its damage, and by then the renewal is in doubt. The weekly status report is the cheapest retention instrument a freelancer owns: fifteen minutes that preempts check-in pings, forces decisions out of clients on a schedule, and makes the invoice feel obvious instead of debatable. In the Freelancer / Consultant OS pack, this skill takes over from client-onboarding-system at day 14 and runs for the life of the engagement. Worked example: Maya, a freelance brand designer on a $4,900/month Brand System Retainer (up to 36 hours) with a DTC hot-sauce brand. ## Operating procedure ### Step 1: Collect the inputs (once, at setup) 1. The communication contract from client-onboarding-system: channel, recipient(s), and send day. Default: same weekday every week (Friday morning or Monday morning), in the engagement's single async channel. 2. The SOW deliverables and, for retainers, the monthly hours cap - the budget block reports against these. 3. Where hours are tracked. If they are not, start now; the budget block cannot be guessed. Label any estimated figure as an estimate. ### Step 2: Write the 5-block report Five blocks, fixed order, every week. The order is deliberate: value first (done), momentum second (next), then the two blocks that transfer responsibility (blocked, decisions), and money last, where it reads as stewardship rather than alarm. 1. **DONE** - shipped this week, phrased as outcomes with links or attachments. "8 social templates delivered (link)" not "worked on templates". Never empty: a light week still produced something (research, revisions in flight, coordination) - say what and why. 2. **NEXT** - commitments for the coming week, specific enough to be checkable against next week's DONE block. This is the accountability loop that builds trust. 3. **BLOCKED** - what is waiting on the client, who owns it, since when, and what it delays. This block is the polite paper trail: when a deadline slips because assets arrived three weeks late, the record already exists in the client's own inbox, in neutral language. 4. **DECISIONS NEEDED** - each with the options, a recommendation, and a respond-by date. A decision listed without a recommendation is homework; with one, it is a 30-second reply. 5. **BUDGET / HOURS** - hours used vs. cap (retainers) or budget consumed vs. total (projects), plus any change orders in flight. Surfacing this weekly is what makes scope-creep-defense conversations easy: the 80-percent-of-hours flag lands in a block the client already reads, never as a surprise. ### Step 3: Enforce the 15-minute time cap The report must cost 15 minutes or it will not survive contact with a busy month - and a skipped report during a heavy week is maximum damage, because heavy weeks are exactly when clients most need visibility. Hitting the cap requires logging as you go: keep a running note of shipped items and blockers during the week, then assemble on send day. Writing from memory is what turns 15 minutes into 90. Hard rules: one page maximum, bullets not prose, links instead of embedded explanations, no design or formatting effort. ### Step 4: Send on schedule, even when nothing moved The report ships every week, same day, including vacation weeks (short version, sent early) and stall weeks. A missed report teaches the client the channel is unreliable, and unreliable reporting reads as unreliable work. Two consecutive weeks where DONE is genuinely thin is not a reporting problem - it is a delivery or blocking problem; if it is blockers, escalate the BLOCKED block into a direct conversation. ## Template: weekly status report ``` STATUS - [FILL: client] - week of [FILL: date] DONE - [FILL: shipped item + link] - [FILL: shipped item + link] NEXT (by [FILL: next report date]) - [FILL: specific commitment] - [FILL: specific commitment] BLOCKED - waiting on you - [FILL: item] - owner: [FILL], since [FILL: date], delays [FILL: what] (or: Nothing - all clear.) DECISIONS NEEDED - [FILL: decision]: Option A [FILL] / Option B [FILL]. My recommendation: [FILL]. Need your call by [FILL: date]. (or: None this week.) BUDGET / HOURS - [FILL: X] of [FILL: cap] hours used this month ([FILL]%). [FILL: on track / flag + proposed action]. Change orders in flight: [FILL / none]. ``` ## Worked example: Maya's week-3 report ``` STATUS - Hot Sauce Co - week of Mar 17 DONE - Packaging concept v2 for the Habanero SKU - 3 directions (Figma link) - 4 of 8 March social templates delivered (folder link) - Brand consistency audit fixes applied to Instagram grid NEXT (by Mar 24) - Remaining 4 March social templates - Packaging v2 revisions once your consolidated comments land BLOCKED - waiting on you - Product photography for the web refresh - owner: Dana, since Mar 5, delays the homepage hero mockups DECISIONS NEEDED - Habanero packaging direction: A (bold type) / B (illustrated) / C (photo-led). My recommendation: B - strongest shelf differentiation vs. the two competitors from the kickoff brief. Need your call by Mar 21 to hold the print timeline. BUDGET / HOURS - 24 of 36 hours used (67%). On track. Change orders in flight: none. ``` Ten minutes to write from her running log. The client replies "B, and chasing Dana today" - a decision extracted, a blocker cleared, and $4,900 of monthly value made visible, in one email. ## Concrete thresholds - Weekly, same weekday, every week of the engagement - no gaps. - 15-minute cap, one page maximum. - Every DECISIONS item carries a recommendation and a respond-by date. - Hours flagged in the budget block at 80 percent of cap with more than a week left (the same threshold scope-creep-defense uses). - A blocker appearing 2 weeks running escalates from the report to a direct conversation. ## Deliverable The recurring one-page 5-block report, sent on schedule - plus, at renewal time, the accumulated stack of them, which doubles as the strongest possible renewal case: a written record of everything shipped, every decision made, and every delay's true owner. ## Do NOT - Do not narrate activity ("worked on", "made progress on") - report outcomes with evidence. - Do not soften or omit the BLOCKED block to avoid seeming pushy; unsent blockers become the freelancer's fault at deadline time. - Do not list decisions without recommendations; open-ended questions stall for weeks, recommendations get same-day replies. - Do not skip the report on bad weeks; silence during a stall is when "what am I paying for?" gets composed. - Do not let the report balloon into a memo - past one page, it stops being read, and an unread report protects no one. ## Quality bar A report passes when: all five blocks are present (with explicit "none" where empty); every DONE item has a link or artifact; NEXT is checkable against the following week; each decision has a recommendation and date; the hours figure is real, not estimated - and it took no more than 15 minutes. ## Neighbors client-onboarding-system sets up the cadence and channel this report runs on. The budget block feeds scope-creep-defense its early-warning numbers. For a one-off long-form deliverable like a strategy document or audit report, use formatted-report-writer instead.