Client Status Reporting

---
name: client-status-reporting
description: 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.
---

# 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.