WHY?

Not too often (hopefully), we might have disagreements with clients. Scope of work, number of revisions, work sign offs … are important stages of a project. Often-wise though, a lot of things can happen during the project life-cycle and things can get forgotten about once the project started for a few weeks.

Having everything in writing, stored and available at anytime enables to smooth communication and aborts clients crisis in numerous cases.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

All our projects need to be documented as such. This is the Account Manager’s responsibility to make all the documents are collected and stored properly.

WHAT DOCUMENTS AND WHEN – External must-do’s

QUOTATION

– During the sales process, we prepare the project scope in our Google Sheet costing sheet template. Then, we carry the costing over to clients in a WorkEtc proposal.

Once approved, the quotation becomes part of the contract, pdf version is stored in:

Dropbox >> Business Documents >> “YYYYMMDD – Client name”

CONTRACTS

– Prepared once the client approves the quote. Instructions here.

– Originals to be signed and chopped when possible by the client and by Thread’s Managing Partner, and stored in our contract box in storage room.

– Scans to be stored in Dropbox >> Business Documents >> “YYYYMMDD – Client name”

– All conditions which differ from our original contract MUST be approved by Managing Partner before being sent to clients.

DEPOSIT INVOICE

– Prepare deposit invoice (and Fapiao if required) following this process

– Issued in WorkEtc and pdf in Dropbox >> Business Documents >> “YYYYMMDD – Client name”

– No project starts before we receive the deposit payment from the client (unless otherwise agreed in contract) or exception is approved in writing by Thread’s Managing Partner.

=> If we receive the payment late, the project might be delayed (see TIMELINE section).

MILESTONES INVOICES

– Prepare invoices (and fapiao if required) following this process

– Issued in WorkEtc and pdf in Dropbox >> Business Documents >> “YYYYMMDD – Client name”

=> If we receive the payment late, the next steps of the project might be delayed (see TIMELINE section).

COMPLETION INVOICES

– Prepare invoices (and fapiao if required) following this process

– Issued in WorkEtc and pdf in Dropbox >> Business Documents >> “YYYYMMDD – Client name”

– No final files/work/production files is delivered before we received the final payment (unless otherwise agreed in contract)

=> If we receive the payment late, the final delivery of the projects materials might get delayed (see TIMELINE section).

PROJECT TIMELINE

– MUST be prepared for each project and sent to the client after the Creative Brief at latest.

Ask the project leads for templates.

There are stored by version (V1, V2, …)  in Dropbox >> Business Documents >> “YYYYMMDD – Client name”

– MUST be updated after each step (feedback, validation, etc.) and stored in the same folder

CREATIVE BRIEF

– Must be typed down after the meeting and submitted to the client for written approval (email is ok) BEFORE starting any work.

The Creative Brief has about as much legal value as the Contract itself, it will be referred to at each step of the project and in case of disagreement about the scope of work.

SIGN-OFFS

– The client must sign off the work in writing (email is ok). Once the work is signed off, further updates are billable.

– The AM must store sign-offs email in her/his mail box (dedicated client folder) and be able to present it at any time.

CONTACT REPORTS

– Feedback given by client during meeting, over the phone, on Wechat or Skype needs to be summarized in an email and approved by the client by email.

– Account Managers are responsible for Contact Reports.

WHAT PROCESSES AND WHEN – Internal Must Do

– Google Costing Sheet

– Design hours – at the same time the contract is created, the AM adds a project line to our design hours planning

– Asana – at the same time the contract is created, the AM creates a project in Asana (process here)

– Harvest – at the same time the contract is created, the AM creates a project in Harvest (process here)

– Project debriefs (process here)

– [Coming soon] Client NPS (process here)