Three tabs that matter most on the day something is disputed.
Notes
What was said and decided. The things that normally live in somebody’s memory and a WhatsApp thread.
- The decision the client made on a call, and when.
- Why the scope changed.
- What was agreed about a deadline that moved.
- Anything you would otherwise say “I’m sure we told them” about.
Write the note on the day, in one sentence, naming who said it. A note written a fortnight later is a reconstruction, and it reads like one when it matters.
Files
The brief, the approved designs, the signed sign-off, the client’s own material. They go in the document store and are attached to the project, so anybody who opens the project finds them without knowing which folder anybody used.
The two worth being disciplined about:
- The brief or scope you were given. Every argument about what was included comes back to it.
- The approval at each milestone. An email saying “yes, go ahead” is worth keeping.
History
What changed on the project, when, and who changed it — the status, the dates, the budget, the owner.
The usual use is not suspicion. It is answering “when did this become due in October, because I remember September” without anybody having to be right from memory.
Three notes worth writing on every project
| When | Note |
|---|---|
| At the start | What was agreed, in one paragraph — scope, price, dates. Even though it is in the quotation. |
| When anything changes | What changed, who asked, and whether it affects price or date. |
| At the end | How it actually went. What you would quote differently next time. |
The third is the one everybody skips and the one that makes the next quotation better.
Why history matters more on projects
Projects run for months and involve people who were not there at the start. “When did the deadline become October?” and “who changed the budget?” are ordinary questions, and answering them from memory is how disagreements start.
When a date or a budget moves, change it and write a note saying why. The history records that it changed; only the note records the reason, and the reason is what you will need.
Where to go next
Something missing or wrong here? Tell us. A question that needed asking usually means a page that needed writing.