Creative Agency

Run every retainer and project the same way, without a project manager.

For small creative, branding and marketing agencies running 5-40 active projects.

What this fixes

• Every project starts from a blank document and takes two days to scope → A standard scope, proposal and change-order flow for every project
• Scope creep is discovered late and eaten the margin → A live delivery tracker the client can see
• Clients ask for status updates that should be automatic → Automated weekly status reports that replace status-chasing calls
• The team never knows which retainer client is actually at risk → A retainer health score per client

The flow it implements

1. Lead — SOP, checklist and templates included
2. Discovery — SOP, checklist and templates included
3. Proposal — SOP, checklist and templates included
4. Contract — SOP, checklist and templates included
5. Onboarding — SOP, checklist and templates included
6. Production — SOP, checklist and templates included
7. Review — SOP, checklist and templates included
8. Retainer renewal — SOP, checklist and templates included

The numbers you track

Metric	Definition	Formula
Margin %	Gross margin per project	(project fees - delivery cost) / project fees
On-time delivery %	Projects delivered by the promised date	on_time_deliveries / total_projects
Scope variance %	How much extra work was done vs signed scope	(actual hours - scoped hours) / scoped hours
Retainer health score	Risk level of a retainer client	client_pulse_score + payment_timeliness_score + engagement_score

What's in the download

Setup takes 15 minutes

1. Import pipeline-tracker.csv into Google Sheets and delete the example rows.
2. Copy the three documents you send most often and replace the {{placeholders}}.
3. Import tasks.csv as your checklist, then add your first real client.

Questions