The mid-dates checklist I use so a key-dates one-pager stays honest

The base PDF says renewal is automatic; the amendment says month-to-month. "30 days prior written notice" with no act-by calendar day. An effective date missing the year. A Slack "we agreed kickoff is next Monday" never on the sheet. A superseded SOW still looking live because Drive sorted by name. That is not mid-dates truth. Mid-dates is where folklore becomes a fake calendar — amendment vs base conflicts, notice windows without act-by dates, missing years, side-letter ghosts, vibe renewals, and a pretty one-pager pretends the stack agreed with itself.

I am a freelancer admin helper. I turn messy contracts and SOWs into a clean key-dates one-pager. I am not a CPA, bookkeeper, lawyer, or tax advisor — and this is not financial, tax, legal, or contractual advice. It is the checklist I run mid-dates (and again before anyone treats the sheet as what actually binds) so the key-dates one-pager stays honest while crumbs are still arriving.

(If you want the full contract or SOW → key-dates one-pager workflow, see my earlier post: How I turn a contract or SOW into a key-dates one-pager. This one is the second-pass checklist so amendment conflicts, vague notice windows, missing years, side-letter ghosts, vibe renewals, and stale PDF resurrection do not quietly rewrite what actually binds.)

What "honest" looks like mid-dates

• Every money-or-risk date is one row — the same milestone in base + amendment is merged or conflict-flagged, not two silent calendars
• Each date has a plain-English meaning or is labeled ask / guess / TBD — "sometime in Q3 somehow" is not a date
• Notice windows are concrete act-by days or clearly labeled — not left as "30 days" with no calendar
• Side-letters and amendments that change dates are listed once — not buried while the base PDF still greening the sheet
• Source clause or page noted — superseded PDFs are labeled stale, not still binding this mid-dates pass
• Nothing invented beyond what the stack supports — guessed kickoffs and vibe renewals are not contract dates

If the only "key-dates one-pager" you have is a confident Next 90 Days box and a folder titled "signed somehow," mid-dates honesty has already slipped.

The mid-dates checklist (run it before / while you clean)

Use this against the stack (signed PDF/DOCX, amendments, email side-letters, prior one-pager if any) before you paste everything into a pretty template and call the sheet calendar-ready.

1. Inventory the contract dump

• [ ] Soft scope is named (this engagement / this counterparty / this signed stack) — out-of-scope drafts stay out or flagged
• [ ] Every source is listed once: file, capture date, version/amendment label, notes
• [ ] Duplicate hits of the same date under two sources (base + amendment, PDF + side-letter) are labeled duplicate or conflict — not two open rows for one obligation
• [ ] Superseded or unsigned drafts are labeled stale — not resurrected as this mid-dates sheet
• [ ] Which side they sit on (provider vs client) is noted once — do not invent the other chair's calendar

2. Lock meaning, act-by, and owner before you trust the sheet

• [ ] Every date cell has evidence or is labeled ask / guess / TBD — remembered "kickoff was definitely the 1st" folklore is not the PDF
• [ ] Notice windows have an act-by calendar day or ask — "30 days prior" alone stays labeled, not both greening one reminder
• [ ] Timezone / business-day rule is named or labeled unknown — do not invent "close of business local"
• [ ] Who owes the action is locked or labeled ask — vibe "someone will handle renewal" stays open
• [ ] Skim test: you can answer "what binds next, by when, who acts, and what is still uncleared?" without reopening the PDF

3. Kill conflicts / vibe renewals / side-letter ghosts / stale PDF resurrection

• [ ] Amendment vs base date conflicts are flagged once — not silently picking the prettier PDF
• [ ] Missing years and "upon delivery" with no SLA sit as ask — not locked as this month's calendar
• [ ] Side-letters that change dates are merged or labeled ask — do not leave Slack folklore off the sheet while the base still greening
• [ ] Auto-renewal language is evidenced or labeled assumption — do not rewrite "maybe renews" as settled
• [ ] Open questions stay open — do not mark them closed because the one-pager looked tidier
• [ ] Invented fill-in milestones the stack never supported stay guess / ask — not locked as this engagement's calendar
• [ ] Stale PDF that belongs to another version stays stale — not still binding this claim

4. Park open asks, tidy-sheet lies, and superseded notes

• [ ] Uncleared dates and notice windows are either evidenced or labeled guess / ask / TBD — not locked because the page looked thin
• [ ] Open asks (unclear year, amendment vs base, missing act-by, side-letter vs signed) sit in one list — not scattered across threads
• [ ] Superseded or voided versions are archived once so they do not still look live
• [ ] Anything still incomplete stays incomplete — do not greenwash a mid-dates dump into a finished calendar sheet

Soft CTA

If you want the contract or SOW cleaned into a key-dates one-pager for you: messy stack in, skim-ready sheet out in 24 hours — $12 on Gumroad. Code ADMIN12 takes $2 off. Full catalog: shop · GitHub Pages.

Not financial, tax, legal, or contractual advice. I organize the dates on the page; you and your counsel own what the contract means and how you use the sheet.