The mid-pipeline checklist I use so an open-proposals tracker stays honest

A Drive folder of half-named PDFs, three Slack threads titled "sent the quote," a Notion page last touched in March, and a sticky that says "follow up with Dana" are not a pipeline mid-week. Mid-pipeline is where expired quotes still look "hot," v2 and v3 both sit as live deals, and "circling" becomes a stage that never needs a next touch.

I am a freelancer admin helper. I turn messy proposal and estimate dumps into a clean open-proposals tracker. I am not a CPA, sales coach, lawyer, or CRM consultant — and this is not financial, tax, legal, or professional sales advice. It is the checklist I run mid-pipeline (and again before anyone treats the sheet as the chase list) so the tracker stays honest while quotes are still aging.

(If you want the full messy proposal dump → clean open-proposals tracker workflow, see my earlier post. This one is the second-pass checklist so stale quotes, duplicate PDFs, fake stages, and chase ghosts do not quietly rewrite what you think is still live.)

What "honest" looks like mid-pipeline

• Every live proposal has one row — not three copies of the same PDF under different names
• Status is plain English: draft / sent / negotiating / won / lost / expired — not vibes like "hot" or "circling"
• Amount, currency, and valid-until are explicit (or flagged unknown)
• Who owns the next step (you or them) is named
• Last touch and next touch dates are filled so nothing ages in silence
• You can sort "needs chase this week" without opening five apps

If the only "pipeline" you have is a sticky labeled "follow up?" mid-pipeline honesty has already slipped.

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

Use this against the dump (PDFs, Docs, email/Slack quote threads, CRM exports, screenshots, old pipeline sheets) before you paste everything into a pretty template and call the chase list done.

1. Inventory the dump (same day you open the pile)

• [ ] Every scrap is listed once: source, date seen, claim type (proposal / amount / stage / owner / date / risk), notes
• [ ] Superseded files (_final, v2, v3_really) are labeled superseded — not kept as parallel live deals
• [ ] Partial claims ("Dana said maybe," a screenshot with no amount) are labeled incomplete — not invented into tidy rows
• [ ] Hard rules they already have (quote expiry, who can discount, tax/VAT notes) are captured — blanks stay blank or flagged
• [ ] Anything clearly closed, withdrawn, or "nice someday" is labeled stay-off-open — do not resurrect as live pipeline

2. Separate live from vibe before you trust stage

• [ ] Draft = not sent yet — not "we've been talking"
• [ ] Sent has a sent date and a channel — not a fog of "I think I emailed it"
• [ ] Negotiating names what is open (price, scope, timing) and who moves next
• [ ] Won / lost / expired are explicit so closed deals do not clog the chase list
• [ ] Skim test: you can answer "what is actually still open?" without reopening every PDF

3. Lock money, validity, and next owners

• [ ] Quoted amount + currency are on the row — competing numbers from v2/v3 are resolved or flagged Needs-confirm
• [ ] Valid-until is filled when present — expired quotes are expired, not "still warm"
• [ ] Next step owner is you or them — "the client" without a name is not an owner
• [ ] Last touch and next touch dates exist — blank next-touch on a sent quote is a chase ghost
• [ ] Skim test: you know who to chase this week without reconstructing Slack

4. Catch duplicate and chase ghosts

• [ ] One canonical file or link per live proposal — competing "final" PDFs are labeled or parked
• [ ] Same client + same scope with two rows is merged or flagged duplicate — do not chase twice
• [ ] Threads titled "sent the quote" without a PDF/link are labeled artifact missing
• [ ] Sticky-only chases ("follow up with Dana") become a dated next-touch or Needs-confirm — not eternal vibes
• [ ] Skim test: sorting by next-touch shows a real week, not a graveyard of May sticky notes

5. Honesty tripwires (before you treat the sheet as chase-ready)

• [ ] You did not leave expired quotes marked Sent/Negotiating because the stage column looked empty
• [ ] Fake stages ("hot," "circling," blank) are mapped to the short status set or flagged Needs-confirm
• [ ] Amount that came from a six-month-old PDF is labeled amount unverified until confirmed — pretty columns do not renew a quote
• [ ] Incomplete sections stay Needs-confirm — not silently promoted to Sent because the sheet looked sparse
• [ ] Won/lost archive exists so closed deals are not deleted into amnesia

6. Hand-back sanity check

• [ ] Tracker answers: what is open, what stage, what amount, who moves next, when to chase — without opening the dump
• [ ] Needs-confirm / Expired / Closed views (or filters) exist so incomplete and dead items are not mixed into this week's chase
• [ ] One sentence of scope on the sheet: "open-proposals tracker — not a full CRM, contract rewrite, or sales forecast"
• [ ] Non-advice line present: not CPA / sales / legal advice; confirm amounts and status with humans before treating this as gospel
• [ ] You would be willing to run this week's chase list from this sheet without reconstructing Dana from a sticky note

What I do not do on this pass

I do not rebuild their CRM, rewrite their proposals, set discount policy, forecast revenue, or give legal/sales advice. Mid-pipeline honesty is about one trustworthy open-proposals tracker you can sort this week — not a sales ops suite in a spreadsheet.

Soft CTA

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