The week-of chase checklist I use so an open-PO tracker still matches what is open to receive

Mid-open honesty is necessary. Week-of chase is different. The morning you decide "I will chase vendors / escalate / treat this sheet as this week's open-to-receive list" is when last week's as-of is still sitting on the header, the open rule quietly drifted between tabs, a partial receipt still looks like the full ordered qty, a cancelled PO is still in the chase filter, the same vendor+PO is still summed twice, a guessed ETA is still locked as promised, a missing PO # still looks tidy, and a raw Slack dump quietly hitchhiking into the share.

I am a freelancer admin helper. I turn messy purchase-order dumps into a clean open-PO tracker. I am not a CPA, bookkeeper, lawyer, or tax advisor — and this is not financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice. It is the checklist I run the week I am about to treat the sheet as this week's open-to-receive truth (the final pass before anyone emails a vendor, escalates a late line, or hands the open list to a buyer) so as-of/open-rule drift, partial-qty theater, duplicate and cancelled ghosts, guessed ETAs, and missing PO numbers do not become the chase story.

This is complementary to my earlier posts — not a rewrite. For the full messy purchase-order dump → clean open-PO tracker workflow, see How I turn a messy purchase order dump into a clean open-PO tracker. For the mid-open honesty pass while dumps are still arriving, see The mid-open checklist I use so an open-PO tracker stays honest. This third pass is the week-of chase check: mid-open honesty is not enough once someone else will treat the sheet as done.

What "honest enough to chase" looks like

• Open filter shows real qty/amount still open to receive — not theater, duplicates, or POs already received/cancelled
• Open / partial / received / cancelled / ask are still separated — nothing looks chaseable that is still unclear
• Every complete-looking row has a source (PO PDF, buyer sheet, receiving note, vendor confirmation) — "I remember it" is not a source
• Each open remainder has a vendor + PO # (or explicit ask) + as-of from a named open rule — orphan labels do not ship as ready
• Missing PO numbers, guessed ETAs, and unknown vendors are visible and named — not silently deleted so the sheet looks tidy
• As-of date and open rule that matter are named on the sheet — older closed noise stays out or flagged
• Raw dump artifacts (CSV leftovers, unfinished notes, named complainers) are out of the share view
• You can answer "what is still open to receive this as-of, by vendor?" without reconstructing six PDFs and a warehouse thread

If the only chase plan you have is a sticky labeled "blast the open column," week-of chase honesty has already slipped.

The week-of chase checklist (run it before anyone hits send / call / escalate)

Use this against the near-final open-PO tracker and the live artifacts (PO PDFs, buyer spreadsheets, vendor confirmations, receiving notes, warehouse Slack, prior open-PO exports) before anyone treats the sheet as this week's open-to-receive truth.

1. Kill as-of drift and open-rule drift before the sheet leaves

• [ ] One as-of date sits at the top — not three conflicting "as of" notes in different tabs
• [ ] One open rule sits next to it (not fully received / not fully invoiced / both) — not three conflicting definitions
• [ ] Open remainders are recalculated from that rule vs that as-of — not copied from last week's export
• [ ] Everything still showing "still open" when receiving notes say otherwise is labeled open-rule drift until recalc
• [ ] Skim test: you can answer "open means what, as of when?" without opening Slack

2. Separate open / partial / received from chase-ready before anyone trusts Open

• [ ] Status is open / partial / received / cancelled / invoiced / ask — not mood words or a single Open checkbox for everything
• [ ] Partial rows name ordered qty/amount, received/billed-to-date, and remaining open — "partial" alone is not a balance
• [ ] Everything still showing full open qty when receiving notes say otherwise is labeled partial-qty theater until recalc
• [ ] Received-not-invoiced stays separable from open-to-receive when the buyer's rule cares — not one Open filter that lies about both
• [ ] Skim test: you can answer "what is actually still open to receive this as-of?" without reconstructing six exports

3. Lock sources, duplicates, and cancelled ghosts

• [ ] Each open remainder has a source note (which PDF, which buyer sheet, which receiving note) — orphan amounts without a source are Needs-confirm
• [ ] Duplicate paste across PDF batch + buyer sheet + email confirmation is one row or one labeled duplicate — not two open commitments
• [ ] Cancelled or fully received POs are flipped off Open — not left green because the PDF is still in the dump
• [ ] Currency mixes are labeled — do not silently sum USD + "local" into one open total
• [ ] Skim test: sorting by PO # shows one open line per PO, not a museum of doubles and cancelled ghosts

4. Catch guessed ETAs and missing PO numbers before anyone chases

• [ ] Expected dates filled from "usually two weeks" folklore are labeled guessed — not locked as promised ETAs
• [ ] Missing PO numbers sit as ask with what is missing — not invented to tidy the sheet
• [ ] Vendor name drift (Acme LLC / ACME / Acme Supplies) is normalized with aliases in notes — not three ghost vendors
• [ ] Threads titled "quick chase note" without a usable open qty are labeled artifact thin
• [ ] Skim test: missing-ref / guessed filter shows real gaps, not theater

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

• [ ] You did not promote vibes to "all open" because the Open column looked empty of red
• [ ] Cancelled / fully received lines buried in a wall of chat paste are lifted — not left under a chase headline
• [ ] Incomplete sections stay Needs-confirm — not silently promoted to "ready" because the sheet looked sparse
• [ ] Raw dump artifacts (unfinished CSV paste, named complainers, draft notes) are out of the share view
• [ ] Skim test: a stranger can answer "what is still open to receive this as-of, by vendor?" from the sheet alone

Soft CTA

If you have a messy purchase-order dump and want a clean open-PO tracker in 24 hours: posheet on Gumroad ($12). Code ADMIN12 for $2 off. Full shop: brittanybonds.gumroad.com. Catalog mirror: brittany-bonds.github.io.

Not a CPA. Not financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice — just admin cleanup so the open-to-receive story matches what is actually still open.