The week-of chase checklist I use so an open-proposals tracker still matches reality

Mid-pipeline honesty is necessary. Week-of chase is different. The morning you decide "I will follow up this week" is when expired quotes still sit in Sent, v2 and v3 both look chaseable, next-touch dates were vibes from last month, "the client" is still the owner name, currency or amount fog never got resolved, and sticky notes titled "ping Dana" quietly become the Monday plan.

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 the week I am about to chase (the final pass before anyone spends calendar time on follow-ups) so the tracker still matches reality when the outreach starts.

This is complementary to my earlier posts — not a rewrite. For the full messy dump → tracker workflow, see How I turn a messy proposal and estimate dump into a clean open-proposals tracker. For the mid-pipeline honesty pass while quotes are still aging, see The mid-pipeline checklist I use so an open-proposals tracker stays honest. This third pass is the week-of chase check: mid-pipeline honesty is not enough once you are about to spend real follow-up time.

What "matches reality" looks like week-of

• Every row you plan to chase is still open — expired, won, lost, and withdrawn are off the chase list
• One canonical PDF / link per live proposal — you are not about to email about two versions of the same deal
• Amount + currency + valid-until are explicit or flagged Needs-confirm before you mention numbers
• Next step owner is a real name (you or a named person on their side) — not "the client"
• Last touch and next touch are dated this week or last week — not May sticky fog
• You can sort "chase this week" and get a short list you would actually send from

If the only chase plan you have is a sticky labeled "follow up?" week-of honesty has already slipped.

The week-of chase checklist (run it before Monday outreach)

Use this against the near-final tracker and the live artifacts (PDFs, email/Slack quote threads, Drive) before anyone treats the sheet as this week's chase calendar.

1. Pull expired and closed off the chase list

• [ ] Valid-until in the past is expired — not still Sent / Negotiating because the column looked empty
• [ ] Won / lost / withdrawn rows are archived or filtered out of "needs chase this week"
• [ ] Soft "they went quiet" deals still have a status — silence is not automatically still-hot
• [ ] Quotes you already replaced with a newer version are labeled superseded — do not chase the old PDF
• [ ] Skim test: every row left on the chase list is something you would still defend as open today

2. Kill twin PDFs before you email twice

• [ ] Same client + same scope has one live row — competing final / v2 / v3_really files are labeled or parked
• [ ] Thread titled "sent the quote" points at the canonical file — not three attachments with different totals
• [ ] Amount conflicts across versions are resolved or flagged Needs-confirm — do not pick a number mid-DM
• [ ] Duplicate CRM / sheet rows for one deal are merged — chasing twice looks sloppy and burns trust
• [ ] Skim test: if they reply "which quote?" you already know the answer from the sheet

3. Replace vibe next-touches with dated ones

• [ ] Next-touch dates that were "sometime" or blank are filled with a real day this week or the row is parked
• [ ] Last-touch older than your own chase policy is flagged stale — not left as "still warm"
• [ ] Sticky-only chases ("ping Dana") become a dated next-touch + channel or Needs-confirm
• [ ] "Circling" / "hot" without a next action is mapped to Sent / Negotiating + a concrete step — vibes are not a plan
• [ ] Skim test: sorting by next-touch shows a week you can actually work, not a graveyard of May notes

4. Name owners and money before you say them out loud

• [ ] Next-step owner is you or a named person on their side — "the client" / "them" is not an owner
• [ ] Quoted amount + currency are on the row you will reference — fog stays Needs-confirm until confirmed
• [ ] Discount / tax / payment-term notes from the PDF are captured if you might discuss them — blanks stay blank
• [ ] Anything you are not willing to say on a call is flagged Needs-confirm — pretty columns do not invent certainty
• [ ] Skim test: you could draft the follow-up from the row without reopening five apps

5. Pre-chase honesty tripwires

• [ ] You did not leave expired quotes on the Monday list because the sheet looked sparse
• [ ] You did not invent a next-touch just to fill the column before a status meeting
• [ ] Incomplete rows stay Needs-confirm — not silently promoted to "chase now"
• [ ] Closed / won / lost archive still exists so you do not re-open amnesia as pipeline
• [ ] One sentence of scope on the sheet: "open-proposals tracker — not a CRM, sales forecast, or commission system"
• [ ] Non-advice line present: not CPA / sales / legal advice; confirm status with humans before treating this as gospel
• [ ] You would be willing to spend your Monday on this shortlist as written

6. Last skim before the first follow-up

• [ ] Chase list answers: who, what PDF, what amount/currency (or flagged), valid-until, who moves next, when you last touched — without reconstructing Slack
• [ ] Needs-confirm items are visible — not deleted so the sheet looks tidy for the standup
• [ ] You know which rows are you-chase vs wait-on-them this week
• [ ] Anything that should not get a ping (expired, superseded, lost) is already off the list

What I do not do on this pass

I do not write sales scripts, set discount policy, forecast revenue, rebuild their CRM, or give legal/tax advice. Week-of chase honesty is about one trustworthy shortlist before you spend follow-up time — not a sales operating system in a spreadsheet.

Soft CTA

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