The week-of chase checklist I use so an open-quotes pipeline 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 Open, v2 and v7 both look chaseable, next-touch dates were vibes from last month, "the client" is still the owner name, currency fog never got resolved, a Slack "looks good" is still pretending to be Closed-won, and sticky notes titled "ping Friday somehow" quietly become the Monday plan.

I am a freelancer admin helper. I turn messy open-quote dumps into a clean sales pipeline sheet. I am not a CPA, sales coach, lawyer, or CRM consultant — and this is not financial, tax, legal, sales, or CRM 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 pipeline sheet still matches reality when the outreach starts.

This is complementary to my earlier posts — not a rewrite. For the full open quotes → sales pipeline sheet workflow, see How I turn a pile of open quotes into a sales pipeline sheet. For the mid-pipeline honesty pass while quotes are still aging, see The mid-pipeline checklist I use so an open-quotes sheet 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• Every row you plan to chase is still open — expired, won, lost, superseded, and withdrawn are off the chase list
• One canonical PDF / link per live quote — 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
• Soft "looks good" Slack stays Negotiating / Verbal + ask — not Closed-won without signature or deposit evidence
• 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 somehow?" week-of honesty has already slipped.

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

Use this against the near-final pipeline sheet and the live artifacts (quote PDFs, email/Slack 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 Open / Negotiating because the column looked empty
• [ ] Won / lost / withdrawn / superseded 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. One PDF, one chase — kill twin rows before you send

• [ ] FINAL vs FINAL_v7 (or PDF + forwarded email) for the same deal is one chase row — twin forecasts are merged or duplicate-flagged
• [ ] The link or attachment you will reference in outreach matches the canonical version on the sheet
• [ ] Voided / "ignore this one" files are off the chase list — not resurrected because the folder was messy
• [ ] Skim test: sorting by deal name shows one live chase per real opportunity

3. Lock amount, currency, and stage before you say numbers out loud

• [ ] Amount has currency and tax-in/out or is labeled Needs-confirm — do not invent "about $5k" in the follow-up
• [ ] Soft emoji / "looks good" stays Verbal or Negotiating + ask — not Closed-won without signature or deposit evidence
• [ ] Stage cells you will act on have evidence or ask/guess/TBD — remembered folklore is not the PDF
• [ ] You know which rows are chase-today vs wait-for-confirm on amount or stage
• [ ] Skim test: you could say the number and stage on a call without reopening the Drive dump

4. Owners and next touches must be real people and real dates

• [ ] Next action owner is a named person (you or someone on their side) — not "the client" or blank
• [ ] Next touch is a calendar date this week or last week — not "Friday somehow" or a May sticky
• [ ] Last touch is dated — undated "we talked" folklore is labeled Needs-confirm
• [ ] Ghost stickies titled "ping Dana" without a sheet row are parked or turned into real rows — they do not become the Monday plan alone
• [ ] Skim test: sorting by next touch shows a short list you would actually dial or email

5. Week-of honesty tripwires

• [ ] You did not invent a next action just to fill the column before Monday
• [ ] You did not promote vibe verbal-yes to Closed-won to make the forecast look healthier
• [ ] You did not leave expired quotes in Open so the pipeline looked full
• [ ] Soft scope of this chase week is named (this offer line / this book of business) — other clients' PDFs stay out or flagged
• [ ] One sentence of scope on the sheet: "open-quotes pipeline — not a full CRM, revenue forecast, or sales coaching plan"
• [ ] Non-advice line present: not CPA / legal / sales / CRM advice; confirm open deals with humans before treating this as gospel
• [ ] You would be willing to sit in the room while this exact chase list is read aloud

6. Last skim before outreach

• [ ] Sheet answers: what is still open, by when, who acts, amount/currency clear or flagged, what is off the chase list — without opening the dump
• [ ] Needs-confirm / Expired / Superseded / Closed sections (or filters) are visible — not deleted so the sheet looks tidy for the week
• [ ] You know which items are send-today vs wait-for-confirm
• [ ] Anything that should not drive a Monday email (twin PDFs, vibe closes, undated stickies, currency fog) is already off the chase view

What I do not do on this pass

I do not rebuild their CRM, rewrite their forecast model, set pricing policy, write the follow-up emails for them, or give legal/sales coaching advice. Week-of chase honesty is about one trustworthy open-quotes pipeline a human can chase from without getting lied to by expired rows, twin PDFs, vibe next-touches, missing owners, currency fog, or fake closed-won folklore — not a full sales suite in a Sheet.

Soft CTA

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