The fractional client checklist
Everything to have in place before day one with a new client, and what it costs you when you skip it.
Nothing here is theory. It is the list of things that, when they are missing, show up two months later as an awkward call about scope, an invoice nobody approved, or a renewal you did not see coming. Five parts, 31 items, one line each.
1. Before you sign
Most of the pain later in an engagement traces back to something that was never written down here.
- The outcome the client is buying, in one sentence they would repeatIf you cannot say it, neither can they, and renewal becomes a debate about activity.
- Monthly fee and what it coversVague fees turn every extra request into an awkward conversation.
- Hours included per month, and what happens past themWithout a number, the overage is invisible until you resent the client.
- What is explicitly out of scopeScope creep rarely arrives as a big ask. It arrives as five small ones.
- Who approves work and who only has opinionsTwo approvers means everything gets revisited.
- Start date, term length and notice periodA month of unpaid wind-down costs more than the contract review did.
- Invoice day, payment terms and the billing contactLate payment is usually a missing email address, not a cash problem.
Parts two through five cover week one, keeping the work moving, proving value, and renewals and exits.