Agencies usually have a way of tracking where work is. It might be columns on a board, colours in a spreadsheet, or a status field with eleven options that three people use differently. What they rarely have is a set of stages the client understands, and so the client asks, and someone stops what they are doing to answer.
A short, shared set of stages fixes most of that. Not because clients want to look at a board, but because a stage with a clear meaning answers the two questions they actually have: is anything happening, and is anyone waiting on me?
Fewer stages, defined properly
The temptation is to model the work exactly: concept, first draft, internal review, second draft, client review one, amends, client review two. Every one of those steps is real, and a client does not need to see any of them separately. The more stages there are, the more they blur, and the less anyone trusts what a status says.
Five stages cover almost all agency work, with two more for work that stops. The names matter less than the rule behind each one: what it means to the client, who moves the work on, and what must be true before it moves.
Requested
The client has asked for something, and the agency has not yet agreed to do it. For the client, this means the request has been received and nobody has forgotten it. It does not mean work has started.
The agency moves it on, either by accepting it or declining it. Before accepting, check that the request fits the scope or has been priced, and that there is enough information to write a brief. A request that sits in this stage for a week without a reply is the one that turns into an awkward message.
Briefed
The work has been accepted and the brief is agreed. For the client, this is the point at which they know what they will get and when. For the team, it is the point at which nobody should start producing until the brief is signed off.
The account manager moves it on to the next stage once the brief is confirmed by the client and the team has been assigned. If the client is still sending references and changes, the work is not really briefed yet, however eager the team is to start.
Active
The team is making the work. For the client, this stage means the ball is in the agency's court and nothing is needed from them. That is useful for a client to know, because it tells them that silence is progress rather than neglect.
The team lead moves it on when there is something to show and it has passed the agency's own internal review. Work that goes to the client before it has been checked internally tends to come back with notes that the agency should have caught.
In review
The work is with the client for approval. This is the stage where the ball changes court, and it is the one clients most need to be able to see. Say clearly what they are reviewing, what kind of feedback is useful, and by when.
The client moves it on, by approving or by asking for changes. Changes send it back to Active, and that is normal. What matters is that each round is counted against what the brief included, so the third round is a conversation rather than a surprise.
The most useful thing a status can tell a client is whose turn it is. If the answer is theirs, they should not have to be told twice.
Delivered
The work is approved, the final files have been handed over, and the job is done. For the client, delivered should mean they have everything they need, in the formats they asked for, without having to ask for the source files separately.
The account manager marks it delivered once the client has approved and the files have gone. It is also the natural moment to raise the invoice, if the project is billed on delivery, and to record anything worth remembering for the next job.
Paused and Declined
Two more stages keep the list honest. Paused is for work that has stopped for a reason outside the agency's control: the client is waiting on legal, the launch has moved, the product is not ready. It tells the client that the work is safe and waiting, not lost, and it stops a stalled project from counting as late.
Declined is for requests the agency has said no to, whether because they are out of scope or cannot be done in the time. Keeping them visible, rather than deleting them, means both sides can see what was asked and what was answered, and the request can be reopened if things change.
One vocabulary, inside and outside
The stages only work if the agency uses the same words internally as it does with the client. An internal board with its own labels, translated into client language in a weekly email, is two systems, and they drift apart within a month.
- Write a one-line definition of each stage and share it with the client at onboarding.
- Name who moves each stage on, so work never waits for someone who does not know it is their job.
- Move work on evidence, such as a signed-off brief or an approval, not on a feeling that it is nearly there.
- Keep the client's view current, or they will go back to asking.
Where the stages live
A stage the client cannot see does not stop the chasing messages. The simplest fix is to show the client their work in the same place they send requests and approve drafts. Wiro's projects run on these stages: a request from the client portal arrives as Requested, accepting it moves it to Briefed and tells the client work has started, and a review link lets them approve without a login. Whatever the tool, the aim is a status the client can read without asking.
