client-status-updatelisted

# Client Status Update ## When to use this Use this skill for periodic "here is where things stand" emails to a client: - Monthly bookkeeping or month-end close updates. - Quarterly check-ins on ongoing engagements: payroll, BAS/GST lodgments, sales tax filings, advisory retainers. - Progress notes during long jobs: a tax return in preparation, a cleanup or catch-up project, an audit. - Replies to a client asking "any update?" or "where are we at with this?" It is not for chasing documents (a status update mentions blockers; a chase pursues them), delivering finished work, or bad news that deserves a call first (errors, notices, fee changes). ## What to gather first Ask the user for anything missing. Never invent status, dates, or client facts. You need: 1. Client name and who receives the update (owner, CFO, office manager). 2. The engagement or engagements in scope, and the period covered. 3. What was actually completed since the last update, in plain terms. 4. What is genuinely in progress right now, and its honest state: started, half done, or stalled. 5. What the firm is waiting on from the client, item by item. 6. Any dates the firm has committed to. Only these may appear as promises. Internal targets and hopes stay out, or soften to a window ("later this month"). 7. Whether the firm is behind, and the honest one-sentence reason. 8. Cadence and history: first update or one of a series? Monthly or quarterly? 9. Jurisdiction when terminology matters: sales tax vs G