🕰️ Est. Time: 10 minutes

🎯 Goal: Think about how to structure jobs effectively to improve visibility, efficiency, and consistency within your agency

🔑 Requirements: Access to view and edit jobs

Jobs act as the foundation of your workflow, helping you organise and track work from initial briefing to completion.

🔑 At what stage does a job need to exist in your workflow?

Do you need visibility at the opportunity stage, the briefing stage, or only once work is confirmed? Consider how early visibility impacts forecasting, resource planning and collaboration.

🔑 How will your team know which template to use when creating a job?

Should templates be categorised by project type, client, or department? Do you need any guidelines to help choose the right template?

🔑 When would you create a job from scratch instead of using a template?

Are there cases where templates don't fit, such as highly customised work? Is it important to use standardised wording and prices to ensure consistency? Do you need a checklist to avoid missing key details?

➕ Do new jobs require sign-off before work begins?

Who needs to be involved in that process? How will sign-off be documented and communicated?

➕ Should newly opened jobs be paused until the quote has been approved?

Is there a risk of work starting before financials are agreed? Would pausing jobs until approval helps prevent scope creep?

🔑 What do job statuses mean in your workflow?

Should statuses follow a standard process across teams? How will the team ensure statuses are consistently updated and reflect real-time progress? Who is responsible for updating job statuses, and at what stage should they change?

🔑 Do you need to link jobs together to either track key metrics or progress over a set time period?

Are there ongoing projects, retainers, or phased work that need to be grouped? What insights or reports should be available across linked jobs?

🔑 What do you need to track or report on across projects?

Should jobs be categorised by type, department, or stage? Are there key filters or dashboards needed to surface the right insights?

➕ Do you need to add a placeholder budget to your job until a quote is approved?

Would estimating early-stage costs help with forecasting and approvals? How will placeholders be updated once a quote is confirmed?

➕ What essential details does your team need easy access to for this job? Does the team need quick access to the brief, approvals, key contacts, or external links? Should these details be stored within the job for easy reference?

🔑 At what stage will you add key dates to your job? What triggers the need to add dates?

Do dates get set when a job is confirmed, at the briefing stage, or after planning work? Should key dates be flexible or locked once agreed?

➕ Do you need to account for internal milestones, client deadlines, or approval stages when setting dates?

Should different stakeholders be responsible for tracking different types of dates? How will you ensure deadlines are visible and communicated?

➕ How do you manage shifting deadlines? If one deliverable moves, how does it impact others?

Should dependencies be used to auto-adjust timelines? How will teams be notified when deadlines change?

🔑 Do you price work based on effort (time), deliverables (items), or fixed project fees?

Does pricing need to be flexible depending on the client or project? Are there standard pricing structures in place?

➕ Will you plan time against roles or individuals?

Is it more effective to allocate time at a role level first, then refine by individual later? How will capacity be managed?

➕ At what point do you need to start scheduling in the work for this job?

Does work need to be scheduled as soon as the job is opened, or only after approval? Should the job be paused until this step is completed?

🔑 How do you manage project scope changes, including adjustments to time, budget, and overtime?

Consider how you track and handle changes to scope, such as unused or overused time on a retainer, or overtime being logged. Do you absorb these within the retainer, or pass them back to the client? When do you classify additional work as going beyond the agreed-upon scope?

What are the key trends you need to monitor across jobs? Should different teams or roles have their own reporting views?

Below are some of the mostly commonly used views.

➕ How do you track new jobs created each week?

Do you need a high-level overview of all jobs or do you need to filter these by teams, clients or services? Do you need these sorted by status, job number, or creation date? How often should these be reviewed?

🔑 How do you monitor jobs in progress and their current status?

Do you need an overview of all jobs in progress, or do you need to filter by team, client, or job type? Do you track progress based on status updates, assigned team members, or deadlines? How often should this be reviewed, and who needs visibility?

🔑 How do you compare actual time spent vs. budgeted time?

Do you want to look at this in real-time or at set time periods? Should this be broken down by job, team, or individuals?

🔑 How do you track jobs approaching key deadlines or at risk of exceeding their budget?

Do you need quick visibility on jobs due this week or overdue? Should these be prioritised based on urgency, team, or client? Do you need to know when a job reaches a certain percentage of its budget (e.g. 80% variance)? Should tracking be based on time, costs, or both?

➕ How do you track and manage your retainer jobs?

Do you need to monitor hours used vs. remaining within the retainer? Should this be tracked monthly, quarterly, or per project? Do you need to distinguish between different services or deliverables within the retainer?