An agency client approval and deliverables tracker

Ask any agency producer what slows projects down and you will hear the same answer: waiting on client feedback, then finding out the feedback came from the wrong person, about the wrong version, after the deadline moved. The work itself is rarely the bottleneck. The approval loop is. And because approvals are scattered across email threads, chat messages, comments on files and calls nobody wrote up, the agency often cannot prove what was approved when a dispute comes.

A deliverables and client approval tracker gives every piece of work one record, one status and one clear approval history. This guide covers what the current way costs, what the tracker should contain, a plain-words request you can hand to FORGE, a rollout plan, mistakes to avoid and how to measure the result. It is written for agency owners, account directors, producers and project managers in creative, marketing, web, video and PR agencies.

What the current way costs you

• Approval by inbox archaeology. "I approved that on the 12th" leads to twenty minutes of searching through threads with five people copied.
• The wrong version gets approved. A client signs off an older file while the team has moved on, and the final goes out with old copy.
• Late surprises from unnamed stakeholders. The client's legal team or a senior executive sees the work for the first time at launch and asks for changes.
• Unlimited revision rounds by default. Without a count, round five feels like round two, and the hours never get billed.
• Producers chase feedback by hand. Every follow-up email is one more thing to remember.
• No studio-wide view. The owner cannot see which clients are behind on feedback, which teams are overloaded, or which deliverables will miss their date.
• Project tools that do not fit agency approvals. General project management tools track tasks well, but approvals by named client stakeholders, version by version, often end up bolted on with comments and custom fields that nobody keeps up to date.

What the tracker should contain

Roles

• Account lead or account manager: owns the client relationship, scope and change orders.
• Producer or project manager: creates deliverables, sets due dates, routes reviews, chases feedback.
• Creative or team member: uploads versions, sees feedback, marks work ready for review.
• Internal reviewer: creative director or senior lead who signs off before the client sees anything.
• Client approver: a named person at the client who can approve or request changes on their company's deliverables only.
• Client viewer: a client contact who can see and comment but not approve.
• Owner or admin: all clients, reports and settings.

Records

• Client: name, account lead, contacts with their approval rights, statement of work reference, included revision rounds by deliverable type.
• Project or campaign: client, name, start and end date, budget or fee, team.
• Deliverable: project, type (for example, homepage design, social set, video cut, press release, brochure), owner, internal reviewer, required client approvers, due date for internal review, due date for client feedback, final due date, current version, revision round count, status.
• Version: number, file or link, date uploaded, uploaded by, notes on what changed.
• Review record: version, reviewer, decision (Approved, Approved with minor changes, Changes requested), comments, date and time.
• Statuses: Not started, In progress, Internal review, Changes from internal review, Sent to client, Client changes requested, Approved, Delivered, On hold, Cancelled.

Rules worth building in

• Internal before external. A version cannot go to the client until the internal reviewer approves it.
• Named approvers only. Only people listed as approvers for that client can approve. Viewers can comment but their comments do not count as approval.
• All required approvers. When a deliverable needs sign-off from several people, such as marketing and legal, it is not approved until all have approved the same version.
• Version lock. An approval applies to one version. Uploading a new version resets approval.
• Round counting. Each client changes request increases the round count. Going past the included rounds alerts the account lead.
• Feedback deadline. When client feedback is late, the producer and account lead are told, and the final due date is flagged at risk.

Screens

1. Studio board: every active deliverable by status and due date, filterable by client, team, owner and type.
2. Client view: what a client approver sees: items waiting on them, with the current version, a clear Approve or Request changes choice and a comment box.
3. Deliverable detail: versions, review history, comments and round count.
4. My work: each team member's deliverables and what is next.
5. Waiting on client: everything sent out and not answered, oldest first.
6. Reports: on-time delivery, average client feedback time, rounds per deliverable type, deliverables over included rounds.

Notifications

• Client approvers: a new version is ready for review, with a reminder after the number of days in your agreement.
• Producers: client approved or requested changes, feedback overdue, round limit passed.
• Team members: internal feedback arrived, deliverable approved.
• Account leads: a weekly summary of their clients, and an immediate alert on scope overages.

Making feedback useful, not just fast

A tracker speeds up approvals, but it can also improve the quality of the feedback you get, which is what really cuts revision rounds.

• Ask specific questions with each version. Let the producer add two or three questions when sending a version to the client, such as "Is the headline tone right?" or "Do the product shots match your launch?" Approvers answer them before choosing an outcome.
• One consolidated response per round. When several client approvers are involved, ask one lead approver to consolidate comments, so the team is not reconciling conflicting notes.
• Separate must-change from nice-to-have. Let clients mark each comment as required or optional. Teams can then deliver what matters within the round.
• Show what changed. Every new version carries a short note of what was changed in response to which comment, so the client reviews the change, not the whole piece again.
• Close the round clearly. A version is either approved or sent back. Avoid a third state where nobody knows who holds the ball.

Example request

Example request: "Build a deliverables and approval tracker for our agency. Each client has an account lead, a list of contacts marked as approver or viewer, and the number of revision rounds included for each deliverable type in their contract. Producers create deliverables with a type, owner, internal reviewer, required client approvers and due dates. Team members upload versions with a short note. Every version goes to the internal reviewer first. Once approved internally, it goes to the client's approvers, who log in and see only their company's work, and choose Approve or Request changes with comments. If two approvers are required, both must approve the same version. A new version resets approval. Count each client changes request as a round, and alert the account lead when a deliverable goes past its included rounds. Remind client approvers after two business days and tell the producer when feedback is three days late. Keep a permanent history of who approved which version and when. Give producers a studio board by status and due date, and give the owner a monthly report of on-time delivery, average client feedback time and rounds by deliverable type and client."

Comparing the options

Rollout plan

1. Write down your approval rules. Who approves what internally, how clients name their approvers, how many rounds each deliverable type includes.
2. Update your statements of work going forward to name client approvers and rounds, if they do not already.
3. Pick one client team with steady volume and a client contact who will try it.
4. Load their active deliverables and invite their approvers.
5. Tell the client why. Frame it as faster turnarounds and fewer missed comments, not as policing.
6. Run for one month and review: what slowed reviews down, what clients asked about.
7. Roll out client by client, starting new clients in the tracker from day one.
8. Bring the round report into account reviews and renewal conversations.

Mistakes to avoid

• Letting approvals stay in email. If an approval arrives by email, the account manager records it in the tracker that day.
• Too many statuses. People should know at a glance whether the ball is with the team or the client.
• Inviting every client contact as an approver. Approval rights belong to a few named people.
• Counting rounds without telling the client. Show the round count in the client view so the change order conversation is not a surprise.
• Skipping internal review when rushed. Rushed work is when internal review matters most.
• Showing internal notes to clients. Keep internal comments, hours and costs out of the client view.

How to measure that it works

• On-time delivery rate by client and deliverable type.
• Average client feedback time, and which clients are consistently slow.
• Rounds per deliverable by type, and the share that go over the included number.
• Change orders raised for out-of-scope rounds.
• Approval disputes, which should disappear.
• Producer time spent chasing feedback, reported by the producers themselves.

Checklist before you build

1. Define deliverable types and included rounds for each.
2. Decide internal review rules.
3. List each client's approvers and viewers.
4. Choose your statuses and what each means.
5. Set reminder timing for clients and alerts for producers.
6. Decide what clients can and cannot see.
7. Choose the pilot client team.
8. Update your contract template to name approvers and rounds.

How FORGE handles it

With FORGE, your producer or operations lead describes the tracker in plain words, like the example above. A panel of top AI models plans it, a dedicated AI crew builds it, and every piece is checked for quality and security before it is saved. Most teams have their first real tool the same day, and it works on desktop, tablet and phone, so a client can approve from wherever they are.

Every app lives inside your company, and people join only by invite, including the client approvers you invite, who see only what their role allows. People who only use the app are free, so inviting a client's whole review team never adds a bill. FORGE keeps a complete record of who did what. When a client needs a new approval step, describe it; a change costs a small fraction of a build and only counts when something actually changes.

It is $49 a seat a month for each person who builds, with 3 builds included. Our team onboards every agency starting with a workflow workshop. Talk to us and bring the email thread you never want to search again.

Questions people ask