FREELANCE CLIENT OFFBOARDING CHECKLIST Complete 18-Item Wrap-Up Checklist for Every Project Close SoloStack | solostack.madethis.app/resources/freelance-client-offboarding ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HOW TO USE THIS CHECKLIST Work through each phase in order at project close. Check off each item before moving to the next phase. The Notes column is for project-specific details. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 1: FINAL DELIVERABLE HANDOFF ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [ ] 1. Confirm all files have been delivered Notes: _______________________________________________ Checklist against original project scope / contract SOW. Every deliverable accounted for before moving on. [ ] 2. Verify correct formats and client has access Notes: _______________________________________________ Shared drive link? Export formats confirmed (PDF, PNG, editable)? Client can open/access everything without needing you. [ ] 3. Final proofread or QA pass completed Notes: _______________________________________________ One last pass before handing off. Spelling, links, formatting, functionality — whatever applies to your deliverable type. [ ] 4. Delivery confirmation email sent Notes: _______________________________________________ Summary of what was delivered, where to find it, any notes they need. Sent same day as delivery. (See Email Template 1.) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 2: FINANCIAL CLOSE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [ ] 5. Final invoice sent on same day as delivery Notes: Invoice # _____ | Amount: $_______ Invoice timing = peak client satisfaction = fastest payment. Never wait more than 24 hours after delivery. [ ] 6. Outstanding balance confirmed against contract Notes: _______________________________________________ Deposit paid: $_______ | Remaining: $_______ No surprises on the final invoice — everything per the agreement. [ ] 7. Deposit or retainer reconciled Notes: _______________________________________________ Any prepaid retainer hours used/unused accounted for. Credit or refund noted if applicable. [ ] 8. Payment received before removing access or transferring final files Notes: Payment received: [ ] Yes | Date: _______________ Hold source files, admin access, or final assets until full payment clears. Professional standard, not aggressive. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 3: RELATIONSHIP CLOSE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [ ] 9. Thank-you note sent Notes: _______________________________________________ Genuine, specific to this project. Not a form letter. One thing you appreciated about working with them. (Day 3 email.) [ ] 10. Testimonial requested Notes: Response received: [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Pending Ask at peak satisfaction — Day 3 after delivery, not weeks later. Make it easy: reply to email or a short Google Form link. Scripts in the free download: freelance-offboarding-email-templates.txt [ ] 11. Case study permission asked Notes: Permission granted: [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] With anonymization "Would you be okay with me sharing the results from this project (with your name / anonymously) as a case study?" [ ] 12. Referral conversation had Notes: _______________________________________________ "Do you know anyone else who could use this kind of help?" Natural at project close. Easy to ask, easy to say yes to. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 4: KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [ ] 13. Credentials and account access handed off Notes: _______________________________________________ Passwords, admin rights, login details transferred securely. Use a password manager share link or a secure transfer tool. [ ] 14. Documentation provided Notes: _______________________________________________ How the deliverable works. What they should do next. Any maintenance notes or instructions they'll need without you. [ ] 15. Transition call offered Notes: Call scheduled: [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Not needed For complex handoffs — offer a 30-min call to walk through the deliverable. Most clients appreciate the offer even if they don't take it. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PHASE 5: ADMIN CLOSE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [ ] 16. Project folder archived with final versions clearly labeled Notes: Archive location: _________________________________ Naming convention: [Client]_[Project]_[Date]_FINAL Keep organized. You may need to reference this later. [ ] 17. Contract marked complete in your records Notes: _______________________________________________ Note completion date, any outstanding items, payment status. Good records = protection if a dispute arises later. [ ] 18. Client added to CRM or contact list for follow-up Notes: Follow-up date set: ___________________________ Tag for 90-day check-in. Happy clients who hear from you periodically are far more likely to re-hire and refer. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PROJECT CLOSE SUMMARY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Client name: _________________________________________________ Project name: ________________________________________________ Delivery date: _______________________________________________ Invoice #: ______________________ Amount: $_________________ Payment date: ________________________________________________ Testimonial: [ ] Received | [ ] Requested, pending | [ ] Not asked Case study: [ ] Approved | [ ] Anonymous only | [ ] Not approved Referral conversation: [ ] Had | [ ] Skipped 90-day follow-up date: _______________________________________ Notes: _______________________________________________________ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RELATED FREE DOWNLOADS FROM SOLOSTACK ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ → freelance-offboarding-email-templates.txt All 3 email templates + 2 bonus difficult-client templates → freelance-project-close-sop.txt Full SOP with Day 0/3/7/30 timeline and admin process More free resources: solostack.madethis.app/resources Full template library: solostack.madethis.app/products