For web design agencies
Ship the site, then keep the relationship
Build projects are finite and clients are not. The money is in what happens after launch, and that only works if the client can see what they are paying for each month.
The problem
What actually slows you down
Not the work itself — the administration around it.
- Every project stalls on client feedback
- Not because they are difficult, but because 'waiting on you' lives in an email thread nobody owns. Put it on the board with a due date and the client can see it in their portal — the nudge stops being your job.
- Scope creeps in conversation, not in writing
- Requests that arrive by text become tasks with a project and an owner, so 'while you're in there' is visible as extra work rather than absorbed silently.
- Every build repeats the same twenty steps
- Write the build once as an SOP with its checklist, then start it for each new project. Nobody rebuilds the launch checklist from memory, and nothing gets skipped because it was a Friday.
- Handover is a folder of links in an email
- Documents, credentials handover and deliverables sit against the client record, so the next person on the account finds them without asking.
- Retainers feel invisible after month two
- A portal showing uptime work, updates shipped and tickets closed makes the retainer legible. Silence is what gets a maintenance plan cancelled.
What you get
The parts that matter for this work
Project boards
Kanban per project with owners and dates, rolled up per client so you can see the whole book at once.
SOPs as task templates
Your build and launch process, written once and started per project in a click.
Support desk
Post-launch requests become tickets with priority and SLA tracking, not texts at 9pm.
Documents
Proposals, contracts and deliverables attached to the client instead of an email thread.
Website monitoring
Every client site watched by real-traffic heartbeat and 15-minute checks, with alerts when one goes down.
Invoices in the portal
The client sees what has been billed and what is outstanding where they see everything else.
In practice
From signed proposal to maintenance retainer
The build is the easy half. This is the rest of it.
- 1
Onboarding link
Get WordPress, hosting, domain, Google Analytics, Tag Manager and Search Console access in one link — your own steps for the platforms with no API, and never a password.
- 2
Start the build SOP
The project appears with every step already on it — discovery, design, build, QA, launch checks — assigned and dated.
- 3
Client sees progress
They watch the board move in their portal, and approvals are tasks with their name on them rather than unanswered emails.
- 4
Launch and hand over
Deliverables and credentials go to the client record. The handover is a place, not a message.
- 5
Roll into a retainer
The support desk takes requests, the portal shows what you did this month, and the invoice sits beside it.
Make the retainer visible
Set up your workspace, put one live project on a board, and give that client a login.