Client Reporting

Reporting that answers the three questions

What happened. What is stuck. What do you need from me. The skill answers all three from the record, every period, for every client.

What the skill does for you

Four stages, one run. Period to period, the same structure.

1. 1

   Scope the period

   Exactly the period, nothing more

   • Every document in the activity set is inventoried: date, kind, author, one line summary
   • Items outside the period go to a prior period note, not the report
   • The period boundaries are confirmed before extraction

   The outcome: A report that covers exactly the period it claims to cover.

2. 2

   Extract activity and status

   Every event cited

   • Dated events, each with source citation
   • Current status, open items, next steps, and client asks from the attorney status note
   • Each item flagged complete, open, pending, at risk, or info

   The outcome: An activity base where every row can be traced to a document.

3. 3

   Build the activity log

   The review artifact

   • Activity, deadlines, open items, and client asks in one cited XLSX workbook
   • Status color coding shows what is stuck at a glance
   • A partner checking the report checks citations, not prose

   The outcome: A log that stands up to review, period after period.

4. 4

   Write the client report

   Plain language, defensible

   • What happened, what is open, what is next, what we need from the client
   • Written for a non attorney reader, with a draft for attorney review header
   • Open items carry forward into the next period automatically

   The outcome: A client report the client can read, and a firm that can defend.

A sample period, run end to end

Hargrove v. Calloway Logistics (fictional). An employment matter in active discovery. Reporting period March 9 to 20, 2026. Six documents in; the output below is real.

activity entries, each cited to a document

7activity entries, each cited to a document

deadlines tracked, with owner and status

4deadlines tracked, with owner and status

open items, each with a target date

6open items, each with a target date

item flagged at risk: Request 3 documents not produced

1item flagged at risk: Request 3 documents not produced

From the activity log (real output, abbreviated)

Hargrove v. Calloway · March 9 to 20, 2026

The client report is generated from the same fact base as the log, so the report and the log never disagree.

Built to be defensible

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