Capture the original request
Record what the client asked for, where it arrived, who asked, the related project, any files, and the requested date. Acknowledge receipt without promising delivery before review.
How to keep track of client requests from intake to completion
Capture, qualify, route, prioritize, approve, and close client requests without letting email, chat, or meetings become hidden task lists.
The problem is usually disconnected context.
- Requests arrive through email, chat, calls, forms, and casual meeting comments.
- The client thinks a request is accepted while the team thinks it is only being considered.
- Urgent work jumps the queue without a visible tradeoff or approval.
- Completed requests disappear without a clear response or relationship history.
Build one path from request to reliable outcome.
Qualify before committing
Clarify the desired outcome, urgency, dependencies, acceptance criteria, and whether the request fits existing scope. Separate missing information from a rejected request.
Route the decision
Send in-scope work to the delivery owner. Route scope, budget, schedule, legal, or risk exceptions to the accountable decision maker. Define a fallback when the normal owner is unavailable.
Close with an explicit outcome
Mark the request completed, declined, deferred, withdrawn, or converted to a change. Tell the client what happened, preserve the decision, and connect any resulting work or invoice impact.
Keep the model stable as the team grows.
Solo
Use one queue and a daily decision window so incoming messages do not continuously interrupt delivery.
Small team
A relationship owner qualifies requests, then assigns approved work to the right teammate.
Larger team
Rules route by client, service, department, risk, and amount, with delegation, escalation, and bulk triage.
Common questions, answered plainly.
Should every client message become a task?
No. Messages can contain questions, context, feedback, decisions, and requests. Create work only after the request has a clear outcome, owner, and scope decision.
How should urgent requests be handled?
Record who declared the urgency, what deadline or consequence exists, which planned work will move, and who approved the tradeoff.
What request statuses are useful?
A practical set is received, needs clarification, under review, accepted, scheduled, in progress, waiting on client, completed, declined, deferred, withdrawn, and converted to change.
Keep the client, work, decisions, and money connected.
Start with one active relationship and build the complete path around it.
Start free