How to Keep Clients Updated During a Project
By Boksit Editorial Team ·
Customers rarely complain about the standard of work halfway through a job. They complain about not knowing what is happening. Communication is the part of the service they can judge from day one, and it costs far less to get right than remedial work does.
Agree the rhythm at the start
Set expectations before the first day: how often you will update them, by what method, and who they should contact with questions. A weekly update on a defined day is easier to keep than a promise to "keep in touch".
Say what silence means, too. "You won't hear from me on Wednesday because we're waiting on the plasterer" prevents the assumption that nothing is happening.
What a good progress update contains
- What has been completed since the last update.
- What is happening next, and when.
- Anything waiting on the customer: a decision, a delivery, access.
- Anything waiting on a third party, named honestly.
- A photograph or two, especially of work that will be covered up.
Make the money position visible
Payment surprises damage relationships more than delays do. Keeping the revised total, payments received and outstanding balance visible alongside progress means the final invoice confirms something the customer already knows.
This matters most where extras have been approved along the way. See the guide on tracking project payments for the figures worth maintaining.
Keep approved changes in one narrative
Changes agreed in week two are often forgotten by week six. Keeping approved Additional Works attached to the project — visible with their descriptions, prices and approval dates — means the customer can re-read what they agreed instead of relying on memory.
Share documents rather than resend them
Certificates, manuals, drawings, RAMS and PDFs get lost in email threads. A single place the customer can return to is more useful than five attachments sent on different days, and it reduces the "can you send that again?" messages after handover.
Use a project report at milestones
A project report pulls progress, financial position and approved changes into one document. Sent at a milestone or at completion, it gives the customer a clear summary and gives you a record of what the position was on that date.
How Boksit helps
Boksit lets you send progress updates from the Project, share a secure Client Portal showing progress, payments, approved Additional Works and documents, and produce branded Project Reports from the same figures. Because updates come from the Project record rather than being written from scratch, the effort is measured in minutes rather than evenings.
Frequently asked questions
- How often should I update a customer during a job?
- Weekly suits most projects running over several weeks, with additional updates whenever something changes the programme or the price. Agree the frequency at the start.
- What is a client portal?
- It is a secure page the customer can open to see the current position of their job — progress, payments, approved changes and shared documents — without needing to ask you for an update.
- Do clients need an account to view updates in Boksit?
- No. Client-facing links are secure tokenised links that open in a browser, and they are never indexed by search engines.