Client Intake Checklist

The account lead records the day-to-day client contact — name, title, decision-making authority, and preferred communication channel. Note any additional approvers (CMO, brand director, procurement) so the approval routing isn't a surprise at SOW signature.

Capture the legal entity name (not just the brand), billing address, AP contact, and any vendor-onboarding portal the client uses (Coupa, Ariba, SAP). Procurement portals can take 2-4 weeks to clear and block first invoice if started late.

Create the client and project codes in the agency-management system (Workamajig, Advantage, Function Point, or equivalent) so timekeeping can start on day one. Skipping this means hours land in a misc bucket and reconciliation is painful.

Project-based, retainer, AOR, or pitch/RFP all flow differently through legal, finance, and resourcing. Misclassifying a retainer as a one-off project means scope creep absorbed without a change order three months in.

List every deliverable with channel, format, and quantity — not 'social content' but '12 statics for IG feed, 4 reels, 8 stories per month.' Vague scope is the single biggest source of unbilled hours and red projects.

Tie the engagement to measurable outcomes — ROAS target, brand-lift percentage, share of search, qualified leads. 'Build awareness' is not a KPI; '20% lift in unaided awareness in target DMA per brand-lift study' is.

Anchor against any hard external dates — campaign launch, retail window, earnings call, trade show. Build backwards through production, picture lock, client review rounds, and CD walk-through to confirm the schedule is achievable.

Pharma (FDA fair balance, ISI), alcohol, tobacco/cannabis, gambling, financial services (SEC/FINRA pre-approval), and under-13 audiences (COPPA) all carry category-specific review workflows. Flagging at intake — not at first creative round — keeps legal in the loop early.

Loop in outside or in-house regulatory counsel before concepting starts. Document the client-side med/legal/regulatory (MLR) review process, expected turnaround per round, and any submission requirements (FDA Form 2253 for pharma DTC).

If the engagement involves tracking pixels, audience targeting, email/SMS, or EU/CA traffic, confirm CCPA/GDPR/CAN-SPAM/TCPA obligations with the client's privacy team. Verify cookie consent platform is live before any pixel fires.

Master Services Agreement covers IP assignment, indemnification, insurance, confidentiality, and termination. For existing clients, confirm the MSA is current and hasn't expired. New MSAs typically take 2-4 weeks of legal back-and-forth — don't block kickoff on it; use a short-form letter of authorization if needed.

SOW references the MSA and details deliverables, fees, pass-throughs, mark-up, payment terms, and change-order threshold. Set the change-order trigger explicitly (e.g., any scope change over $5K or 20 hours requires written CO) — this is what protects the project from creep.

Mutual NDA with the client; separate IP-assignment + NDA from any freelancer or subcontractor before they touch the work. A freelancer claiming rights to delivered work is a problem that's far cheaper to prevent than to litigate.

Submit W-9, COI (general liability, errors & omissions, workers' comp), banking details, and any DEI/supplier diversity certifications in the client's procurement portal (Coupa, Ariba, SAP Fieldglass). First invoice is blocked until this clears.

Account lead, strategist, CD, project manager, producer (if production is in scope), and media lead named with allocations confirmed in Float / Forecast. Resourcing conflicts surfaced now are manageable; surfaced at kickoff are not.

Set up the client folder structure in the DAM (Bynder, Brandfolder, Frame.io for video review), grant access to client stakeholders, and load existing brand assets — logo lockups, brand book, tone-of-voice doc, prior campaign assets. Stale logo on a DAM is how off-brand collateral ships.

Walk the team through the brief, KPIs, scope, timeline, regulatory flags, and approval routing before any client-facing kickoff. Include a quick reminder on time-tracking codes and the change-order threshold so creep is caught at the source.

Lock the client kickoff meeting and a recurring status cadence (typically weekly for active projects, biweekly for retainers). Confirm reporting frequency for KPIs — monthly performance deck, quarterly business review — so reporting expectations don't drift.