How to run a weekly business review: a practical checklist

Quick version: same time every week, 30 minutes, the people who run each part of the business. Look at five things in order: overdue and stuck work, what's waiting on others, customers, jobs and projects, and next week. Every item ends with an owner and a date, or a decision not to do it. Nobody reads out what they've been doing.

Most weekly review checklists you'll find are about the books: reconciling the bank, chasing invoices, checking cash. That matters, but it doesn't tell you whether the work is on track. This guide is about the other weekly review — the operational one, where you find out what's late, what's stuck and what's coming before a customer tells you.

It takes about 30 minutes, and it replaces a good deal of chasing during the rest of the week. It's one of the simplest ways to spot work that's slipping while it's still easy to fix.

Who's in it

In a business of five to fifty people, keep it small: the owner, plus whoever is responsible for each main area — sales, operations, the office, a project lead. Two to five people is usually right. Anyone else can see the result on the shared list afterwards.

Pick a fixed time and protect it. Monday morning works if you want to plan the week; Friday afternoon works if you want to finish the week clean. The best slot is the one you won't cancel.

Before the meeting: five minutes each

The review only works if there's one shared list of jobs and it's up to date. (If you don't have that yet, start with our guide to task management for small teams.) Before you meet, each person spends five minutes on their own jobs:

• mark anything finished as done;
• update any dates that have changed;
• mark anything waiting on someone else as "waiting", with a check-back date;
• flag anything they're stuck on.

This is what stops the meeting turning into a round of status updates.

The 30-minute agenda

Go through these in order. The times are a guide, not a rule; if one section needs longer, take it from the last one.

1. Overdue and stuck (10 minutes). What's past its date? For each one: is it stuck, or was the date wrong? If it's stuck, what would move it, and who'll do that by when? If the date was wrong, set a real one.

2. Waiting on others (5 minutes). What's waiting on a customer, a supplier or a colleague? Has anything been waiting longer than it should? Who will chase it, and when?

3. Customers (5 minutes). New enquiries that nobody has picked up. Quotes that are out and not followed up. Live customers with no next step. Each of these is a customer who might be waiting to hear from you.

4. Jobs and projects (5 minutes). Is any job or project stage running longer than planned? Is anything about to start with nobody scheduled to do it?

5. Next week (5 minutes). What's due next week that we aren't ready for? Who's away? Is anyone overloaded while someone else has room?

The checklist

Copy this checklist — run through it every week, in this order:
☐ What's overdue, and is it stuck or just badly dated?
☐ What's waiting on someone else, and when do we check back?
☐ Which enquiries, quotes or customers have no next step?
☐ Which jobs or project stages are running over?
☐ What's due next week that we aren't ready for?
☐ Does every action from today have one owner and one date?

Decisions, not updates

The most common way a weekly review fails is that it becomes a status meeting: everyone takes a turn to say what they've been working on. That's what the shared list is for. If the list is up to date, nobody needs to say it out loud.

Use the time for the things the list can't settle on its own:

• what to do about something stuck;
• what to drop or delay when there's too much;
• who takes a job that nobody owns;
• what to tell a customer when a date is going to slip.

A simple rule keeps it on track: every item ends with an owner and a date, or a decision not to do it. "Let's keep an eye on it" isn't an outcome.

After the meeting

Put every action on the shared list straight away, with its owner and its date — not in separate meeting notes that nobody opens again. If a decision affects a customer or a job, note it with that customer or job, so the next person to pick it up can see why.

That's the whole follow-up. Next week's review starts from the list, and anything agreed this week either got done or shows up as overdue.

Common problems

• It runs long. Usually because people are giving updates. Bring it back to the five sections and the rule above.
• The owner does all the talking. Ask each area lead to bring their own overdue and stuck items. You'll hear about problems sooner.
• Nothing changes afterwards. Actions weren't written down with an owner and a date. Fix that first.
• It gets cancelled when you're busy. That's when you need it most. Do a 15-minute version instead: overdue, waiting, next week.

Questions

How long should a weekly review take?

About 30 minutes for a small business, plus five minutes' preparation each. If it regularly runs much longer, it's probably turning into a status meeting. If it takes five minutes, either things are going very well or the list isn't up to date.

Is this the same as a weekly team check-in?

Not quite. A short team check-in looks at the shared list: what's overdue, what's waiting, what's coming up. Our guide to stopping chasing for updates covers that. The weekly business review adds customers, jobs and projects, and the week ahead, and it's where decisions get made.

What if we skip a week?

Don't try to catch up on two weeks at once. Run the next one as normal; the overdue section will pick up anything that slipped.