Client approval log template (Excel): what to track and a free download

"Can you show me where I approved that?" is a question most freelancers cannot answer quickly. The approval is real, but it is buried in a chat thread from six weeks ago, mixed in with three other conversations. A client approval log fixes this: one spreadsheet, one row per approval, impossible to misplace.

This article covers what the log should contain, how to set it up in fifteen minutes, and where to get a free template.

What is a client approval log?

It is a simple spreadsheet that records, for each deliverable you send a client:

• what was sent, and which version
• who it was sent to
• when it was sent
• whether it was approved, rejected, or sent back with changes
• the date of the approval
• a link or note pointing to the evidence (an email, a message, a signed form)

That is the whole idea. No software to learn, no new habit beyond filling one row after each exchange.

Why a spreadsheet beats your inbox

Email and chat are built for conversation, not for records. A thread with forty messages buries the one sentence that matters: "Yes, this looks good, go ahead." Searching for it later costs time, and if the client disputes it, "it's in there somewhere" is not a strong position.

A log separates the record from the conversation. You still approve things over email or Slack, as normal, but you also copy the outcome into one row. When a question comes up later, you open one file instead of three apps.

The columns to include

If you are building your own, start with these:

1. Date sent — when you delivered the item for review.
2. Project / deliverable — a short name plus a version number (v1, v2, final).
3. Sent to — the person who needs to approve, by name. Useful when a client has several stakeholders.
4. Channel — email, Slack, a client portal, a call followed by a written recap.
5. Status — a dropdown: Approved / Changes requested / No response yet. A dropdown is faster to fill and easier to scan than free text.
6. Approval date — when the "yes" actually arrived, which is often days after you sent the work.
7. Evidence link — a link to the email, message or exported chat that backs up the status.
8. Notes — anything a plain "approved" does not capture, such as a verbal yes you still need in writing.

Color-coding the status column (green for approved, amber for changes requested, red for no response) makes the whole log scannable in a few seconds, which matters when a project has thirty rows.

A simple five-minute setup

1. Open a blank spreadsheet. Add the eight columns above as headers.
2. Freeze the header row, so it stays visible as the log grows.
3. Turn the status column into a dropdown with three options.
4. Add filters to every column, so you can pull up "everything pending from this client" in one click.
5. Put one example row in, filled out completely, so you remember the format next time you add a real one.

This takes about as long as writing one client email. The payoff is every future dispute resolved in under a minute.

What to do when a client approves verbally

Verbal approval ("yes, looks great, we'll get started") is common and almost never enough on its own. The fix is not to refuse verbal approvals, it is to convert them to writing immediately:

Great, thanks for the quick call. To confirm for my records: you're approving [deliverable] as discussed, and I'll proceed on that basis. Let me know if I've got anything wrong.

Log the date of the call, link the follow-up message as evidence, and mark the row approved. The client rarely objects to a short recap, and you now have something to point to.

When the log earns its keep

The log pays for itself the first time a client says "I never approved that" and you can answer in one sentence, with a date and a link, instead of scrolling through old messages while the conversation gets tense. It also helps internally: if someone else on your team picks up a project, the log tells them exactly where things stand without a handover call.

Get the template, free

Building the columns above from scratch takes fifteen minutes, which is fine if you enjoy spreadsheets. If you would rather start from something ready-made, the free LITE version of the Client Approval Log gives you the Approvals sheet pre-built in Excel, with example rows, plus ten client messages for requesting and confirming approvals. The full $9 kit adds a revisions tracker, a scope sheet, a dashboard with formulas, and 50 messages in total: Client Approval Log LITE (free).