Weekly Status Report Template and AI Prompt Builder
Answer a few questions about your firm and get a weekly status report template built around Status, Capacity, Fires and Upcoming, plus the AI prompts that write it from your time data each week. Free, no sign-up.
Example weekly status report
Sample numbers for a nine-person design agency on fixed fees. Rendered with the same template as the tool above.
Weekly status report · Week of Oct 6 · Prepared by Mac (ops) · For: Leadership
Status
| Client | Project | Hours last week | vs prior week | Right work? / note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acme Co | Brand refresh | 46h | +9h | Mostly revisions, not the planned pages |
| Northwind | Website rebuild | 58h | +2h | Yes, on plan |
| Bluebird Health | Content retainer | 19h | -6h | Yes, two posts shipped |
Capacity
| Person | Hours tracked | Available hours | Utilization % | Room next week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam (design) | 47h | 40h | 118% | No |
| Priya (dev) | 38h | 40h | 95% | Yes, about 4h |
| Jordan (content) | 26h | 40h | 65% | Yes, about 12h |
Fires
| Client | Hours used (month to date) | Hours the fee covers | Over / under | Likely cause | Small requests | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acme Co | 46h used of the 40h the fee covers | 40 | +6h (15% over) | Revisions outside the brief | Eleven this month | Flag to the client this week; batch revisions to Fridays |
| Northwind | 58h | 60 | -2h | — | Two | None |
| Bluebird Health | 19h | 25 | -6h | Waiting on client approvals | None | Chase approvals Monday |
Upcoming
| Deliverable | Client | Due | Owner | Hours needed | At risk? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkout flow | Northwind | Fri | Priya | 16h | Yes, Priya is near capacity |
| Q4 social calendar | Bluebird Health | Wed | Jordan | 6h | No |
| Fall campaign kickoff | Acme Co | Next Mon | Sam | 8h | Yes, Sam is over capacity |
Actions
- Call Acme about the revision volume before the fee renews.
- Move the Fall campaign kickoff design work from Sam to Jordan.
- Chase Bluebird approvals so the retainer hours get used.
How to write a weekly status report
Start with the questions, pull the time, lead with numbers, show the trend, and end with the decisions you need. The template above follows the same five steps.
- 1
Decide the questions
Pick the three to five things you need to know every week, grouped under Status, Capacity, Fires and Upcoming. Everything else is noise.
- 2
Pull last week's time
By client, project and person. Automatic tracking makes this a query; timesheets make it a chase.
- 3
Numbers first, notes second
Fill each table with the hours, then add a one-line note only where the number needs explaining.
- 4
Compare to the week before
A number without a trend is trivia. Show the change so readers see what is moving.
- 5
End with decisions
One to three actions, each with an owner. If the report does not change a decision, it is too long.
Why weekly status reports go stale
A weekly report is only as good as the time data under it. Timesheets filled in once a week are 47 percent accurate; daily logging reaches 66 percent (Accelo, Time IS Money). Billable utilization at professional-services firms fell to 66.4 percent in 2025, the lowest on record (SPI Research, 2026 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark). Reports built on guessed hours hide exactly the over-servicing and overload they are meant to surface.
Sources: Accelo, Time IS Money and SPI Research, 2026 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark.
From the Rize workshop
This template and its prompts come from the Team Visibility Playbook, the takeaway from our workshop on seeing where your team's time goes without timesheets or surveillance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Four sections. Status: where time went, per client and project, against last week. Capacity: who is over-allocated and who has room. Fires: clients using more hours than the fee or budget covers, work running long, and small requests adding up. Upcoming: what lands next week and where you will be short. End with one to three actions and keep it readable in two minutes.
Decide the three to five questions you need answered every week. Pull last week's time by client, project and person. Fill each section with numbers first and a one-line note second. Compare to the week before. Finish with the decisions you need. An AI assistant can draft it from your time data if you give it the context prompt and the report prompt on this page.
A header with the week, who prepared it and who it is for. One short table per section. A closing list of actions. Lead with numbers, not prose, and use the same format every week so readers can compare.
Lead with outcomes and risks, not activity. Show hours against fee or budget for the clients that matter. Flag anything at risk next week, and ask for the one decision you need. Keep individual names out of it unless the reader manages those people.
Yes, if it has accurate time data and context about your firm. Paste the agent context prompt once, then run the weekly report prompt with your time export. With Rize, time is captured automatically and the report can run on a schedule as a routine.
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