Use Sidecar as a Customer Document Package Checklist

This pattern is useful when your first question is straightforward:

What does this customer still need from us?

You can use Sidecar as a practical customer document package checklist with Customers, Requested Items, Documents, and package status. Contacts, request emails, Waiting On, tasks, platforms, and inbound email can remain unused until they solve a real problem.

This is one of Sidecar’s Common Setup Patterns. It uses the same records as the broader workflow, so the checklist can grow without being rebuilt later.

When this setup makes sense

Use this pattern when each customer has a list of documents, forms, registrations, acknowledgments, or other administrative items your team must provide or complete.

Examples include:

• Certificate of Insurance
• W-9
• Safety manual or program
• Training roster
• Drug and alcohol program
• Business license
• Customer onboarding form
• Portal registration
• Site-specific acknowledgment
• Annual recertification

The package can be small. A five-item checklist is still a real workflow when one missing item can delay onboarding, payment, site access, or customer approval.

1. Create the customer

Open Customers, select Add customer, and create the outside organization whose package you are tracking.

Use the customer record for one actual customer or account. Add a platform only when the customer requires work through a specific portal. Add notes when they help explain the relationship or unusual setup, but do not turn the notes field into a second checklist.

If you are only tracking your own organization’s internal documents, use Simple Document Expiration Tracking instead.

2. Add the requested items

Open Customer Detail and add the items the customer currently expects.

A requested item describes the obligation. It answers:

What is the customer asking us to provide or complete?

For each item, record:

• a clear title
• whether it is required or optional
• the current status
• a tracked party when the item belongs to an employee, subcontractor, crew, or company
• a note when the current situation needs explanation

Do not build a universal master package during the first setup. Start with the real items for the customer in front of you.

Use statuses honestly

Requested-item statuses include:

• Missing — the required item is not currently available or complete
• In progress — work has begun, but it is not ready for the next stage
• Ready — the item is prepared for the next step
• Submitted — it has been sent or entered for customer or platform review
• Accepted — the customer-facing review has been completed successfully according to the state your team records
• Not applicable — the item does not apply to this customer or situation

These are workflow statuses. They do not independently prove compliance, legal sufficiency, or customer approval outside the state your team records.

3. Add and link the documents

A requested item and a document are related, but they are not the same record.

The requested item answers what the customer expects. The document answers what your team currently has on file.

Create documents from Documents, then link them to the customer and the related requested item when appropriate.

For example:

Requested item	Linked document	Possible current state
Provide current COI	General Liability COI	Submitted and waiting for review
Provide W-9	Signed W-9	Accepted; no expiration date
Provide training roster	2026 Field Training Roster	Missing or In progress
Complete portal registration	No document required	Submitted

Do not create a fake document merely because every requested item feels lonely without one. Some obligations are registrations, acknowledgments, or actions rather than files.

Do not invent an expiration date for non-expiring records. A W-9 can be tracked without scheduling its annual resurrection.

4. Read package status and attention separately

Customer Detail shows the package story and the work that may need attention.

Package status describes how much of the tracked required package has moved into progress-counted statuses such as Ready, Submitted, Accepted, or Not applicable.

Attention priority considers current operational problems such as missing required work, expired documents, stale waiting, due follow-ups, and open tasks.

A package can be mostly complete and still need urgent attention because one document expired. Another package can be early in the process without needing action today because the remaining items are newly created or waiting until a future date.

Use both signals. Do not treat a percentage as a compliance or approval score.

5. Run a simple review routine

For a checklist-only setup, your routine can remain small:

1. Open Today to see whether any customer has missing or date-sensitive work requiring attention.
2. Open the customer to review package status and the active requested items.
3. Update the requested-item status when the real workflow changes.
4. Add or update a linked document when a file arrives or is replaced.
5. Confirm that the customer page and All Work tell the same current story.

You can also use Reports to review missing required items and customer package status across the workspace.

6. Add communication only when chasing begins

You do not need contacts or request email to maintain a package checklist.

Add them when the missing-item process becomes hard to reconstruct:

• Add a contact when you need a repeatable recipient.
• Send a request when you want Sidecar to record the message and establish a follow-up date.
• Use Waiting On when the next move belongs to a customer, broker, employee, platform, internal team, or another party.
• Review Activity History when the team needs proof of what changed or was sent.

See Document Requests and Follow-Ups when communication becomes the main problem.

7. Add tasks only for separate internal work

Do not create one task for every requested item.

Requested items already represent customer obligations. Create a task only when someone on your team needs a separate action with its own owner, priority, and due date.

For example:

• Requested item: Provide revised COI
• Internal task: Call broker about additional insured wording

Completing the task should not automatically imply that the customer obligation is accepted. Keep the source records honest and separate.

Importing an existing package checklist

A spreadsheet can contain customers, requested items, documents, statuses, tracked parties, and useful notes.

Use consistent customer names and distinguish requested-item rows from document rows when the workbook contains both. Sidecar’s import preview shows what it plans to create, match, preserve, or normalize before approval.

See Importing Data before approving a real package workbook.

When to expand this pattern

Expand beyond the checklist when you need to answer more than what is present or missing.

Add the surrounding workflow when you need to know:

• who has the ball
• when the next follow-up is due
• what was sent and to whom
• whether a reply arrived
• which internal user owns the next action
• which portal is involved
• what changed over time

The checklist remains the foundation. The additional features provide the operational context around it.

Next steps

Return to Common Setup Patterns to compare smaller workflows. Use Getting Started for the complete customer setup, or Daily Workflow when the package is already active and your team needs a repeatable review routine.