Check the first week before offshore work spreads.
Use this template after a provider, assistant, or offshore team starts. It turns day-one access, day-three quality patterns, and day-five scope decisions into one clear review.
This is a planning template, not legal, security, HR, tax, or compliance advice. Keep sensitive decisions with qualified owners.
Day 1 access, day 3 pattern check, day 5 keep/tighten/pause decision.
Check enough low-risk work to see repeated misses before expanding scope.
Prove one task lane before adding tools, customers, or higher-risk decisions.
Use day one, day three, and day five for different checks.
Do not wait 30 days to learn that the SOP was unclear or access was too broad. Use small checks early while the scope is still easy to fix.
Score what happened, not how busy the provider looked.
A first-week review should compare real output with the handoff. These six checks keep the conversation practical.
Access
Good: Named accounts work and MFA is active.
Fix: Tool gaps, shared logins, or broad admin rights are still unresolved.
SOP clarity
Good: The assistant can follow examples without guessing.
Fix: The same question appears twice or the finished-result example is missing.
Quality
Good: Routine output matches the sample standard.
Fix: Errors repeat across labels, fields, replies, formatting, or source links.
Speed
Good: Turnaround is realistic for the agreed hours.
Fix: The role is blocked by approvals, missing inputs, or too many task types.
Risk
Good: Money, legal, account, refund, and customer-risk work stays reviewed.
Fix: The provider is being asked to decide things that still need an owner.
Next scope
Good: One lane can repeat next week with spot checks.
Fix: More examples or a smaller scope is needed before adding work.
Send one short recap after each review point.
The recap should name what repeats, what gets fixed, and what stays blocked. That keeps the provider from guessing and gives your manager a record.
- Day-1 recap: "Access is ready for [tools]. Today we tested [sample task]. Keep [what worked]. Hold [risky action] for owner review."
- Day-3 fix note: "The same issue appeared in [number] of [sample size] items: [issue]. Update the SOP with [rule/example] before the next batch."
- Day-5 decision: "Next week, repeat [lane]. Spot-check [percentage or count]. Keep [blocked actions] with the owner until we have two clean weeks."
Use a review template because access, roles, and examples need rules.
This page uses outside references for role clarity, small-business management, and access safety. The template stays conservative and does not claim a provider outcome.
- SBA, Hire and manage employees — Use clear employee and contractor management practices before work expands.
- Atlassian Team Playbook, Roles and responsibilities — Role clarity prevents handoff confusion and duplicated ownership.
- NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Corner — Access control and account safety should be planned before sharing business tools.
- Microsoft Work Trend Index 2023 — Founder time is valuable; first-week review should reduce interruptions, not add new ones.
Connect first-week review to onboarding, access, SOPs, and proposals.
The review works best when the first-week checks use the same scope and access rules from the provider handoff.
Provider onboarding packet
Use this before day one to gather scope, tools, SOP links, access limits, and review owners.
Open resourceOffshore work sample review sheet
Score one finished sample for correctness, completeness, tone, source links, access rules, and escalation before reviewing the full week.
Open resourceOffshore access handoff checklist
Check named accounts, MFA, permission levels, blocked actions, and offboarding rules before tool access expands.
Open resourceSOP readiness checker
Make sure the first task has examples, stop points, and review rules before the provider repeats it.
Open resourceOffshore escalation matrix template
Check whether routine questions and urgent exceptions reached the right owner and backup during week one.
Open resourceProvider proposal comparison matrix
Compare provider promises before kickoff so the first-week review matches the original scope and QA owner.
Open resourceOffshore monthly review scorecard
Use this after the first month to review quality, speed, rework, access, SOP drift, and next-month scope.
Open resourceDo not expand the offshore role until the first batch is clear.
OutsourcedU can help turn early provider work into a safer next-week plan with tighter SOPs, cleaner access, and a practical review rhythm.
Ready to plan your first offshore role?
Use OutsourcedU to write the role, SOPs, onboarding steps, and weekly review before you hire more people.