The main failure mode for consultants is smaller clients getting no attention in a week when a larger one demands more. Aftertone makes this visible quickly — through the weekly report and the Planning view — and easy to correct before it becomes a problem.

One project per client

Create a separate project in Aftertone for each active client engagement. Keep the names consistent with how you refer to the client internally so Auto Project Tagging can assign tasks correctly as they come in. This structure makes the Planning view immediately useful: one column per client — full visibility of where each engagement stands.

Use Smart Capture for client emails and briefs

Client work generates a lot of text. Long emails, detailed briefs, feedback documents, call notes. Paste any of these into the Smart Capture panel and Aftertone extracts the action items, assigns them to the right client project, and adds them to your inbox. This saves the 10 to 15 minutes of manual task creation that often happens after a client call and removes the risk of missing something.

Track billable time through time blocks

Every time block you create in Aftertone for a client task is logged in your Google Calendar with the project name. At the end of the week, your calendar is a reasonably accurate record of where your time went by client. This is not a replacement for proper time tracking software, but it gives you a quick sanity check before you submit a timesheet and often catches gaps you would otherwise miss.

Set a minimum weekly commitment per client

At the start of each week, make sure every active client has at least one time block scheduled before you fill the rest of your calendar with other work. It is easy for smaller or quieter clients to get no attention in a week when a larger client is demanding more time. A single committed block per client prevents that from happening by default.

Use task notes for client context

Before a client call or deliverable, add a task note with the relevant background — what was agreed last time, what the client cares about most, what questions you need to answer. You will arrive prepared instead of scrambling.

👉 Try it now — Create one project in Aftertone for each active client engagement right now. Then make sure every active client has at least one task scheduled for this week.

Separating billable from non-billable

Create a Business Development project and an Admin project alongside your client projects. Time you spend on proposals, relationship building, and internal admin shows up separately in the weekly report, making it easy to see the real split between client work and overhead each week.

Task note template for client calls

Before every client call, add a note to the prep task with four fields: What we agreed last time / Next steps from them / Next steps from me / Budget or scope note. You arrive prepared and you have a record of every commitment made.

When a client suddenly needs more

Open the Planning view and look across all client columns. Identify which tasks for other clients can defer to next week without causing a problem. Use the P key to move them. Make sure every other active client still has at least one block remaining in the week before you reassign time.