You will run a full quarterly review and set the actions for the next three months.
Everything in this course has led here. You have a base-pay system, a tax and MediSave pot, a CPF decision, a records folder, a structure decision, a cover map, a rate sheet, a checklist and a calendar. Each one works on its own. The quarterly review is what keeps them working together, and the first one is the hardest, because you are doing it for the first time. This project walks you through it. Allow about fifty minutes.
Run a full quarterly review using your checklist from lesson 8.1. Record the status of each item, update any figures that have moved, choose up to three actions for the next quarter with a date for each, and book your next review before you finish.
Gather your materials first: your checklist, bank statements for the quarter, your income and expense spreadsheet, your pot balances, your set-aside worksheet from lesson 2.4, your cover map and your rate sheet. Having them open before you start keeps the review to an hour.
Then work through the checklist item by item. For each check, write the status: a number, a yes or no, or a short note. Do not stop to fix things as you go. A review that turns into a working session on the first problem it finds rarely reaches the last item, and the last item might be the one that matters.
Next, update the figures that have moved. Three are worth checking every time. Your set-aside percentage: rerun the worksheet from lesson 2.4 with the income you actually received, and change the percentage if it no longer holds. Your base pay: hold, cut or raise, based on the holding account trend, as in lesson 8.2. Your voluntary CPF plan: if this is the review where you planned to contribute, check that the buffer and pot are funded first, as in lesson 3.4.
Then choose your actions. Look over everything you noted and pick no more than three actions for the coming quarter. Three is a limit on purpose. A review that ends with twelve actions usually ends with none of them done. Each action needs a specific task and a date. "Sort out insurance" is not an action. "Book a meeting with a licensed adviser about disability income cover by 15 February" is.
Finally, book the next review in your calendar before you close your laptop. If it is not booked, the next one tends to slip, and then the one after that.
Here is Mei's first review, from the October after her third quarter, with all figures made up for the example.
Income: she invoiced S$16,400 in the quarter against S$16,500 in the same quarter last year, roughly level. She received S$13,800. Overdue invoices stood at S$4,800, up from S$1,200 in March.
Pots: the holding account was at S$11,600 against her target of S$13,800, and had been falling for two quarters. The tax and MediSave pot was on track when she reran her worksheet, so her 11% held.
Base pay: cut, from S$2,300 to S$2,200, because the holding account had been falling for two quarters and was below target. S$2,200 still covered her essential spending.
Records: her folder was up to date apart from September's receipts, which she noted to file the next morning.
Cover: her laptop was still uninsured, and with deadlines now closer together, a week without it would cost her more than when she drew up her cover map. Her other gaps were unchanged.
Pricing: her effective rate on the quarter's projects was S$78 an hour, above her floor of S$57 but below her target of S$85, mostly because one project ran over its revision limit.
Her three actions were: call both late-paying agency clients and agree milestone payments for new work, by 20 October; add a revision limit to her standard contract and rate sheet, by 31 October; and get a quote for equipment cover, by 30 November. She booked her next review for the second week of January.
A completed review fits on one page. It has your checklist with a status against every item, your updated set-aside percentage, base pay and CPF plan, three actions each with a date, and your next review date already in the calendar.
Keep each review in your records folder. By the end of the year, four pages show you how the business moved, and your annual review starts from them rather than from memory.
Pick a quiet hour this week, open your checklist and your statements, and run the review from the first item to the last.
Complete the review, write three dated actions, and book the next quarterly review in your calendar.
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