Rules of work

One page of rules, one line each, with the reason. This is what a new person is trained on and what an old hand is held to. Everything else in the handbook explains a rule here in more depth. Alex, 20 Sep 2026: "make our SOPs granular to sort each scenario, so we have a legitimate agency and when I train them it makes sense."

A. Tasks

1. Every piece of work is a task in ClickUp before it starts. If it is not in ClickUp, it did not happen and will not be paid for or counted. Because the task is how work reaches cost, the client sheet and your record.
2. You do not create deliverable tasks. The portal creates them from the invoice. If a piece you are asked to make has no task, tell the AM; do not start. Because a piece with no task has no package, and nobody can say who is paying for it.
3. One task per piece. No subtasks, ever. A second version is a Frame.io version, a step is a checklist item, a second piece is a second task. Because subtasks vanish from every count.
4. The title is the key. HOFT-B03-07 Reel The Same Home. Never rename a task. Because the key is what ties ClickUp, Frame.io, Drive and the ad together.
5. Status is the only signal. Move it when the truth changes: In progress when you start, Internal review when the first version is up, Client review when the AM sends it, Done when it is live. Never write "ready for review" as a comment. Because reviewers work from a view of statuses, not from their inbox.
6. Every task has a due date and an assignee. If yours has neither, say so to the AM the same day. Because a task without a date cannot be late, and one that cannot be late is not work.
7. Links go in fields, never in the description or a comment. Script, footage, Frame.io, references. Because the table shows fields; nobody opens a task to find a link.
8. The description is written by the portal and is not edited. A brief that changes is a change request task. Because an edited brief erases what was agreed.
9. Tick the checklist as you go. For the month tasks, the tick is the record of your time. Because nobody uses timers and the minutes have to come from somewhere true.
10. Ad hoc requests get a task in the client's Account list, CODE Ad hoc: what, with the package it belongs to or the tag unbilled. Because unbilled work must be counted before it can be priced.

B. Where to talk

1. About a version, comment on the video or design in Frame.io. Timestamped, pinned. This includes graphics: statics and carousels are reviewed on Frame.io as image assets, not as PNGs in ClickUp comments. Because a note on the pixel is the only note an editor or designer can act on without asking.
2. About a task but not the version, comment on the task, one comment, @ one person, ending in a question or a decision. Because a comment that asks nothing needs no answer and is noise.
3. About a client but no task, make the task (rule 10). Because a client channel is a folder with no structure.
4. About your day, the Standup channel, one message a day. Team questions in your team's channel. Because seven channels are enough, and none of them is for a client.
5. Anything a client must hear goes through the AM, in the client's WhatsApp group. Never from an editor, never from ClickUp. Because one voice per client.
6. Never DM Alex or Junkai about work. Put it where it lives. Because if it is not on the task, the record does not have it.

C. Files and naming

1. Frame.io: one asset per piece, named with the key only. HOFT-B03-07. Every new version is a new version on that asset. Never a second file, never v2 in a name. Upload from your own login. Because the version count is the revision count and the login is who did the work.
2. Drive: footage in Clients / CODE / Shoots / date / Raw, finals in Deliverables / KEY. Never on a desktop, never in a personal Drive. Because the laptop has filled twice and the folder is what the portal reads.
3. Ads: every ad name is generated in the portal and pasted. Never typed in Ads Manager. Because the key at the front is what lets the report say which creative did what.
4. Calendar: the client code in every client event title. HOFT Call: Hoft, HOFT Shoot: Hoft. Because that is how meeting time lands on the client.

D. Review and revisions

1. One internal review, by Nigel, within one working day of the first version. The AM covers only when Nigel is on a shoot. Nobody else comments on a v1.
2. Two client rounds included. The AM relays the client's notes as Frame.io comments in the client's words, one comment per change. Status Needs revision each time.
3. A third round is a change request task, opened by the AM, and the piece waits. Because unlimited rounds is how margin disappears without anyone deciding to give it away.
4. Alex and Junkai do not comment on videos or designs. They tell Nigel or the AM. Because one voice per round.
5. Graphics follow the same rounds as video. Version 1, internal pass, up to two client rounds, then a change request. Because design was where 25-comment tasks came from.

E. Shoots

1. A shoot exists when it is on the shoot calendar, CODE Shoot: Client, place in location, videographer as attendee. Nothing else counts as booked. Because the folders and the task are created from the event.
2. Footage is in Raw the same evening. Because the edit task's footage field points there and the editor starts tomorrow.
3. Videographer and talent are paid with the client code in the memo. Because that is how the cost lands on the shoot instead of on the agency.

F. Media buying

1. Every change to a campaign is a logged decision in the portal before or as it is made. The portal judges it at seven days. Because a change nobody recorded cannot be learned from.
2. The daily check runs in the order the health page ranks accounts. Because the worst account first is the whole job.
3. Escalations are tasks to the AM, never a message. Because the AM must know before the client.
4. Once a month, "what worked by format and angle" goes to Nigel as a checklist item on the month task. Because that is the hand-off that stops the buyer writing scripts himself.

G. Reporting

1. Monday message by 12:00, monthly deck by cycle day 3, from the Report tab. Numbers are never typed. Because a typed number is a number nobody checked.
2. Nothing goes to a client while the tab says the numbers are not trustworthy. Because the client checks Ads Manager and finds it.
3. The internal block is never sent. Because it is the unfiltered version.

H. Time, access, money

1. Nobody sees another client's folder unless assigned to it. Access follows the Team tab.
2. Passwords and card numbers never go in a task, a field or a comment. Ids only.
3. Nothing is deleted. Cancel it, archive it, close it. Alex archives; the portal never deletes anything anywhere.
4. Salaries and margins are Alex's and Junkai's. They are not in ClickUp and not in channels.

I. When this happens, do this

Training order

Day one: A, B, C. Day two: D and the person's own section (E, F or G). Rules 1, 5, 11, 17 and 19 are the five that, kept, make everything else work.

Related: every other SOP in this handbook explains one of these rules.