How to build a client project timeline, counting business days

A project timeline is a promise with dates on it, and the easiest promise to break is one made in calendar days. This guide shows how to build one in business days with client review written in as its own step. It is part of the time and projects hub; once the dates are agreed, a Kanban board for client projects tracks the daily work.

What you need first

• The deliverables, from the proposal or statement of work.
• An estimate per deliverable in hours, then converted to business days at the hours you really spend on this client per day.
• The number of review rounds and how many business days the client has for each.
• The holidays your client observes, and your own days off.

If you don't have hour estimates yet, estimating how long a project will take walks through task-by-task and three-point estimates. Convert hours to days honestly: if this client gets about 5 focused hours a day from you, a 20-hour build is 4 business days, not 2.5.

Steps to build the timeline

1. Fix the end that matters: a launch date the client gave you, or the earliest start you can offer.
2. List phases in order, each with its owner: you or the client.
3. Give every phase a length in business days, including each client review round.
4. Lay the phases on a calendar, skipping weekends and the holidays you listed.
5. Mark the dates you need inputs from the client: content, access, feedback.
6. Add one rule about delays, then put the table in the proposal.

Holidays matter because they land on both sides. US federal holidays are set by 5 U.S.C. 6103, and OPM's 2026 schedule lists 11 of them, including Veterans Day on Wednesday, November 11, Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26 and Christmas on Friday, December 25. Banks follow the Federal Reserve's holiday calendar, so a milestone invoice due on a holiday won't be paid that day either. Many clients also take the Friday after Thanksgiving off even though it isn't a federal holiday; ask.

Worked example: a 6-week website project

Counting weekdays only, the same 29 days would end on Thursday, December 10. Skipping the two holidays pushes launch to Monday, December 14. If the client is also off on Friday, November 27, launch moves to Tuesday, December 15. The business days calculator adds business days to a start date and lists the US federal holidays it skipped, so you can rebuild the table in a minute when a date changes.

Put the delay rule in writing

Timeline. The project starts on [start date] and is planned to launch on [launch date], counting business days (Monday to Friday, excluding [US federal holidays / list]).

Client reviews. Each review round gives you [3] business days. Please send one consolidated list of feedback per round.

Delays. If content, access or feedback arrives late, every later date moves by the same number of business days. Dates I miss on my side don't move your review time.

Holidays. I will not be working on [your days off]. Dates above already account for them.

The clause does two jobs: it shows the client their part of the schedule, and it makes delays arithmetic instead of an argument. If you bill in stages, tie each payment to a phase end rather than a calendar date; milestone billing covers how.

Common mistakes

• Review time hidden inside your own phases, so a slow client looks like a slow freelancer.
• Calendar-day estimates ("two weeks for design") that quietly include a holiday.
• No date for inputs. "Client sends content" without a day is never late, so the launch is.
• Back-to-back projects with no slack. Leave at least a day between one client's launch and the next one's start.

In SoloWOS

Paste the timeline table into the proposal so the client accepts it with the price; with Proposals clients accept online and the accepted version is kept. Then, in Notes & Boards, add one task per phase with its end date as the due date on the client's board, so the board shows which phase is due this week. Notes & Boards doesn't draw Gantt charts; the table in the proposal is the timeline.