Client Deliverable
Definition
A client deliverable is whatever the contract says you owe: the final logo files, the research report, the edited video, the working prototype. The work of delivering it is mostly clerical and mostly skipped. Three things decide whether it lands cleanly. The format has to open on the client's machine without your software — a PDF rather than an InDesign file, an MP4 rather than a project bundle, an HTML page rather than a chat transcript. The name has to say what it is, including a version and a date, because the file will sit in someone's downloads folder for a year. And the address has to keep working after the invoice is paid, which is where an emailed attachment quietly fails and a permalink does not.
Why It Matters
Deliverables get lost in mail threads more reliably than anywhere else. Six months on, the client's new marketing manager asks for the brand files, and nobody can find the message they were attached to; you resend them and lose an hour, or worse, you resend the wrong version. A single address you can repeat solves that for the cost of publishing once. Weight matters too: a 300 MB folder of print-ready artwork will not travel by email at all, and the usual workaround — a personal cloud drive link — breaks when the folder is reorganised or the sharing setting is reset by an admin.
How It Works
Bundle the files, give the bundle a name with a version in it such as fernbank-brand-v2-2026-03, and publish it. A folder with an index.html on top turns into a small handover page listing what is inside; a ZIP archive works when the client simply needs everything at once. Keep one address per project and replace what sits behind it as revisions land, so the client never has to ask which link is current. On 99helpers the version history keeps every earlier upload, and instant rollback restores one if a late change turns out to be wrong. Add a password when the material is under embargo, and remember that an expiring link is the wrong tool here — a deliverable is meant to outlive the project, not lapse.
Real-World Example
A branding studio finishes a rebrand and publishes the handover at fernbank-brand.99helpers.site: a short index page, logos in SVG and PNG, the type licences as PDFs, and a 40 MB ZIP archive of the lot. The client's agency asks for the assets nine months later and the studio replies with the same address it sent in March. When a colour value turns out to be wrong in one file, the studio uploads a corrected version and rolls the address forward without issuing a new link.
Common Mistakes
- ✕Naming files final, final2 and final-actual — nobody downstream can tell which is current, and the wrong one goes to print
- ✕Delivering in the format you worked in rather than one the client can open — an editable source file is an extra step, not a favour
- ✕Putting an expiry on a handover link — the client comes back a year later and finds the work they paid for has stopped resolving
Related Terms
Online Proposal
A pitch, quote or scope document published at a web address and sent as a link rather than an attachment. The client opens it in a browser; you keep the ability to correct it after sending.
Digital Portfolio
A selection of your finished work published at one web address you can send to anybody. It is a place to look at what you have made, not a profile on someone else's platform.
File Versioning
File versioning keeps the previous copy of a file when a new one is uploaded under the same name, instead of overwriting it. Every publish adds to a history you can read back from, rather than replacing what was there.
ZIP Archive
A single .zip file that holds many files and folders, each compressed separately. On a host it is used two ways: served as one download, or unpacked on upload so its contents are served individually.
Permalink
A permalink is an address meant never to change, so that everything pointing at it keeps working. The permanence is a promise from whoever owns the address, not a property of the web.
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