An async recap is a written or recorded update submitted on a predictable schedule. Daily recaps cover what happened in a single work session.
Weekly recaps zoom out to show trends, outcomes, and bigger-picture progress. The format is intentionally structured.
Recaps replace status meetings. Rather than scheduling a call to hear what someone accomplished, you read their recap on your own time.
How to Structure Daily Recaps
A daily recap needs five components to be useful.
Completed Deliverables
What actually got finished and shipped today. This should link to specific documents, tickets, or outputs you can review..
This creates your documentation trail for payment.
When a contractor invoices you at the end of the month, their invoice should reference work you’ve already seen in daily recaps.
No surprises, no disputes about whether something was actually delivered.
Work in Progress With Completion Estimates
What’s currently being worked on and when it will be ready. This helps you plan your own review capacity and understand project velocity.
If something that was supposed to be done isn’t finished, this is where the contractor explains the delay and provides a revised timeline.
Surface these slips early while you can still adjust other priorities or timelines.
Document Blockers
Specific questions or decisions that are preventing the task from moving forward progress. These may include technical difficulties, connectivity issues include a deadline for your response.
This makes it clear when the blocker becomes critical and helps you prioritize which questions to answer first.
Next Session Priorities
What the contractor plans to work on during their next work period.
This gives you a chance to redirect effort before time gets spent on the wrong thing.
It also creates accountability.
When someone states their intention publicly, it’s easier to spot scope creep or priorities drifting off course.
You can track whether planned work actually happened or whether something unexpected consumed the time.
Flag Risks and Quality Issues
Anything that might affect timeline, budget, or deliverable quality. This includes technical problems, missing information, resource constraints, or quality issues the contractor has spotted.
The goal is to flag problems while you still have options.
How to Structure Weekly Recaps
Weekly recaps serve a different purpose than daily updates. You’re looking at outcomes, patterns, and bigger-picture movement rather than individual task completion.
Outcomes versus Goals
What actually shipped this week compared to what was planned. Focus on deliverables that moved, not activities that happened. This is where you assess whether the engagement is on track or falling behind.
If outcomes consistently fall short of goals, that’s a signal. Maybe scope is unclear, maybe the contractor is overcommitted, maybe your estimates are unrealistic.
Weekly recaps make these patterns visible before they compound.
Process Improvements and Learnings
When a contractor notices that certain tasks always take longer than estimated or that a particular workflow creates bottlenecks, capturing that insight helps you improve processes for everyone.
A weekly recap is where they document these observations.
Set and Align Priorities for the Week Ahead
What the contractor plans to focus on in the coming week with rough effort estimates.
This creates alignment before work starts rather than discovering misaligned priorities after time has been spent.
It also prevents scope creep. When priorities are documented weekly, it’s clear when new requests get added and whether they’re replacing existing work or increasing total scope.
Identify and Fix Recurring Blockers
Problems that keep appearing in daily recaps signal systemic issues. If the same type of blocker appears three days in a row, the weekly recap is where you can address the pattern..
This might mean clarifying requirements, adjusting processes, or allocating different resources.
Where to Store Daily and Weekly Recaps
Daily recaps can live in chat channels or shared documents because they’re high-volume and relatively disposable once the work is done..
Put weekly recaps somewhere searchable and organized. Project management tools or shared document systems work well.
You want to be able to pull up the recap from three months ago when you’re trying to remember why a decision was made or what happened during a particular project phase.
This documentation matters for payment processing. When a contractor invoices you, you should be able to trace the invoice back to weekly recaps showing what was delivered
Why This Works for Filipino Contractors Specifically
Filipino professionals working with international clients face particular challenges that async recaps address directly.
The Philippines is 12-13 hours ahead of US Eastern time for example.
Real-time collaboration means someone is working at night affecting their circadian rhythms.
Async recaps eliminate that requirement almost entirely (that still depends on your agreement).
Written recaps also give Filipino contractors time to compose clear updates in English without the pressure of real-time conversation.
They can be more precise and thorough than in a hurried video call.
Professional development happens through better communication.
Choosing Your Daily Recap Format
The simplest approach is a shared document with a consistent structure. Create a template, contractors fill it out at the end of each work session, and you review it during your morning routine.
Platforms like ManagePH provide built-in recap collection systems that automate this process. Contractors submit daily or weekly standup updates directly through the platform, which organizes them by team member and date.
Employers can review all recaps in a centralized dashboard as simple as that
Video recaps work for contractors who communicate better verbally or when you need to see something demonstrated. A 2-3 minute Loom walking through completed work can be clearer than written description, especially for design or technical tasks.
Include a written summary below the video so you can scan without watching every time.
Whatever format you choose, make it lightweight. If recaps take 20 minutes to complete, contractors will skip them or submit them late. The goal is 5-10 minutes of documentation for each work session.