Three weeks after delivery, an email arrives from the client’s new social media manager. “Which one is the final? There are four files called launch in the shared folder.”
The person who approved the cut is on holiday, the transfer link died last week, and nobody on their side knows whether the music can run in paid ads.
The delivery email is the message from a job that gets forwarded to people who were never on it, so write it for someone who has to find the right file and learn what they can do with it without calling you.
The review rounds happen earlier, on the review link. This email goes out after the approval.
In short
- Every row of the deliverables list becomes a file, and the music license gets a file of its own.
- Put the approved version and the approval in one line, and say it replaces every earlier link.
- Sum up what changed in the last round in two to five lines, in the client’s own words.
- Send one link to the whole package, with the date it stops working and your archive policy.
- Give a short window for fixes to the approved cut and say when the invoice goes out.
What goes in the delivery package
Start from the deliverables list you wrote before the shoot (our deliverables list post shows how to build one). Every row becomes a file, plus a few extras. For a launch video:
| File | What it’s for |
|---|---|
ACM_014_launch_v07.mov |
Master in ProRes 422 HQ, for archive and broadcast |
ACM_014_launch_v07.mp4 |
H.264 copy for the website and YouTube |
ACM_014_launch_v07_subtitled.mp4 |
Same cut with burned-in subtitles, for feeds that play muted |
ACM_014_launch_v07_9x16.mp4 |
Vertical with burned-in subtitles for Reels, TikTok and Shorts |
ACM_015_launch-30s_v03.mp4 |
30-second cutdown, approved on its own |
ACM_014_launch_v07_en.srt |
Subtitle file to upload to YouTube or LinkedIn |
ACM_014_music-license.pdf |
Music license, with the track and any credit it requires |
ACM_014_stills/ |
Frames for thumbnails and press |
The music license gets its own file. Stock libraries license a track for certain uses, and paid ads or broadcast can fall outside them.
If the license asks for a credit line, write it out so whoever uploads to YouTube can paste it into the description. For the subtitle file, the SRT vs VTT post covers which platform takes which.
Open every file before the link goes out. Check that each one has the resolution, frame rate and audio channels its row asks for, play the first and last seconds, and make sure the vertical wasn’t exported as a letterboxed 16:9. The full pass is in our final QC checklist.
Project files and raw footage cause more arguments than anything else here. Some clients assume the edit is theirs, and a Premiere project without the same fonts, plugins and media won’t open properly on another machine anyway.
Whatever the proposal says decides it. If it says nothing, leave them out and say so in the email, while everyone still remembers the conversation.
Make it obvious which file is the final
Version numbers do this better than adjectives. The approved file is v07 and stays v07, with no “final” in the name (our file naming post explains why).
In the email, put the version and the approval in one line: “v07, approved by Ana on October 20”. If earlier versions went out on links that still work, say v07 replaces them, or someone will dig v05 out of their inbox and post it.
Add one line on how the job got here. “Seven versions and three rounds of notes with your team” tells a new manager this cut was discussed and signed off, and it’s a record of the effort when the next project is quoted.
What changed since the last version
The client gave notes on v05 and approved v07. The colleagues they forward the email to saw neither, so two to five lines on the last round save them from comparing files: “The logo is readable in the vertical. Carla’s title reads Chief Operating Officer. The music ends two seconds earlier.”
Use the client’s own words where you can. Fixes nobody asked for, like a smoother audio crossfade, can stay out.
Where to download, and until when
Send one link to the whole package instead of a link per file spread over three emails. Write the date it stops working in plain words, “available until November 20”. Transfer links expire, and the client usually finds out when they click.
The archive policy is a different date. How long do you keep the master, the project and the raw footage after delivery?
Pick something you can afford to store and write it down, for example: “We keep the master and the project for 12 months and the raw footage for three. After that, reopening the edit means restoring from archive, which we quote separately.”
Next year, when someone asks for “the raw files from the event”, you both have the same sentence to go back to.
The last fixes and the invoice
Approval closes the review, and something can still slip through. Legal spots a typo in a lower third, or the logo looks wrong on the screen at the event.
Give a short window for that, such as five working days, and make clear it covers fixes to the approved cut. A new version for another campaign is a new request (the scope creep post has a test for telling them apart).
Say when the invoice goes out. If the proposal ties the final payment to delivery, “the final invoice goes out today, due in 15 days” belongs in this email. Otherwise it arrives a week later in a different inbox and has to be matched to a job the client already considers closed.
If the file itself is your leverage, our post on downloads before payment covers the options.
A delivery email you can copy
Subject: ACM_014 Launch video, final delivery (v07)
Hi Ana,
The final version of the launch video is ready: v07, which you approved on October 20. It replaces v05 and every earlier link.
Download the whole package here until November 20: [link]
What’s inside:
Master (ProRes) and web copy (MP4), 1:45
Subtitled copy and 9:16 vertical
30-second cutdown (v03)
English subtitles as an SRT file
Music license and the credit line for YouTube
Eight stills for thumbnails and pressWhat changed since v05: the logo is readable in the vertical, Carla’s title reads Chief Operating Officer, and the music ends two seconds earlier.
We got here in seven versions and three rounds of notes. If anyone on your team spots a problem in the approved cut, reply by October 28 and we’ll fix it.
We keep the master and the project for 12 months and the raw footage for three. As agreed in the proposal, the project files aren’t part of the delivery.
The final invoice goes out today, due in 15 days.
Thanks for the project,
Marcos
How this works in RecReview
In RecReview the client approves the version with a button on the review page. Their main contacts then get a delivery email with your logo and theirs, each in their own language, and with the ready-made workflows the task moves to Delivered.
The subject reads “Approved:” followed by the task code and title. The email names the approved version, who approved it and how many comments were resolved along the way, and has a Download video button.
When the client approves on WhatsApp or on a call, someone on your team logs it on the version and can send the same email (more on recording approvals).
The download in that email follows the review link’s settings, so an expiry date you set on the link ends the download too. Use the same date in your own message.
The delivered video stays in the client portal, next to the other videos from the same project. The client downloads the file with a suggested name made of the task code and title, after seeing its size, length, resolution and frame rate.
The same window saves a frame from any moment as an image and, when the video has a transcript, downloads the subtitles as SRT or VTT. Portal downloads open once the task is delivered, unless you allow downloads before approval for that client.
Each version is one file, so a deliverable with its own approval, like the 30-second cut, is its own task in the same project and gets its own email. The license, the archive policy and the invoice go in your own message, built from the template above.
On the Pro and Studio plans, approval can also fire a webhook carrying the version number, the review link and a download link meant for automations, so a tool like Zapier or n8n can copy the approved file to the client’s shared drive.
