# Phase plan — B2B SaaS

The phase plan with the limits a subscription business needs: authority bounded by funnel stage rather than by campaign, upper-funnel spend protected from short-horizon decisions, and evidence conditions written for a cycle that takes a quarter to report.

Everything else is the general phase plan, unchanged. One row per area per phase, an explicit approval list, a reversal rule and a record of every change.

## How to use it

1. Copy this file, or the CSV version if you would rather work in a sheet.
2. Write one row per area per phase, and never a single blanket permission.
3. Write what still needs approval explicitly, rather than leaving it as everything else.
4. Put a limit on every permission: how much, how often, on what.
5. Decide the evidence to advance before the phase starts, not when somebody asks.
6. Write the reversal rule while everything is going well.
7. Record every change made under the authority, with its reason and its time.

## The columns

**Phase** (Text). The stage of authority this row sets out for this area. Phases here are longer than in other categories, because the evidence that authority is being used well takes a full cycle to appear.

**Area** (Text). What kind of change this governs: budget, bidding, creative, audiences, lead definitions, routing. The last two are never granted, which is the main thing this version of the plan settles.

**May change without separate approval** (Text). Exactly what can be altered at this phase, written narrowly: move budget between campaigns inside one funnel stage, refine an audience within a named segment, rotate among assets already approved.

**Limits** (Text). How much, how often and on what, with the boundary being the funnel stage. Within capture is tactical; out of awareness is a strategic decision with a two-quarter consequence.

**Approval required for** (Text). What still needs a person: any move between funnel stages, any reduction in upper-funnel spend, any change to what counts as an accepted lead, any change to routing.

**Who holds it** (Text). Whoever holds this permission, whether a person or a rule. A rule here must act on a signal readable in its own timeframe; one reallocating on cost per form fill will optimise towards unqualified leads.

**Evidence to enter** (Text). What had to be true before this phase started: two quarters of reporting reconciled between the ad accounts and the pipeline data.

**Evidence to advance** (Text). What has to be true before the next phase begins, written now, and measured over a period long enough for a cohort to mature. A fortnight of quiet is not evidence of anything.

**Review cadence** (Text). How often this row is re-read. Fortnightly for capture rows and quarterly for awareness, because reviewing awareness on a two-week cost per lead is how upper-funnel spend gets cut by accident.

**Reversal rule** (Text). What causes authority to narrow again: any move out of an awareness campaign, any change to a definition or a routing rule, or two changes made without a record.

**Record kept** (Text). What is written down whenever this authority is used: the segment, the stage, what moved, from where, to where, and why.

**Entered on** (Date (YYYY-MM-DD)). The date this area reached this phase. Creative and audience authority usually advance ahead of budget authority here, so each row carries its own date.

**Notes** (Text). What the next person needs: the quarter where a limit was too tight, the segment that has never justified its floor, the rule that was rebuilt after it chased a bad fortnight.

## The phase plan

| Phase | Area | May change without separate approval | Limits | Approval required for | Who holds it | Evidence to enter | Evidence to advance | Review cadence | Reversal rule | Record kept | Entered on | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |

## Before you commit it

- There is one row per area per phase, and no blanket permission.
- Budget authority is bounded by funnel stage.
- Upper-funnel spend is protected from short-horizon reallocation.
- Evidence conditions are written over periods a long cycle can actually fill.
- Changes to lead definitions or routing sit outside ordinary permissions.
- Every row has a reversal rule written while things were going well.
- Every change made under the authority is recorded with its reason.