How it pairs with the digital timeline
Paper and software cover for each other. The worksheet is the human-readable snapshot, and the digital timeline is the source that re-counts itself. Keep the sheet for the desk and the doorway conversation, and keep the system for the arithmetic and the alerts.
On a Ratifyly file the pairing is literal. The software reads the forwarded contract, extracts the dates with the counting convention each one runs on, and holds one shared live timeline every party can see, while the printed sheet is the copy you mark up in a meeting. When the two disagree, the contract settles it, and both get corrected. A human approves every call. You can follow the whole path a forwarded email takes on the how-it-works page.
When to re-date it
Dates move. An amendment is the usual cause, but a late-delivered disclosure or resale packet can start a clock on a day nobody planned for, and a rescheduled closing drags its neighbors with it. When that happens, re-derive the affected lines from the governing document rather than crossing one out and writing a guess beside it.
The cleanest move is to reprint the sheet from the new dates, so the old ones do not linger to be misread later. Which dates carry real consequences, and why careful files still miss them, is the subject of the deadlines that decide a deal. Whatever you do, a contractual notice still has to be given the way the contract requires, on the forms your state or brokerage requires. A box on this sheet is a record for you, not notice to anyone.
This worksheet and article are educational and general in nature. They are not legal advice, and the dates you write here are only as good as the contract you derive them from. Adapt the worksheet to your brokerage’s policies and your state’s practice, since standard forms, disclosures, counting conventions, and who does what all vary by state and by form. Have a licensed broker or attorney review anything with legal effect. The only requirements stated here without a state-specific hedge are the two federal uniforms: the TRID rule that the Closing Disclosure must reach the borrower at least three business days before closing, and the lead-based paint disclosure for homes built before 1978.
Questions agents ask
Why keep a paper timeline when the software exists?
Two honest reasons: redundancy and visibility. A printed sheet next to a live file does not depend on anyone being logged in, and it catches the eye of whoever walks past the desk, so a date that slipped gets noticed by a person rather than waiting on a notification. It is also a fast way to brief a covering agent or a new coordinator without handing over a login. What paper cannot do is re-count itself. This worksheet is the manual version of what Ratifyly does from the forwarded paperwork: it reads the contract, extracts the parties, the price, and the dates along with the counting convention each one runs on, and builds the transaction and its timeline from the documents. When an amendment lands, it re-reads the file and re-flows the schedule, with a human approving every call. Ratifyly is in honest early access. Use the paper sheet today, and let the software keep the dates current when you are ready.
Where do the dates come from?
From the governing contract and its addenda, never from this sheet. Each blank is a date you derive from the specific form your deal is written on, counted the way that form counts days. Some windows run on calendar days, some on business days, and some start on an event rather than on ratification, such as delivery of a disclosure or an HOA resale packet. Read the definitions section of your contract, count each window its way, and write the derived date on the line. When a window is ambiguous, confirm it with your broker or the settlement office rather than guessing. Counting conventions vary by state and by form, and your contract's own provisions control.
What if an amendment moves a date?
Re-derive the affected dates from the amendment. Do not cross one out and eyeball a new one next to it. An amendment that moves settlement usually moves more than settlement: the walk-through, the clear-to-close target, and anything defined relative to the close can all shift with it. The safe habit is to reprint the worksheet from the new dates, or at minimum re-count every downstream line, because a single edited date on an old sheet is how a stale deadline survives in plain sight. This is also where a live system earns its keep. Ratifyly re-reads the amendment and re-flows the whole schedule so the downstream dates move together, with a human approving the result.
Does a checked box mean the milestone is done?
Done means the artifact is in the file, not that someone remembers doing it. Check the box when the proof exists and is filed: the deposit receipt, the signed repair amendment, the delivered disclosure with its confirmation, the recorded deed. That mirrors the standard operating procedure a clean file follows, where a step counts as complete only when its document is saved where the next person can find it. A checkbox with no artifact behind it is a note to yourself, not a closed item, and it is exactly the kind of gap a broker's compliance review is built to catch.