PathOctober 2026
Website maintenance plan: what to put in the monthly client report
The monthly report is the one page of a maintenance plan the client actually reads. Here is what it should contain to show the work that was done.
A client never sees a successful update or a backup running at night. They see an invoice every month. The report connects the two: what was monitored, what was done, what broke and how it was fixed.
The five parts of a useful report
- Uptime for the month: the percentage, and above all the date and length of each outage.
- Journeys checked: contact form, quote request, checkout or client area, with the number of successful runs.
- Incidents: what broke, when, for how long, and what was done. A screenshot says more than an error code.
- Maintenance done: updates, backups, security fixes.
- Coming up: anything that will need a decision from the client next month.
Write for the client, not for the tech team
“HTTP 503 on /checkout” means nothing to a shop owner. “Customers could not pay on Tuesday from 9 pm to 9:40 pm” does. Translate each incident into what it meant for their visitors, then say what you did about it.
Keep the report to one page. Technical detail can go in an appendix for the day the client or their developer asks for it.
| What broke | Duration | What was done |
|---|---|---|
| Quote form: submissions failed | 3 h 20 min | Plugin rolled back, then the fixed update applied |
| Payment unavailable | 40 min | Payment provider outage, client informed during the incident |
| Certificate close to expiry | no downtime | Renewal forced before the deadline |
What an uptime check will never put in the report
An uptime check says the server responds. It does not say the quote form actually sends its requests, or that the Pay button works. To put that in the report, someone has to replay the journey. That is what Flow does: it fills in the form or goes through checkout in a real browser, and keeps a screenshot of the step that breaks.
Save time without losing control
Pathly generates a monthly PDF report per site on demand, with uptime, journeys and incidents. It carries Pathly branding on every plan, and the agency's own branding on the Business plan. Read it before sending and add two lines of your own: that is what the client will remember.
- Should I send a report when nothing broke?
- Yes. A month without incidents is good news worth showing: it proves monitoring is running and the plan is doing its job.
- How long should a monthly report be?
- One page the client can read on their own, plus a technical appendix if needed. Anything longer will not be read.
- Can the Pathly report carry the agency's logo?
- Yes, on the Business plan. On other plans, the PDF report is available with Pathly branding.