Guide
A client asks for extra work. Here's what to say and do.
Updated 2026-08-24
Short answer: don't say yes or no on the spot. Acknowledge the request, work out whether it's inside or outside what you already agreed to, and if it's outside — price it and get it approved before you touch it. That one habit is the difference between extra work you get paid for and extra work you just absorb.
First, work out what kind of request this actually is
Most "is this extra?" panic comes from not having a clear way to check. Three buckets cover almost everything a client asks for mid-project:
Clearly included
It's explicitly in your scope of work, or it's a reasonable interpretation of something you already promised — a small clarification, a bug in work you already delivered, a revision inside the rounds you agreed to.
Ambiguous
It's related to the original work but wasn't spelled out — a "can you also just..." that touches something adjacent to what you scoped. This is where most scope creep actually lives: not obvious new work, but a fuzzy edge nobody defined.
Clearly additional
A new deliverable, a new platform, a rebuild of something already approved, work for a different stakeholder or use case than what you scoped. If you're honest with yourself, you already know this one is extra.
If you can't tell which bucket a request is in, that's a sign the original scope of work wasn't specific enough — worth fixing for next time, but it doesn't change what to do right now: when in doubt, treat it as ambiguous and price it. It's far easier to waive a charge for something you decide was included than to retroactively bill for something you already did for free.
How to respond without reflexively saying no
"No" ends the conversation and often the relationship. The better move is to say yes to the work and separately name the cost — two different sentences, not one apologetic no.
- Acknowledge what they're asking for, specifically — repeat it back so there's no ambiguity about what "this" refers to later.
- Say plainly that it's outside the current scope. Don't bury this; a vague hint gets missed.
- Name the impact — hours, price, or both — before you start, not after.
- Ask for a clear go-ahead. Silence or a vague "sure, sounds good" is not approval.
A workable shape for this, in your own words: "Happy to add that — it's outside what we scoped, so it'll be [X hours / $Y] on top of the current project. Want me to go ahead?" See the response templates below for ready-to-send versions in three tones.
Why pricing and approval need to happen before you do the work
Once the work is done, you've lost your leverage. A client who's already holding the finished thing has very little reason to agree to a price for it — and you're now negotiating from a place where the only options are "pay me" or "I did this for free," instead of a normal business decision made in advance.
Pricing and approval before you start also protects the client: they get to decide, with real numbers, whether the addition is worth it to them — instead of finding out after the fact that a project quietly cost more than they expected.
If you've already done the work before pricing it — it happens, especially mid-call or when a request turns out to be much bigger than it sounded — that's a different, retrospective situation with its own honest handling. It's not covered in depth on this page.
When your contract or SOW should decide this instead
None of the above overrides what you actually signed. If your contract or statement of work already defines what counts as in-scope, includes a fixed number of revision rounds, or has its own change-order process, that document controls — treat this page as a way to think about ambiguous cases and a way to communicate the decision, not a substitute for a real agreement.
This isn't legal advice. For a contract clause that actually holds up, talk to a lawyer licensed where you and your client operate.
Turn this into a real number, then a real message
Once you know it's genuinely additional work, the next two steps are mechanical: price it, then say it. Both below are free and don't require an account.
If this isn't a new request but a round of changes on something you already delivered, the situation is close but not identical — see the guide below instead.