Field Guides / Pricing

How to get paid for everything you deliver: the scope checklist

Free extra work isn't generosity, it's a boundary you never wrote down. Six checks keep the work paid: write the scope line before the job starts, count the revision rounds out loud, charge for the invisible work, sell extra asks as variations, cut scope rather than price when the budget is short, and invoice on the agreed schedule. When an ask goes past the line, the answer is yes, with a price, agreed in writing before the work happens.

Why does free extra work keep happening on jobs you quoted properly?

Free extra work keeps happening because the quote priced the work and never drew its edges. The client can see a number for the job. Nobody wrote down what the job is, so every ask past it lands as part of the job.

A typical quote has a total and a description. It doesn't say how many rounds are in, whether travel is included, what happens to the raw files, or what a change of brief costs. So when the ask comes ("one more interview while you're here", "just a few tweaks", "can we have the raw footage"), there's no line to point at. Raising a price mid-job feels like a grab and saying no feels like a fight, so the work gets absorbed.

Three jobs show where it ends. A client relationship ended over revision rounds that were never defined: the owner asked for $600 for the extra changes and the client offered $300, take it or leave it (the full case study). An owner with days of travel on a job froze at invoice time because he'd never once mentioned charging for it, and ate it (charging for the invisible work). Another quoted $5,000 and then found the client had meant $5,000 including GST (drop the scope, not the price). Every scope argument you've ever had was really an argument about a line that didn't exist.

How to keep every piece of work paid: the six checks, step by step

The method is six checks. Run them on every quote before it goes out, and keep them running until the last invoice on the job is paid.

1. Write the scope line before the job starts. One short block under the quote total that sets the edges of the job (the fill-in version is in the next section). The client reads it before agreeing the price.
2. Count the revision rounds out loud. Two rounds per deliverable, a round defined on the quote as one consolidated set of changes, a further round priced before round one begins, and the count said at every delivery. The person sending the notes is often not the person who signed. As How many revision rounds to include puts it, the quote does the legal work and the counting does the human work; that guide has the clause and the definition of a round. Done looks like: your last delivery email said which round it was and how many remained. The emails for each delivery are in The three revision emails.
3. Charge for the invisible work. Travel time, raw footage delivery, storage and extra time on site, each as its own line on the quote, plus the planning calls, scripting help and project management before anyone picks up a camera, priced as pre-production. Clients pay for what they can see; the rest is free by default unless the quote says otherwise. The four lines are in Charging for the invisible work; pre-production is its own section in Anatomy of a Profitable Quote.
4. When they ask for more, sell it instead of absorbing it. "Happy to. That's a variation, here's the cost." You're not saying no. You're saying what it costs. The price is agreed in writing before the work starts, and the script for the on-site moment is two sections down. Done looks like: a confirmation email with a price on it, sent before you did the extra work.
5. When the budget is short, cut scope, not price. Hold the rate, keep the planning and the filming, and take out deliverables, rounds or timing until the work fits the money. Drop the scope, not the price has the full move, including the three-option scope-down.
6. Invoice on the agreed schedule. Payment terms sit on the quote where the client can see them without scrolling, and the invoices go out on those dates. Getting paid on time is part of the job you priced. It helps to put each extra on the next invoice rather than saving them all for the end.

What the scope line on the quote says: included, extra, and what triggers a variation

The scope line is one block under the quote total that sets the edges of the job. Fill it in once as a template, then edit it per job.

Three rules for filling it. Deliverables carry a length and a format. Anything you can price in advance gets its price on this quote, even when it only applies if used, so the figure exists before the ask. Variation triggers are the usual four: a new location, new interviewees, a change of brief after the script is approved, and a further round of changes. The further round already has its price on the quote, so it sits with the priced lines; the other three are quoted when they come up. Nothing on this list should surprise anyone at invoice time.

Keep the revision clause and the four invisible lines on the quote as well.

What to say when the client asks for something outside the scope

Say yes, give the price, and send a one-line confirmation for the client to reply to. The "while you're here" ask arrives when you're least able to think, on site with the crew waiting, so the words are decided in advance.

If the request is small enough that you'd rather not charge for it, charge nothing on purpose and say so, with the count still running: this one is on us, and the next one is the figure on the quote.

A worked example

Here's the checklist on one job, in round numbers, adapted from the example quote in How to price a video project: a two-day shoot for a new client, agreed at $11,880. For this version the quote also carries the scope line, with two rounds per deliverable, travel within 60 minutes of base, and raw footage, extra time on site and further rounds priced as their own lines, applied only if used.

Three asks arrive. On the shoot day: "while you're here, can you grab the CEO for a quick piece to camera", which runs to an extra half day. After round two on the main film: a third list of changes. At delivery: "can we have the raw files". The half-day and round figures are round numbers; the raw footage figure is the one an owner put on his quote.

With the scope line, the three extras go on the invoices at the all-in prices on the quote, on top of the agreed $11,880. Without it, the same three pieces of work were done for nothing. $3,000 is about a quarter of the agreed quote.

The mistakes that undo it

The checklist fails in five predictable ways.

• Writing the line after the ask arrives. Once the job is under way, a new charge lands as a surprise, and owners swallow it rather than have the conversation. The line goes on before the price is agreed.
• Answering with no, or with an apology. A no starts a fight and an apology gives the work away. Give the price instead.
• Treating "small" as a size that means free. A few tweaks across nine emails is what kills margins. A list of changes is a round whatever its length, and an extra half day on site is priced however quick it looks.
• Letting the quiet month rewrite the line. Cash-flow panic is where every check in this list collapses. The quiet month is the worst time to discount.
• Invoicing the extras months later. An extra confirmed on the day and billed at the end of the quarter arrives as a surprise. Put it on the next invoice.

The rule of thumb for scope creep

If it isn't written on the quote, it isn't included, and anything outside the quote is priced and agreed in writing before the work starts. The benchmark: two rounds per deliverable, the four invisible lines priced on the quote, and every invoice out on the date the quote says.

Hold yourself accountable

Which of these have you taken on or put in place recently?

• Your quote template carries a filled-in scope line.
• Your last delivery email said which round it was.
• The last "while you're here" ask got a price and a confirmation email.
• The last time a budget was short, scope moved and the rate didn't.

Your one move this week

What's the one thing you can commit to implementing this week? If you're not sure, start here.

Paste the scope line into your quote template with your own deliverables, your round count and your extras priced, even at placeholder figures. Then go back to the last job you delivered, list each ask you absorbed, and put your day rate against it.

One thing executed every week creates 50 strategic moves a year.

Related tools and guides. Charging for the invisible work (the four lines and their wording), How many revision rounds to include, The three revision emails, Case study: the missing boundary, Drop the scope, not the price, How to push back on a client without losing them, Quote checklist, How to price a video project, Anatomy of a Profitable Quote.