How to reply when a client asks for one more thing outside the agreed scope

A message lands in Slack or email mid-task: could you also add a fourth page, or one more screen, or a small extra that was never in the quote. You have thirty seconds before the reply either gives away free work or reads like a refusal. This page shows the manual way to answer it fairly, with a written record of what was agreed, using nothing but the message you already have.

The manual method

Do this before you type a single word back.

1. Find the line in the original quote or statement of work that describes what you agreed to do, and read it once, exactly as written.
2. Name the extra in one sentence: what the client is asking for now, in your own words, so there is no doubt about what is being discussed.
3. Estimate the hours the extra would take at your normal pace, then convert that into your rate and into the number of days it would add to the timeline.
4. Decide on two honest options to offer: add it now for the estimated cost and days, or park it for a later round so the current plan stays on track.
5. Write a one page change order: the project name, the requested change, the line it falls outside, the added cost, the added days, and a line for the client to accept it.
6. Reply to the client quoting the agreed scope line, naming the extra, and offering both options plainly, without apologising for having a scope in the first place.
7. Send the change order alongside the reply, or immediately after, so the numbers are on record rather than only spoken about.
8. Log the outcome somewhere, paid or absorbed, so a pattern of free extras becomes visible to you before it becomes a habit.

Cost in time: quoting the scope line and naming the extra takes a minute or two once you know where the original quote lives. Estimating hours and writing the change order by hand, from a blank page, usually takes ten to fifteen minutes, longer if the file has no reusable layout.

Where this goes wrong

• Absorbing the work silently: the extra gets done without ever being named as extra, so the client learns that the scope line is a suggestion rather than an agreement.
• A reply that reads as a refusal: naming the extra without offering a path forward sounds like a closed door rather than an honest answer.
• No written record of what was agreed: a verbal yes to the extra, with no change order, leaves both sides guessing at the added cost and days later.

The one-step way

Scopeframe runs the same idea in one file, in your own browser tab, with nothing installed and no account. Paste the ask, name the scope line it falls outside, enter hours, rate and days, and it writes back a reply in three tones and a one-page change order. Try the free version, which writes all three tones and the change order preview, or visit the product page to buy the file, which adds the log, monthly totals, your remembered rate and CSV export, 19.00 USD personal, 79.00 USD team, one purchase. A change order is a document you send to your client; it is not a contract on its own, and nothing on this page is legal advice. A company that wants every desk covered can take the Source and Intranet Licence, all six tools with their source, one purchase.

What you type stays in your browser and in the files you save. Nothing leaves this page.