Saying no to an out-of-scope request, without losing the client

It never starts with a big request. It starts with "while you're at it, could you just do a square version for Instagram?"

You say yes, because it is five minutes and the client is nice. The following week it is a second version, then a variant for the business cards, then "we said you were doing the banner too, right?". Nobody cheated. The job simply grew without anyone noticing.

Spotting an out-of-scope request

One question settles it: was this in what I quoted for?

If yes, it is work, even if you would rather not. If no, it is a new request, however small, however reasonable, however five minutes it takes.

That is the trap: what makes a request hard to decline is not its size, it is that it looks obvious to the client. From where they stand, the square version is part of the same job. That is not bad faith, it is that they cannot see the line you drew in the quote, because you are the only one who read it.

The four possible answers

There are only ever four outcomes, and "no" is only one of them.

Give it away, once, and name it. If it genuinely is five minutes and the client is good, say "I will do it, on the house". The words "on the house" are the point: without them the same favour becomes the new normal, and the next request will be bigger.

Price it. A number, a line, a date. Most of the time the client agrees without discussion, because they wanted the thing and had not imagined it cost anything.

Push it to afterwards. "We can do it, but after the delivery on the 12th, so the date holds." That is often the best answer: it declines nothing and it protects the date, which is what actually matters.

Refuse it. Rare, and reserved for what you do not want to do or cannot do well. A refusal is sturdier than a badly done yes.

The sentences that work

What stings a client is not the no, it is the implication that they were trying it on. None of these suggests that.

• "Happy to. It falls outside the original quote, so I will send a line over for approval."
• "I can do it after the delivery on the 12th, or instead of the third proposal. Whichever suits you."
• "That one is on me. I am noting it so we both know it was extra."
• "It is not my trade and I would do it badly. I can put you in touch with somebody."

A word on the last one: recommending somebody else is the sturdiest refusal there is. It says you are declining for the sake of the result, not to spare yourself the work.

What prevents it upstream

Almost all of it is settled beforehand, in two sentences written at quoting time.

What is included, with numbers: how many proposals, how many revisions, which formats delivered. "A few rounds of feedback" is not a limit, it is an invitation.

What is not, named. Not as a warning, as information. A client who knows social media variants are a separate line does not ask for them absent-mindedly, they ask knowing there is a price, which is exactly the conversation you want.

It is the same list as scoping: scoping a job without ten rounds of back and forth.

What Kalepio does with it

An extra request becomes a payment line on the job, priced at the moment it is asked for, with a link of its own. The client sees it appear, settles it or does not, and it is written down somewhere rather than in somebody's memory.

That mostly changes the ending: a balance forty per cent above the quote gets disputed even when every line is justified. The client is not disputing the amount, they are disputing the surprise. Billing as you go removes the surprise, which is the same reasoning as what order to ask for the money in.

And when the request is not an extra but a genuine change of direction, it becomes a new round of questions on the same job. What has already been answered stays frozen, so asking again never rewrites what was said at the start.

Frequently asked questions

How do you decline a client request without offending them?

By offering an alternative rather than a flat no: price it, push it past the delivery, or offer it instead of something else. What offends is not the refusal, it is the implication that the client was trying it on.

What counts as an out-of-scope request?

Anything that was not in what you quoted for, whatever its size. A five-minute extra version is out of scope exactly as much as an additional page.

Should you bill small extra requests?

Not necessarily, but you have to name them. A favour announced as a favour stays one; a silent favour becomes the new normal and the next request will be bigger.

How do you stop a job's scope from creeping?

By writing what is included in the quote with numbers, and what is not. A client who knows an item is separate asks for it knowing it has a price, which is the right conversation to be having.