Discovery is the part of a freelance project that keeps exposing new work. A client asks for a straightforward site cleanup, and only after looking under the hood do I find a plugin conflict or pages no one mentioned. I don't want to sound like I'm charging extra every time I open a file, but ‘we'll sort it out’ is not a scope. How do you phrase an agreement that includes reasonable investigation while making genuinely new deliverables a separate decision?
Writing scope boundaries for work that naturally changes during discovery
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I put a short investigation clause in the agreement: enough time to review the site, identify issues, and recommend next steps. Anything bey...
I put a short investigation clause in the agreement: enough time to review the site, identify issues, and recommend next steps. Anything beyond that becomes a new estimate, which keeps the conversation honest.
I’m not sure the wording is the main problem. If the client doesn’t already understand discovery as paid work, the nicest clause in the world can still feel like a surprise bill.
That’s why I like separating diagnosis from implementation. You can agree to inspect and report without promising every fix will fit inside...