Glossary
Change order
A change order is a short, signed document that captures scope added after a project starts: what's changing, what it costs, and how it moves the deadline. It turns a client's new request into billable work instead of letting it slide into unpaid scope creep. Most agencies raise one the moment a request falls outside what the original statement of work actually covers.
What a change order includes
A usable change order has four parts: what's changing, why it's changing, what it costs, and the new timeline. It should name the specific line items being added to or removed from the original SOW, not just describe the request in general terms.
Most agencies keep it to one page. A change order that takes longer to read than the work takes to approve slows down the exact process it's meant to speed up.
When to raise one
Raise a change order the moment a request falls outside the original SOW's scope, not after the work is already done. Common triggers: a new deliverable, a reworked deliverable that was already signed off, a timeline the client wants pulled forward, or a stakeholder change that adds review cycles.
Small requests test agencies the most. A one-hour tweak feels too minor to formalize, but ten of those across a project add up to the same uncompensated work that scope creep causes. The trigger, not the size of the request, is what should decide whether a change order gets raised.
Pricing a change order: time and materials vs a fixed add-on
A time-and-materials change order bills the actual hours at the agency's standard rates, which is fastest to issue and fairest when the new scope isn't fully defined yet. A fixed-fee add-on quotes a flat price for the new scope, which clients often prefer because it caps their exposure, but it only works once the work is well enough defined to estimate accurately.
Either way, the change order should reference the rate card or project rates already in place rather than negotiating a fresh price from scratch. That keeps pricing consistent and avoids reopening the whole commercial conversation for every small addition.
Example
A design agency is midway through a fixed-fee website project when the client asks for two additional landing pages and a redesign of the homepage hero, which had already been signed off. The agency raises a change order: two landing pages at a flat $1,800 each, plus the hero rework estimated at 8 hours time-and-materials at its $150/hour rate, for a total add of $4,800 and a one-week extension to the delivery date. The client signs off before any of that work starts.
