Additional Services and Variations for Architects
Spot extra work early, price it before you do it and get it agreed in writing so the fee keeps pace with the project.
Most fee overruns start with small requests that nobody priced. This guide covers how to recognise scope creep, what counts as an additional service, how to notify and price it, how to record it on timesheets and the triggers that come up again and again.
The appointment defines the work the fee covers. Anything outside that edge is an additional service to notify and price.
What scope creep looks like in a practice
Scope creep is work the practice does that the appointment did not include and the fee does not cover. It rarely arrives as one big change. It arrives as a series of small, reasonable requests that each seem too minor to price.
A client asks to see one more layout. The planning officer wants a revised elevation. The contractor's programme slips and site meetings carry on for another four months. Each request is easy to agree to in the moment, and none of them feels worth a fee letter. Added together, they can consume a stage's margin.
The cost is not only lost fee. Unpriced work pushes the programme, pulls people off other projects and makes it harder to raise a genuine additional fee later, because the client has become used to receiving extra work for free.
The cheapest moment to agree an additional fee is before the work starts. After it is done, the practice is asking to be paid for something the client already has.
What counts as an additional service
Whether something is additional depends on what the appointment says. A clear schedule of services, stage by stage, is what turns an argument about fairness into a simple check against the document.
Read the schedule of services and any assumptions in the fee proposal. Common assumptions worth stating explicitly are the number of design options, the number of planning submissions, the contract value, the procurement route, the number of site visits and the construction period. When a request goes beyond one of those, it is a change to the scope.
In the appointment
Two concept options, one round of client comments, one preferred scheme developed.
Outside the appointment
A third option after the preferred scheme was agreed. Notify, price and agree before starting.
A request is additional when it goes beyond a service or an assumption written into the appointment. Example is illustrative.
Additional service or variation?
Practices use the terms loosely. An additional service is usually a service not listed in the appointment, such as a party wall drawing package or extra planning work. A variation is usually a change to the agreed scope, programme or brief that alters the work in a listed service. Both need the same treatment: notify, price, agree, then do. Check which terms and procedure your form of appointment uses.
Common triggers to watch for
The same few causes account for most unpriced work. Naming them in the appointment assumptions makes each one easy to spot and easy to raise.
- Client changes
- A change to the brief, accommodation schedule or budget after a stage has been signed off, which means rework of agreed design.
- Planning
- Extra pre-application meetings, a resubmission after refusal, an appeal, or discharge of more conditions than assumed.
- Design options
- More options than the appointment allows, or new options after a preferred scheme was agreed.
- Extended construction
- A longer build period than assumed, adding site visits, meetings, RFIs and contract administration time.
- Procurement
- A change of route, such as moving from traditional to design and build, or a second tender.
- Other consultants
- Coordinating late or changed information from consultants beyond what the appointment allowed for.
- Contract value
- A significant rise in construction cost or scope that the fee was not based on.
Not every small request needs a fee. Many practices accept a little goodwill work on a good relationship. The point is to make that a conscious decision, recorded on the timesheet, so the practice knows what goodwill is costing.
Notify and price it before you do it
The routine is simple: recognise the change, tell the client in writing that it is outside the appointment, give a price or a basis for charging, and wait for written agreement before starting.
- 1
Recognise
The project lead checks the request against the appointment.
- 2
Notify
Write to the client within a few days. Say what is outside scope and why.
- 3
Price
Lump sum from estimated hours, or a time charge at agreed rates with an estimate.
- 4
Agree
Get a written yes before starting. An email reply is better than nothing.
- 5
Record
Open a new timesheet code with its own fee or budget.
- 6
Invoice
Bill as its own line, on the agreed basis.
The steps take a day or two. Skipping them usually means doing the work for free.
How to price it
Estimate the hours by grade, apply your charge-out rates and add a margin for coordination. As an illustrative example, a third concept option estimated at 30 hours for an architect at £85 per hour and 6 hours for a director at £140 per hour comes to £2,550 plus £840, so £3,390 plus VAT. If the scope is uncertain, offer a time charge at the rates in the appointment with an estimate and a point at which you will report back. For setting rates, see how to calculate architects' fees.
A short additional service notice
- The request: What the client asked for, and when.
- The appointment: Which service or assumption it goes beyond.
- The price: A lump sum, or the hourly rates and an estimate.
- The programme: Any effect on dates or later stages.
- The ask: Written confirmation before work starts.
Record it on timesheets and in the project record
Additional work only stays billable if it is recorded separately. Time booked to the original stage disappears into the stage budget and cannot be invoiced or used as evidence.
- Each agreed additional service gets its own timesheet code with its own fee or hours budget.
- Work awaiting agreement goes to a holding code, so it is visible and can be priced or written off deliberately.
- Goodwill work has a code too, so the practice can see its true cost.
- The client's instruction, the notice and the agreement are filed with the project, not in someone's inbox.
- The weekly fee burn review asks one extra question: is any of this stage's overrun really an unpriced change?
A stage running well ahead of its budget is often the first sign of scope creep. Reading fee burn weekly, as set out in how to track time against RIBA stages, gives the project lead the chance to raise it while the work is still going on.
Questions practices ask
Short answers to the questions architects ask about extra work and extra fees.
Can architects charge for additional work not in the appointment?
Usually yes, if the work is outside the services and assumptions in the appointment and the procedure in the appointment is followed. The strongest position is to notify the client in writing and agree a fee before the work starts. Check the terms of your own appointment, and take advice on any dispute.
How do architects prevent scope creep?
Write a clear schedule of services by stage with stated assumptions, such as the number of design options and planning submissions. Then check every client request against it, notify anything outside scope in writing and record extra work on its own timesheet code.
How should architects price additional services?
Either as a lump sum built from estimated hours by grade at the practice's charge-out rates, or as a time charge at the rates in the appointment with an estimate. A time charge suits work with uncertain scope, such as a planning appeal.
What if the client will not agree an additional fee?
Pause and discuss before doing the work. Options include reducing scope elsewhere, agreeing a capped time charge or treating a small item as goodwill and recording it. If there is a genuine dispute about what the appointment covers, take advice before proceeding.
Does an extended construction period justify an additional fee?
It often does if the appointment assumed a construction period and the build overruns it, because site visits, meetings and contract administration continue. The appointment should state the assumed period so the trigger is clear.
Where Avoice fits
Avoice makes scope creep visible early by keeping fee burn, timesheets, the appointment and the client's instructions on the same project.
In Avoice, each project carries its stages and fees, and timesheets roll up against each stage so an overrun shows while the stage is open. Appointment contracts can be uploaded to the project and their particulars extracted. The Email Agent captures project email into registers and the Project Record logs decisions, so the client's request and the agreed fee are easy to find later. Agreed work is invoiced from approved time and synced to Xero or QuickBooks, as covered in stage-based invoicing.
To see fee burn and additional services on one of your own projects, book a demo.