Unpaid extra work has already started, or a new request is sitting in your inbox. Enter the original fee and hours, the hours you have already absorbed, the hours still being asked for, and the rate you would charge for a change. The page shows what the absorbed hours have done to your effective rate, and what a written change order would be for the work that has not started. Everything is calculated in your browser.
A flat fee only implies a rate once you divide it by the hours you scoped. The planned rate is the original fee divided by those hours. After you absorb unpaid hours, the effective rate is the same fee divided by original hours plus absorbed hours. The money those absorbed hours represent, at the change rate you enter, is absorbed hours × change rate. That is the cost of creep that has already happened, whether or not you later issue a change order.
Hours that have been requested but not started can still be priced. The change-order figure on this page is pending hours × change rate. It does not add expenses or a rush percentage; for those, use the change order cost calculator. If you also absorb the pending hours, the effective rate becomes the original fee divided by original hours plus absorbed hours plus pending hours.
The calculator cannot tell you whether a request is inside the original scope. That depends on the written brief, the number of revision rounds you agreed, and what you and the client have already accepted. Use this page after you have decided that the hours are extra, or to see what is at stake before you decide. If the job is already running long for reasons other than added requests, the flat-fee overrun calculator or the project overrun calculator is a better fit.
With the default numbers, a $3,600 fee scoped at 40 hours is $90 an hour. Eight unpaid hours already pull that down to $75.00 an hour, which is $720 of work at a $90 change rate. A written change for the four hours still requested would be $360. If those four hours are also absorbed, the effective rate on the original fee falls to $69.23 an hour.
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Scope creep is work that was not in the original agreement and has not been priced as a change. This calculator does not decide whether a request is in scope. That is a contract question. It only shows what unpaid extra hours do to your effective rate, and what a written change order would total at the rate you enter.
The change order calculator prices work you have not started yet, including expenses and an optional rush fee. This page also accounts for hours you have already absorbed unpaid, so you can see the cost of creep that has already happened and a price for creep that is still only a request.
No. It reports arithmetic on the hours and rates you enter. Whether a request is billable depends on your contract and what you agreed with the client, not on this page.