A fixed-price project can lose its margin through perfectly reasonable requests.
Take a fictional project: 12,000 ₽ for 12 hours. Your planned gross rate is 1,000 ₽ per hour. Six additional unpaid hours make it about 667 ₽ per hour. You received the same fee and spent more of your working week.
Before agreeing to the next request, capture what changes, the extra effort and the effect on delivery. Then give the client a concrete choice:
“I can add the new filter for an estimated three hours of work. That adds 3,000 ₽ and moves delivery by one working day. Or we can keep the current scope and put it in the next iteration.”
The numbers are illustrative. Use your own estimate and leave room for uncertainty. A request sent for approval is still a request; count it as accepted work only after the client agrees.
Disclosure: This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the linked sources and implementation. Examples explicitly marked fictional are illustrative.
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