“Can you just do this one for us?” is easy to answer when the client has been with the firm for years. The harder question is who has permission to give away the team's time.
A founder can choose to fund a favor. A delivery employee shouldn't have to make that commercial decision while trying to protect the relationship.
Give deliberate free work a purpose, a cap, an approver and an expiry. Requests outside that permission should enter the agreed change process before the team starts them. That leaves room for generosity without making everyone responsible for an unlimited promise.
Scope change approval authority needs a goodwill boundary
Not every additional request deserves an invoice. Perhaps the firm wants to help a long-standing client through a short disruption. Perhaps a modest extra deliverable strengthens a relationship the leadership team values.
Make that choice deliberately.
Start with the agreed scope. Is the requested work already included? Is it correction of an error the firm should put right? Or is it genuinely additional work? Those distinctions should precede any discussion of charging.
Then define routine authority separately from an exception. A project manager might have permission to approve a limited amount of courtesy work within a defined client goodwill budget. Work beyond that allowance goes to the named commercial approver, who sees the cost and effect on other commitments.
The cap can be in hours, delivery cost or specified tasks. Choose a measure the team can track reliably. Set realistic expectations with affected stakeholders before approval. Name the intended outcome, changed timeline and any project quality risk, then record who accepts those consequences. A dollar limit is weak if nobody records the time it is supposed to constrain.
The proposal here is an original editorial approval rule, not a claim that Arron or Bennett already uses these exact limits. Arron's scope-creep post argues for clear deliverables, priced change requests and internal triggers. A courtesy-work boundary applies that thesis to intentional favors.
Check project scope before approving twenty extra hours
Hypothetical example: A service client receives four favors in one month. Each takes five delivery hours. Assume a fully loaded delivery cost of $75 an hour.
Four × five = 20 hours. At 20 × $75, the allocated delivery cost is $1,500.
That doesn't mean the business wrote an additional $1,500 payroll check because the requests arrived. Staff may already be salaried. It does mean 20 hours of available capacity went into work with no additional fee in this example.
Now suppose leadership had authorized ten courtesy hours for the month. The allowance represents 10 × $75 = $750 of delivery cost under these assumptions. The first two favors consume it. The third request needs a new decision before another five hours are promised.
The numbers are illustrative, not a benchmark for how generous a service business should be. A firm's real allowance should reflect its economics and obligations.
Ask what the 20 hours displaced. If the team had spare capacity, there may be no immediately lost paid assignment. If it delayed a committed client deliverable, the cost includes a service consequence that the $1,500 allocation alone doesn't describe. Don't invent foregone revenue just to make the example more dramatic.
For the broader calculation, Bennett's scope creep and project profitability guide owns the technical topic. The decision here is who may authorize those hours.
If favors are visible in the workload but absent from the financial conversation, use the Profit & Tax Leak Check to examine that gap. Bring the requests, recorded hours and current approval limits.
Scope changes need approval before delivery
Use the agreed scope as the reference point. Review resources and deadline risks with affected stakeholders. Courtesy work still needs the agreed quality.
A structured approach can stay simple: share these fields with project managers and the relationship owner:
The contract or project charter, and the exact modification to project scope requested.
The purpose of the exception and stakeholder input supporting it.
Estimated hours or cost, plus any effect on project goals or deadlines.
The approver, the permitted amount and the expiry.
What happens if the client asks for more.
Give each request a status: waiting, approved or rejected. Name the reviewers, decision date and next action. Record decision notes, comments and client feedback. Keep rejected requests visible so they can't restart quietly; mark approved work closed when delivered. That transparency gives delivery a reliable answer without another meeting.
“Keep the client happy” isn't enough detail. “Provide one training session during the client's transition, up to five hours including preparation, approved through Friday” tells the team what it may do.
Customer loyalty can justify one exception. Tell the client when it ends, so a gesture doesn't become an ongoing service promise.
The account owner should also explain the change request professionally. Confirm what is included, what has been approved as a courtesy and what requires a separate estimate. Avoid making the delivery team defend a commercial boundary that leadership hasn't backed.
This is the practical edge of client fit as an economic decision: a good relationship can deserve investment, while the cost still needs an owner.
Change request records must include founder exceptions
The approval process loses its force if the founder promises free work privately and leaves the team to absorb it. The founder may have the authority to override a cap. Record that override before asking delivery to act.
Leadership authorizes resource allocation; client approval confirms proposed changes to agreed terms or deliverables. Keep both decisions visible, including accepted cost and effects on the schedule.
Arron's financial-execution post emphasizes implementing financial insight rather than merely consuming advice. For this issue, implementation means reviewing approved changes against actual hours and closing expired exceptions.
That review also helps spot scope creep inside the firm. A team can add polish the client never requested. In project management this is sometimes called gold plating. Route those additions through the same decision: who asked for the work, what outcome does it serve and who accepted its cost?
An authority map makes those permissions clearer than a general instruction to “use judgment.” Give employees authority they can exercise, then support the boundary when a request exceeds it.
Pick the oldest open courtesy commitment this week. Either close it, authorize a defined extension or agree a paid change with the client. If its cost is still invisible, take the record to a Leak Check focused on unpriced delivery commitments before approving another favor.
Frequently asked questions
Where does scope creep occur in free client work?
It occurs when additional requests become expected service without an approved change. Leadership can choose a courtesy exception, but it needs a reason, limit and expiry.
Who should approve free work?
Use a named person with commercial authority, such as a project manager within a limited allowance or a founder above it. Delivery employees need clear permission rather than an expectation to negotiate alone.
Is correcting the firm's own mistake a goodwill favor?
Usually it belongs in a separate correction category. Check the firm's actual obligation before treating the work as optional generosity or presenting it as an extra charge.
Should the goodwill cap use hours or dollars?
Use the measure the team can estimate and record consistently. Hours reveal capacity; a credible cost rate translates that capacity into economics. A specified deliverable can work when time estimates are uncertain.
Does salaried labor make free work costless?
No. The payroll payment may be unchanged, but the work uses paid capacity. Whether it also displaces profitable work depends on what the team could otherwise deliver.
Can the founder approve work above the cap?
Yes, within the founder's authority. Record the override, accepted cost and effect on other commitments so the delivery team isn't judged for a choice it didn't make.
How can the firm avoid scope creep from recurring favors?
Stop treating each repetition as a fresh small favor. Review the combined requirement and choose a new scope, paid change or explicitly renewed exception.
When does client approval matter for a scope change?
Obtain agreement when proposed work changes terms or deliverables. Internal approval decides whether the firm will fund a courtesy; client approval confirms what will actually be supplied.