Change Order

A change order is the professional mechanism for handling the inevitable moment when a client says, "Can we also add..." or "What if we changed the direction on..." It's a mini-contract that amends the original SOW to add, remove, or modify deliverables, timelines, or costs.

Change orders are how agencies get paid for work that wasn't in the original agreement. Without them, scope creep happens invisibly — your team keeps delivering more work, but the budget stays the same. With change orders, every modification is documented, priced, and approved before the work begins.

A good change order process is simple: the client requests something new → the account manager writes up the change (what's being added, the additional cost, the timeline impact) → the client approves in writing → the work proceeds. Some agencies use formal change order documents; others use a simple email chain with a sign-off. The formality doesn't matter as much as the discipline of always documenting and pricing changes before executing them.

Change orders are the difference between agencies that are profitable and agencies that work twice as hard for the same money. The work clients request beyond the SOW is often the most expensive kind — it's disruptive, it pulls people off other projects, and it requires re-thinking work that's already in progress.

The psychological barrier to change orders is real: account managers don't want to nickel-and-dime clients, and clients don't like feeling surprised by extra costs. That's why the original SOW matters so much — if the boundaries were clear from the start, change orders feel reasonable rather than adversarial. Frame them as transparency, not upselling: "We want to make sure you know the impact before we move forward."