Can you just do the meeting room while you are here?
The site contact catches your supervisor in the corridor. There is a board meeting tomorrow, could the team give the boardroom a proper clean tonight, and while they are at it, shampoo the chairs. The supervisor says yes, because keeping the client happy is part of the job.
The work gets done. Nobody writes it down. At month end, the invoice goes out for the standard contract price. Three weeks later someone in the office hears about the boardroom and wonders whether to bill it now. By then the site contact has half forgotten, and billing it feels awkward, so it is let go.
It happens again the following month. And at another site. And for the maintenance team, who replaced a tap washer on a reactive visit and fixed a door closer while they were there.
Why extras slip through
Extras are agreed in conversations, not systems. The person agreeing them is on site and wants to say yes. The person who invoices is in the office and never hears about it. There is no easy step in between.
Even where there is a process, such as a variation form or an email to the office, it asks too much of the person on site. A form that takes ten minutes will not be filled in at nine at night. An email that has to include a price means the supervisor has to know the price.
Clients also have a view. If an extra is billed weeks later with no record of approval, it looks like padding. So even when the office hears about it, billing it can damage the relationship more than it is worth.
What unbilled extras cost
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Lost revenue | Work done and paid for in wages, never invoiced |
| Eroded margins | Contracts look less profitable than the work being delivered |
| Scope creep | Extras become expected as part of the standard price |
| Disputed late bills | Extras billed weeks later without approval get challenged |
| Unclear pricing | Supervisors improvise prices on the spot |
Scope creep is the long-term damage. When extras are done for free often enough, the client comes to see them as included, and the next contract renewal starts from an expectation you cannot price for.
How we capture and bill extras
- A quick extra-work form on the supervisor's or operative's phone: site, what was asked, who asked, and a photo. It is quick to fill in because the site and contract are already known.
- A price list of common extras, so the form suggests a price, and an option to mark the job for the office to price if it is unusual.
- An approval request sent to the client contact by email or SMS with the description and price, approved with one tap. For work needed immediately, the request goes before the work starts.
- Completion recorded against the extra, with an after photo where it helps, so the client can see what was done.
- Approved and completed extras passed to Xero or QuickBooks as invoice lines against the right client and contract, either on their own invoice or added to the monthly one.
- A monthly view of extras per site and client, so you can see where extras are regular enough to discuss adding to the contract.
Supervisors can still say yes on the spot. The difference is that yes now takes a few taps on a phone and ends up on an invoice with the client's approval attached.
What changes
Extras reach the office the same day they are agreed. Clients approve them in writing before or as the work is done, so the bill is expected when it arrives. Supervisors quote from a price list rather than guessing.
The monthly view shows which clients ask for regular extras. That is useful evidence at renewal: the work being asked for, and a fair basis for pricing it into the next contract.
Is this your situation?
- Supervisors agree extra work on site without telling the office
- Extras are sometimes billed weeks later, or not at all
- Clients challenge extras because there was no written approval
- There is no price list for common extras
- Some clients now expect extras as part of the standard service