Charge for the extra work, not just the quoted work

The rot you didn't quote for

Every trade has a version of this moment. The carpenter lifts the deck boards and finds rotten joists. The plumber opens the wall and the pipework behind it is corroded junk. The sparkie pulls a switch plate and finds wiring that should have been condemned a decade ago. The quote covered what you could see; the extra work is what was hiding underneath.

Here's the money problem: the work can't wait. You're on site, the deck is open, the customer wants it done — so you do it. And unbilled extra work has a short shelf life. If it isn't written down and priced while the joists are sitting on the lawn, one of three things happens at invoice time: you forget it, you under-remember it, or the customer disputes it because they never agreed to a number. All three end the same way — you ate the cost of work you did.

Twenty seconds before you keep working

With TradieCue, capturing the extra is one note to Timmy — before the crowbar goes back in your hand:

The variation lands on the Patterson job next to the original quote, with your photos attached to the job as evidence. The number is the one you said — Prices come from the user and stay editable. Timmy structures the work and wording; it does not invent amounts.

Don't have a price yet? Capture it anyway

Often you find the rot before you've priced the fix — you need to check timber prices or think about access. Say the scope anyway. When an important detail is missing (a price, a customer, a scope item), Timmy asks rather than making it up. Expect questions like:

• “What's the price for the joist replacement?” — the draft holds the scope with the amount open until you give it.
• “Which job is this on?” — if you've got two decks running and didn't name one.
• “Does this change the completion date?” — if you mentioned delay without being specific.

A scoped, unpriced variation captured at 10am beats a fully priced one that was never written down. You can add the number from the ute at lunch.

Before you hit send

Nothing is sent automatically. Every quote, variation and follow-up is a draft the user reviews, edits and shares themselves. The review that protects you on extra-work variations:

• The cause is stated — “discovered on removal of decking” is what makes it clearly outside the original quote.
• The number is right, including GST, and covers materials and the labour to do it.
• It asks for a decision — you want the customer's “yes, go ahead” in writing before the new joists go in, not a surprise on the invoice.

Send it, get the reply, keep building. That approval message is the difference between “extra work we agreed to” and “an invoice bigger than the quote”. The full method — evidence, timing, what to do when the customer hesitates — is in how to document extra work.

The manual alternative

The way this usually goes: photo of the rot on your phone, a mental note to “sort it out tonight”, and then a week of nights where it doesn't get sorted. At invoice time you add a line — “extra framing work, $900” — from memory, with no prior agreement. The customer, reasonably enough, pushes back on a number they're seeing for the first time. You knock something off to keep the peace. That discount is the real cost of not writing it down.

The disciplined manual version — stop, open a variation template on your phone, type it up on site — works, and beats nothing. But it's enough friction that on a busy day it loses to the crowbar. A spoken note is the version of the discipline that survives contact with a real Tuesday. The feature behind it is variation capture; if the change is a client decision rather than hidden damage, see documenting building variations.

Common questions