A change request without a new price is a discount
When a client asks for more scope, only the deadline usually moves. This post argues that every change request should also renegotiate the price, not just the schedule.
A client emails on a Tuesday. The launch is three weeks away and they want a booking form added to the marketing site. You quote nothing, because the request feels small. You simply push the deadline back and get on with it. This is the moment most studios lose money without noticing.
Scope and price move together
At Yunaristech we work at a fixed price, agreed once the brief is settled. That price accounts for a defined set of pages, features and revisions. When you add a booking form, a payment gateway or a second language, you are not asking for the same project delivered later. You are asking for a different project.
Moving the deadline alone treats scope as free and time as the only cost. It is not. Every new feature needs design decisions, build hours and testing, regardless of how much time remains. If the price stays fixed while the brief grows, the studio absorbs that cost quietly, and quiet costs tend to repeat.
A deadline extension without a price change simply moves the loss further down the calendar.
Why this protects you too
A studio that renegotiates price on every change request is not being difficult. It is being honest about what the work now involves. You benefit from that honesty. When the price adjusts with scope, you receive an accurate account of what your project costs, not a number that was true weeks ago and has since drifted. You can then decide whether the booking form is worth the extra cost now, or whether it belongs in a second phase after launch.
This also keeps the relationship clear. If price never moves no matter how much scope changes, you have no signal for what any single request actually costs. Every future addition looks free, so requests accumulate, and the project drifts further from the original brief without anyone deciding that drift was worth it.
The fix is straightforward. Treat every change request as a small negotiation, not an amendment to the calendar. State what the new feature involves, what it costs, and how it affects the schedule together, as one decision rather than two. You keep control over the budget, and the studio keeps a fair account of the work it is doing.
Fixed price only works as a promise if both sides treat scope changes the same way each time. A deadline can absorb a delay. It cannot absorb new work for free. Ask for the price alongside the date, every time, and the whole arrangement stays honest for the length of the project.