Where the line sits
The dangerous add-on is not the big one. It is the middle one.
Nobody writes a change order for tightening a hinge. Everybody writes one for a bathroom addition. The trouble lives between those two, in the requests that are too big to absorb without noticing and too small to feel like they deserve paperwork. That is the zone where contractors quietly lose money all season, one $80 favor at a time, and it is the zone worth having a rule for.
Direct answer
Set a threshold in advance and apply it without thinking. Most experienced contractors land somewhere between ten minutes and half an hour of labor, or a small dollar figure. Below the line, do it and say out loud that it is free. Above the line, write it up with a price before you start. The rule matters more than where exactly you draw it.
01Workflow
Setting a threshold you will actually use
- 1
Pick a number in time or dollars that you can decide on in three seconds while standing on a ladder.
- 2
Decide what happens below the line: do it, and say it is on the house so free never becomes the default.
- 3
Decide what happens above the line: a short written note with a price, before the work starts.
- 4
Handle repeat customers with a wider line if you want, but keep it deliberate rather than mood-based.
- 5
Write the threshold down once so it survives the days when you are tired and want to say yes to everything.
02Practical notes
What matters in the field.
The middle-sized change is where the money leaks.
Small favors get absorbed on purpose, which is fine. Big changes get paperwork, because they obviously need it. The $80 to $300 requests get neither: too awkward to bill without a conversation, too real to swallow. Contractors describe these being added to the final invoice and then forgotten, or worse, argued about weeks later.
One contractor's version: the ten-minute rule.
If it takes more than ten minutes, it gets billed. At his hourly rate that means he is willing to lose about twelve dollars to keep a customer happy - anything past that, he says, is taking money from his family. That is what a real threshold sounds like: a number he can apply instantly without renegotiating with himself every time.
Loyalty can widen the line, but say so.
The same contractor gives repeat customers who pay on time and treat him like a professional a half hour instead of ten minutes. After that, he charges. The generosity is real and it is bounded, and the customer knows both things.
Hourly billing sidesteps the question entirely.
Some remodelers price small jobs by the hour specifically so the question never comes up. As one put it, he does not care if you ask him to walk your dog - it is his hourly rate plus expenses either way. If most of your small work fits that model, it removes the change order decision from small jobs altogether.
Free is fine. Silent free is not.
The difference between goodwill and getting taken advantage of is whether the customer knows it was a gift. 'I'll take care of that one, no charge' costs nothing and resets expectations. Doing it quietly teaches the customer that extras are included, and the next request will be bigger.
03Checklist
Your small-job rule
A threshold stated in minutes or dollars, decided in advance
Below the line: done, and named out loud as free
Above the line: written down with a price before starting
A wider line for repeat customers, if you choose, applied consistently
The rule written somewhere, not just remembered
Middle-sized requests treated as above the line by default
Example
Applying the rule on site
Under the line: 'Yeah I'll swap that switch plate while I'm in there - no charge, takes me a second.'
Over the line: 'Happy to hang those two extra pieces. That's about an hour, so $95 - want me to go ahead?'
Repeat customer, borderline: 'That one's on me. You've never made me chase an invoice.'
04FAQ
Common questions.
Isn't writing up an $80 add-on overkill?
The write-up does not have to be a form. A two-line text with the work and the price is a change order in every way that matters on a small job. What makes it overkill is treating it like a construction contract, not the act of putting a number in writing.
What if I already said yes before thinking about the price?
Follow it with the number immediately, before you start: 'Before I get into it, that one's about $120 - still good?' Adjusting a yes in the first minute is normal. Adding a figure three weeks later on an invoice is the part that causes fights.
Should I have the same threshold for every customer?
Not necessarily, but the variation should be deliberate. Contractors commonly give more room to customers who pay promptly and treat them well. The failure mode is a threshold that moves with your mood, because then neither you nor the customer knows what to expect.
See what the approval record looks like.
Open the sample PDF first, then download SiteTicket AI if this is close to how you handle added work, customer approval, and invoice backup.
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