Clients you do work for in a typical month.
Requests outside the signed scope that you delivered without billing: one more round, new sizes, a version for another channel.
How long one of those extras really takes, from the ask to the delivery, including the back and forth.
What you charge clients per hour on average. If you price by project, use your blended rate: fee divided by hours worked.
People who deliver client work, including freelancers you use regularly. It doesn't change the amount; it shows what share of your team's year the free work takes.
Free work this year
$40,500
- Per month
- $3,375
- Unbilled hours this year
- 540
- Share of your team's working year
- 4%
That's $1,000 a month or more, the range where 57% of US agencies in one survey say their unbilled scope creep sits.
The Drum, May 2025How we calculate it
Free work per year = active clients × extras per client per month × hours per extra × hourly rate × 12. Per month is the same figure divided by 12. Unbilled hours = active clients × extras × hours × 12. Share of your team's year = unbilled hours ÷ (team size × 1,800), where 1,800 is an approximation of one person's working hours in a year after holidays and leave. With the starting values: 10 × 3 × 1.5 × $75 × 12 = $40,500 a year, or $3,375 a month, which is 540 hours and about 4% of an eight-person team's year. Nothing else is in the math.
57% of US agencies lose $1,000 to $5,000 a month to unbilled scope creep, and 30% lose more than $5,000. Only 1% bill for all of their out-of-scope work. From Ignition's 2025 survey of 273 agency leaders.
No. It's an estimate built from your own five numbers, so it's only as accurate as they are. Most owners undercount the extras. Try a second pass and include the requests you'd rather not count.
Anything a client asked for that wasn't in the signed proposal and that you delivered without a change request or an invoice: an extra revision round, new sizes, a version for another channel, a quick landing page.
It doesn't change the dollar figure. It shows what share of your team's working year goes to free work, assuming about 1,800 working hours per person a year.