Why does a job cost more than we quoted?
A contract looks profitable when it is signed. After delivery begins, urgent visits, extra sites or revisions consume hours that were not included in the estimate. Some of that work was promised before the handover; other costs arose later. The difference determines who can prevent the next overrun.
Consider a quoted service visit with standard site access and a defined response time. A request for additional sites or repeated urgent visits changes the delivery obligation. Before attributing the resulting costs to poor execution, compare the scope originally priced, subsequent changes, approval of exceptions and the recorded work. The same additional visit could arise from quotation, contract variation, handover or delivery failure.
Compare the agreed scope with the work required to fulfil it
Scope, exceptions, client expectations, urgency and delivery complexity all affect the realised margin. If those signals do not travel with the deal, delivery discovers the economics after the commitment has already been made.
Find out where the extra obligation entered the job
Compare three things for a small sample of completed jobs: the service quoted and priced, the obligations accepted in the signed contract, and the work log after handover. Check whether a change was requested by the customer, required by the original terms or caused by an internal mistake.
If an urgent-response clause was in the signed agreement but excluded from the labour estimate, the correction belongs in quotation and approval rules. If the customer requested additional visits afterwards, examine variation control and billing. If a properly scoped job required repeat work because of a fault, inspect the delivery process. The same reported overrun can support three very different decisions.
The team that pays for the extra hours may not have authority to negotiate the promise. Clarify who can approve non-standard terms and who can reject an uncosted change before assigning a margin target to Delivery.
| Where the difference arose | Evidence to compare | Decision right to clarify |
|---|---|---|
| In the original agreement | Quote assumptions, signed terms, staffing and service-level requirements. | Who can price and approve non-standard commitments? |
| In a later client request | Change requests, accepted variations, work orders and invoices. | Who can accept, cost and bill for additional work? |
| During execution | Rework records, incident notes, initial scope and actual job events. | Who can change delivery methods and correct recurring defects? |
An example from earlier professional work records additional visits required by service commitments. It does not by itself establish that Delivery caused a margin loss.
Trace handover decisions into operational cost
CRM problem map
A record can move correctly while the commercial context needed by Delivery does not.
Cost-to-serve
See how scope, exceptions and delivery complexity change the economics of a customer.
Revenue Visibility Review
Map what Sales, Delivery and Finance can actually connect across the systems in use.
A specific example of connecting sales records to post-sale work is the Pipedrive Deals and Projects analysis.
Where handover failures originate
The loss can occur in scoping, contracting, operational planning or the information passed on.