Scope of Work
The scope of work is the written list of exactly what you will and won’t do on a job — the tasks, the materials, and the boundaries. It’s what you point to when a client asks to add one more small thing and you need to say whether that’s included.
What it means
A scope of work is the part of a quote that actually protects you. It’s not the price — it’s the fence around the price. List what’s included (repaint two bedrooms, patch three holes, prime and two coats) and just as importantly what’s excluded (doesn’t include the ceiling, doesn’t include moving furniture).
Without a written scope, every quote is a lump sum with fuzzy edges, and fuzzy edges are exactly where scope creep gets in — a client asks for one more thing, you say yes to be nice, and by the third “one more thing” you’re doing free work. A clear scope turns that same request into a normal, priced change order instead of an awkward conversation.
Your quote says “repaint two bedrooms and hallway, walls only, one coat primer plus two coats paint, client’s own paint colour.” When the client asks you to also do the ceilings, the scope makes it obvious that’s extra — you quote the ceilings separately instead of guessing whether it was already included.
Writing the scope as one vague line like “painting as discussed” instead of an itemized list — leaving “as discussed” to mean whatever the client remembers, which is rarely the same as what you remember.
See also
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