Client wants more revisions than the contract says
The proposal said two revision rounds. This is round four, and the notes arrived as though rounds are unlimited. Here is the email that prices the extra round without a fight, how to count rounds so the number isn’t arguable, and the offer that usually ends the cycle.
The reply
Send it before you start the round, not after. Once you’ve done the work, the only conversation left is about an invoice the client never agreed to.
Script 4 · Feedback round #4 when the contract said 2
When: you’ve delivered the agreed revisions and a new round arrives with no acknowledgement that it’s extra.
Hi [Name], Got the notes, thanks. Quick flag before I start: we’re now past the [two] revision rounds included in the proposal (rounds 1 and 2 were [dates]). Additional rounds are [$X per round / billed at $Y/hr, usually about $Z for a round this size]. Two options: 1. I apply this round as a paid revision: [$X], turned around by [date]. 2. We do a 20-minute call to lock in all remaining changes at once, so this is the last round rather than one of several. I’d recommend option 2. It usually saves everyone money. Which works? [Your name]
Chat version: “Thanks! Heads-up: this is round [4], proposal included [2]. Extra rounds are [$X]. Happy to do it — or let’s do a quick call to bundle everything remaining into one final round. Your call.”
“Got the notes, thanks” comes first on purpose. The client’s feedback is not the problem and the email shouldn’t read as though it is. “Quick flag before I start” does the real work: it makes clear you haven’t begun, which is what gives them a genuine choice and gives you the standing to be paid for the round.
How to count rounds
Arguments about revision limits are almost always arguments about arithmetic, and they happen because nobody defined a round. Define it as one consolidated set of feedback, delivered once, and one pass of changes in response. That gives you rules you can apply without judgment:
- Three emails of notes over two days about the same draft are one round, not three. Don’t punish a client for thinking of something overnight.
- Notes that arrive after you’ve delivered the revised version start a new round, even if they’re short.
- A mistake on your part — a typo you introduced, a link you broke — is a fix, not a round. Never count those. Counting them is how you lose the argument about everything else.
- A change of direction (“actually, can we try it in blue, and with the founder photo”) is a round even if it arrives mid-round, because you’re redoing approved work.
- Feedback from someone new who hasn’t seen it before is a round.
Say the count out loud early, in the same message as each delivery: “that’s round 1 of the two included.” By round 3 the number isn’t a claim you’re making, it’s a fact you’ve both been watching. When you send the reply above, list the dates of rounds 1 and 2 so the client can check them.
Price a round the way you price anything: the half-day minimum at your change rate, scaled to what a round on this project has actually been taking. On a $120/hr change rate that’s $360 to $600 for a typical design round. Quote per round rather than hourly, so the client knows exactly what they’re buying.
Why option 2 is in there
Round four is rarely the last round. Feedback that arrives in trickles keeps arriving in trickles, because writing notes is cheaper than deciding. A 20-minute call changes what the client is doing: instead of reacting to a draft, they have to say what they want and hear what it costs, with everyone else’s opinions in the room at the same time.
Run the call with the draft on screen, write the list as you go, and read it back at the end. Then send that list in an email and ask for a “yes, that’s everything.” The written yes is what makes it the final round rather than the fourth of six. Most clients pick option 2, which is why it’s worth recommending rather than offering neutrally.
Either way, log the outcome: “Round 4, paid revision, approved [date].” Round 5 will come.
Try it on the real email
Paste the client’s email
Paste the feedback email and it matches the situation, prices the round with your change rate and the half-day minimum, and drafts the reply. Three a day, no signup, nothing stored.
Open the full tool in its own tab if the frame feels cramped.
The revision-rounds clause that prevents this in the next proposal, plus thirteen more scripts and the change order template, is in the $12 kit.
The other three situations
- How to tell a client something is out of scope (email template)
- Client keeps asking for extra work: what to say
- Client wants it by Friday 5pm: the rush-fee reply
Or read the three full scripts on the free page, or paste an email into the reply tool.
Questions
What counts as one revision round?
One consolidated set of feedback and one pass of changes in response. Several emails about the same draft are still one round. Notes that arrive after you deliver the revised version start a new one. Fixing your own mistake is never a round.
Can I charge for extra revisions if the contract doesn’t mention a limit?
Not retroactively, but you can set the limit going forward: “I’ve done three rounds so far. I’ll do this one, and from there additional rounds are [$X] each.” Then put a revision clause in the next proposal. Silence in a contract tends to get read as unlimited.
What if the client says the changes are things I got wrong?
Separate the two. Anything you actually got wrong — a typo you introduced, something that contradicts the approved brief — you fix for free and say so. Everything else is a new preference, and preferences are rounds. Making that split yourself, before they ask, keeps the conversation off your competence.