Scope Creep Calculator

Nobody notices scope creep happening. Each request is small, each one is reasonable, and the one that finally makes the job unprofitable feels exactly like the first one did.

This logs them as they arrive — what was asked, how long it took, and whether you charged for it — and shows what your rate had fallen to after each one. On the seeded example a job quoted at $100 an hour is at $86.96 after the first favour, $74.07 after the second, and the freelancer has given away seven hours worth $700 without a single moment where a decision was made.

It is deliberately not an argument for billing everything. A small favour early is often what gets the next job, and a freelancer who invoices for twenty minutes does not get asked again — the page says so in as many words. What costs money is not knowing, and the fourth unbilled change feeling identical to the first.

When a request genuinely is large, this is the page to put in front of the client. A figure is easier to have a conversation about than a mood, and “we are eleven hours past the twenty I quoted for” lands differently from “this is getting to be a lot”.

Save as many versions as you like and put any two side by side, figure against figure, with the better one on each line marked and the difference in its own column. That screen is the one that decides things, and it is the part a free calculator cannot do at all.

It does not chase anybody, send anything, or connect to your invoicing. It is a record you keep while the project is still running, which is the only time the number is any use.

One HTML file. No account, no subscription, no internet needed. Opens on Windows, Mac and Android; the readme explains the extra step on iPhone and iPad, where Apple blocks JavaScript in downloaded files and every tool of this kind is affected.

Everything lives in your browser on your device. Nothing is uploaded, which is why it works offline and why nobody else can see your figures — and it also means clearing your browsing data deletes it. The tool does not pretend otherwise: the header shows how long since your last export at all times, turns amber after three days and red after seven, and export is one click that produces a plain file you keep.