Exceeding the hour budget and peak season: how to calculate

This question often comes late: the holiday is approaching, the work is done, and when it comes time to invoice, it is discovered that there has been no agreement on the excess. This is an unnecessary awkward situation. Overtime laws and peak season mechanisms should be included in the contract beforehand, not negotiated under pressure.

Two different situations, two different approaches

You need to clearly distinguish between two types of situations that exceed the hour budget before considering solutions.

Situation one: unexpected occurrences. The client has new requests or a task takes longer than estimated. The excess is charged at the overage rate specified in the contract and must be approved in writing before work begins.

Situation two: peak seasons can be anticipated. Lunar New Year, Black Friday, or major product launches are seasons both parties know about from the beginning of the year. For this type, the appropriate solution is to temporarily increase capacity, with clear start and end times, rather than calculating overage rates passively by the hour.

The written approval step: why it cannot be skipped.

Creating additional work before providing a quote is the most common mistake, and also the most common cause of tension in relationships. Clients do not have the opportunity to choose, studios lack a basis to demand payment, resulting in discomfort for both parties.

A simple process helps avoid this: describe the new need, estimate the work, send it to the client for confirmation, and then schedule. Confirmation does not need to be complicated; a message clearly stating the content, estimated hours, and unit price is sufficient. This protects the studio from working for free and shields the client from unexpected bills.

Record each hour and send usage reports to justify any excess transparently, avoiding disputes.

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The temporary capacity expansion mechanism for peak seasons.

Instead of negotiating urgently every time Tet comes around, the studio and clients can pre-establish a flexible range in the agreement for predictable seasons. Sinh Vũ does this by increasing the hour budget in the Growth package to about 130% during specified seasons; this flexibility is included in the agreement from the start, not requested each time.

The temporary expansion mechanism requires three elements to function correctly. First, the activation and end times must be clear, for example, from the first week of December to the end of the first week of January. Second, the upper limit of the expansion must be specified with a specific number, not left open. Third, the mechanism to revert to the normal level after the season must be automatic, without needing reminders.

When to split the project into separate parts

Not every out-of-scope task is suitable to be included in the buffer. When the volume exceeds the framework, such as a large campaign or a launch event with many independent tasks, the correct solution is to separate it into its own project with a distinct scope and budget.

Signs to recognize: if the excess can stand alone as a complete brief, it should be a separate project, not an extension of the monthly package.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Doing extra work first and quoting later: clients are passive, studios lose leverage.
• There is no mechanism for peak seasons; negotiating frantically just before Tet while both sides are busiest is not ideal.
• The time has not returned to normal: exceptions become the default, and the studio's capacity is gradually consumed without corresponding price adjustments.
• Not documenting monthly usage levels: when disputes arise, there are no data to justify.

Clearly define the unit price for work outside the scope and require written approval before starting. This protects the studio from unpaid work and protects the client from unexpected invoices.

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The viewpoint of Sinh Vũ

Sinh Vũ addresses this issue in two layers. The first layer is the flexibility margin already included in the agreement: peak seasons are accounted for in advance, not requiring individual requests each time. The second layer is the policy of transferring 20% of unused hours to the next month, allowing for a two-way adjustment of workload, not just one-sided towards the client.

When the work exceeds that framework, Sinh Vũ's answer is to separate the project, not to keep expanding. A monthly package has its limits, and those limits need to be maintained so the studio can serve all current clients well, not just the ones with the most demands.