Every urgent call pushes a planned job into overtime
Assess urgent job contribution including displaced work and rescheduling costs rather than headline emergency revenue.
Corporate Recovery Partners
01 / 06
The urgent job creates costs elsewhere
A hypothetical trade business accepts an urgent call during a fully booked week. The extra invoice looks attractive, but a planned job moves into a more expensive period and another customer needs a return visit. Before celebrating the added revenue, examine the schedule changes it caused. The cost of urgent work can extend beyond the crew's time at that particular address.
Record which appointments, people and equipment must move to accommodate the request. Check commitments to existing customers and any operational constraints. Do not assume a planned job can be delayed without consequence. Raise safety-critical issues through the proper process; a commercial comparison should not replace the response required for an actual emergency or hazard.
Business.gov.au's pricing guidance recommends considering the costs of supplying a service and the business's capacity to deliver. Include supported additional travel, rescheduling and labour costs in the decision. Avoid counting the full value of a delayed job as a loss if it will still be performed later. Explain whether the effect is extra cost, delayed cash or genuinely lost work.
In the hypothetical example, the urgent job may still be worthwhile after the additional costs are understood. Alternatively, the available price may not support the disruption. Check the customer's agreed scope and price before proceeding. Do not assume urgency authorises an undisclosed surcharge or allows an existing agreement to be changed unilaterally.
Give the person taking calls a practical way to check capacity and obtain approval for significant schedule changes. Keep exceptions visible rather than relying on informal promises from whoever answers first. An escalation process should allow a prompt, informed response without requiring the estimator to reconstruct the whole week's commitments during every call.
Compare the urgent job's receipts and costs with the effects on displaced work. CRP can help organise the commercial review. The aim is to understand which urgent jobs contribute to the business and which merely make an already busy week more expensive.
