Is It Out of Scope? — Web design
Is creating a client portal out of scope for a web design project?
Yes. A client portal is a distinct application with its own login, permissions, and interface — not a page added to the marketing site.
This usually surfaces once the marketing site is nearly done and the client realizes they also want somewhere their own customers can log in — to view orders, documents, or account details. It gets framed as "just another section" of the same site.
Is it out of scope?
Yes. A portal needs authentication, permissioning, and application-style UI patterns that a marketing-site design engagement was never scoped to design or build — it's a different kind of product.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Exclusions clause→ — A login-gated application falls outside a marketing-site design scope entirely, regardless of visual overlap with the rest of the site.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
The signed scope covers the public marketing pages, not a login-gated portal — that's application design work with its own information architecture and states. Happy to scope that separately.
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags portal and login-area requests outside_scope on design contracts, since they introduce authentication and app-state design the original page list never accounted for.