Is It Out of Scope? — Web development
Is adding e-commerce functionality out of scope for a web development project?
Yes. Cart, checkout, payment processing, and inventory logic are substantial features with real security and compliance surface area — never an incidental add to a site build.
The build was scoped as a content site or web app without commerce. A request to "add a shop" arrives, sometimes framed as simply as "can we sell a few things." Functionally, this means product data modeling, cart state management, payment gateway integration (with PCI-relevant handling), order management, and typically inventory tracking — a meaningfully sized feature set with real security implications, not a page addition.
Is it out of scope?
Yes, and by a wide margin. This is core new functionality with its own architecture, security, and often compliance requirements (payment handling). It should never be treated as an incremental add regardless of how the client frames the catalog size.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Deliverables clause→ — The build's feature list defines what was architected and quoted — commerce functionality sits well outside that unless explicitly scoped from the start.
Example contract wording
Example contract wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
The current build doesn't include commerce functionality — cart, checkout, and payment processing are a substantial feature set with their own security and compliance considerations, not something we can safely bolt on informally. I'd like to scope this as its own project, starting with a call to understand your product/inventory needs — when works for you?
How MarginFlow flags it
MarginFlow flags commerce-functionality requests outside_scope with high confidence, and — because this touches payment handling — the explanation surfaces the security/compliance angle explicitly, not just the scope gap, so the account manager understands this isn't just a pricing conversation but one that needs a proper scoping call before any commitment is made.