# We asked to add a section and were told that is separate work. Is that how it should be? | Illia BizTech

> Five pages of job listings are to be charged separately. The week before, copy on three pages and photos were swapped without discussion.

Source: https://illia-biztech.de/en/forum/we-asked-to-add-a-section-and-were-told-that-is-separate-work-is-that-how-it-should-be

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# We asked to add a section and were told that is separate work. Is that how it should be?

Five pages of job listings are to be charged separately. The week before, copy on three pages and photos were swapped without discussion.

* ##### Asked on  
May 13, 2026

We have a monthly retainer for the website. We asked to add a section with job listings, about five pages.

Our supplier says that is separate work and not included in the retainer. The week before, the same person changed the copy on three pages and swapped photographs without any discussion, and that apparently was included.

I cannot follow the logic; both look like work on the website.

Where does the line run, and how do you agree it in advance?

#### Answers

![Portrait of Illia Belichenko, technical specialist at Illia BizTech](/_ipx/f_webp,q_75/https://cms.illia-biztech.de/uploads/small_Illia_Belichenko_author_81f88864f0.png)

##### Illia Belichenko

✓ Accepted answer May 14, 2026 

The line runs along the size of a task and how predictable it is.

Monthly work usually covers what recurs. Changes to copy and images, new pages using an existing template, updates to the system and its extensions, backups, watching availability, small adjustments to forms, chasing down faults. What counts as separate work is anything that changes the system itself. A new section with a structure of its own, a move to a different platform, a redesign, a connection to an external service, multilingual support where there was none. The test people use in practice: if the task can be done within what has already been built, it is support. If something new has to be built for it, it is a project.

Disputable cases are worth agreeing beforehand, before the month starts. Then the conversation about whether it was included does not happen after the work is done. It helps to think of a retainer as reserved time. Then in one month it can go to the website and in the next to copy, and the question "is this included" becomes "how long will it take".

When the monthly model is cheaper than individual jobs at all is covered [here](https://illia-biztech.de/en/blog/monthly-work-or-one-off).

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**Topics** 
* retainer
* scope