Unplanned work can shrink professional-services project margins when teams spend extra hours without matching revenue, fail to bill work they have completed, or use capacity that could have served another client. The practical fix is to make the work visible while a project is active: record scope changes, capture time, monitor overruns and review project-level financial performance before closeout.
What the latest survey says—and what it does not
A June 2026 Vanson Bourne survey of 125 decision-makers at UK midmarket and enterprise organizations, reported by Unit4, found that 69% said unplanned work had increased over the previous 12 months. Respondents attributed about 30% of a typical project’s time to unplanned work. These are survey findings from a defined UK sample, not a universal industry rate or a causal measurement of margin loss. Unit4’s survey announcement describes the respondents and findings.
The most commonly reported sources were managing scope changes or unclear requirements (53%), rework, issue resolution or corrections (49%), and chasing updates, feedback or approvals (41%). Low-value internal meetings were also cited by 41%. Respondents could identify multiple sources, so the percentages do not add up to a single allocation of unplanned time.
Fifty-eight percent said inefficiency had a moderate or significant effect on project profitability and margins. Unit4 also reported an estimated 8% of project revenue lost to inefficiency. Both figures reflect respondent-reported survey findings; they are not audited estimates proving that unplanned work alone caused a particular amount of lost margin. The release also reports that 79% said operational inefficiency negatively affects organizational financial performance.
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How extra work reaches the margin
Fixed-fee work: more cost without more revenue
When a fixed-fee project absorbs additional delivery hours but its price and scope are not adjusted, labor and other delivery costs rise against the same revenue. The margin narrows even if the client receives useful work.
Time-and-materials work: effort can go unbilled
On time-and-materials engagements, time that is not captured, approved or invoiced can become revenue leakage. Deltek defines revenue leakage as the gap between earned and realized revenue, with possible sources including missed billing, scope creep, write-offs and weak contract controls. In its summary of SPI Research’s 2025 benchmark, average revenue leakage was around 4.5%; that benchmark is separate from Unit4’s survey estimate and should not be combined with it. Deltek’s KPI summary provides the benchmark context.
Capacity has an opportunity cost
Unplanned effort also consumes people’s time. If a team is occupied with extra work, rework or internal coordination, it may have less capacity for other billable assignments. The value of that displaced work depends on demand, skills and staffing; it should not be treated as automatic or added to direct project cost without a clear basis.
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Project margin is not firmwide EBITDA
SPI Research’s 2026 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark coverage, summarized by Deltek, reports 2025 averages of 37.7% project margin, 66.4% billable utilization, 10.7% project overrun and 9.9% EBITDA. The measures describe different things: project margin is a project-level result, while EBITDA is a firmwide financial measure. These 2025 benchmarks provide context; they do not show that unplanned work caused any one firm’s outcome or that a specific control will produce a particular result. Deltek’s benchmark summary identifies the figures and their year.
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Where unplanned work tends to come from
Scope changes and unclear requirements
A client request may sound like a small adjustment but add analysis, design, approvals or implementation effort. Ambiguous requirements create a related risk: teams may disagree about whether the request was included in the original commitment. McKinsey notes that customer scope changes are often completed without payment when change-management processes are weak or project managers hesitate to raise a difficult conversation.
Rework and issue resolution
Corrections and fixes can consume planned capacity without expanding the deliverable. Record their cause rather than labeling all extra hours as “scope creep”: quality problems, unclear acceptance criteria, estimating gaps and client changes call for different remedies.
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Coordination and approval delays
Chasing updates, feedback and approvals can turn waiting into repeated follow-ups, handoffs and schedule disruption. Internal meetings may also consume delivery time without advancing a decision or deliverable. Track these activities in a way that helps managers distinguish necessary coordination from avoidable friction.
Controls that make margin risk visible early
Define the baseline and create a simple change path
- Document deliverables, assumptions, exclusions and acceptance criteria at project start.
- Train delivery staff to recognize when a request changes scope, even if it is presented informally.
- Give project managers a straightforward route to assess the impact on effort, schedule, price and risk, then obtain a decision before work proceeds where practical.
- Record changes even when they are approved at zero additional charge. Classify the reason—customer request, estimating gap, quality rework, contractual obligation or another cause—so the firm can learn from both paid and absorbed work.
Not every change should be billed: some may be contractually included, commercially strategic or needed to correct the firm’s own work. The record makes those decisions explicit instead of letting extra effort disappear from view.
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Capture time and compare actuals with the estimate
Require timely time entry against the relevant project and activity, including nonbillable work that affects delivery. Compare actual effort with the estimate and remaining scope throughout execution, not only after invoicing. A project trending over budget is an early signal to investigate; it is not by itself proof that the work is avoidable or that a client should be charged.
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Monitor a small set of linked indicators
- Project overrun: compare actual or forecast effort and cost with the approved baseline.
- Project margin: review the current forecast as well as the eventual result, using consistent cost and revenue definitions.
- Billable utilization: examine how capacity is allocated across projects, while recognizing that utilization alone does not establish project profitability.
- Revenue leakage: reconcile earned work with realized revenue and investigate missed billing, write-offs and unrecorded scope.
Deltek’s KPI summary lists missed billing, scope creep, write-offs and poor contract controls among potential leakage sources; it does not make the separate benchmark rate a forecast for an individual firm.
Review projects during delivery, then examine patterns
McKinsey recommends comparing planned work and cost with actual progress and cost while delivery is underway. Regular project-level reviews give leaders a chance to address scope, resourcing or delivery problems before closeout. Portfolio reviews add another view: compare unusually good and poor outcomes, look for recurring causes and use the findings to improve estimating and project selection. McKinsey discusses project performance reviews and related operating practices in its analysis of project-based services.
Plan resources around demand and skills
Resource planning can reduce avoidable clashes between incoming work and available skills. McKinsey describes practices such as standard project archetypes, intake processes, demand forecasting and skill-mix controls. These help leaders assess whether teams are allocated to the right work; they do not remove the need to manage scope, time capture and project economics.
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Choosing systems to support the controls
Technology is useful when it connects the information managers need to act, rather than merely collecting it in separate places. When comparing project or professional-services tools, check whether they link:
- approved scope and change records;
- time and cost actuals against estimates;
- resource plans and allocation across projects;
- project revenue, margin and financial data; and
- codes for write-offs and nonbillable changes.
Also verify that project managers can see emerging overruns during delivery, not just after a period closes. The cited benchmarks and operational analysis support the need for connected visibility; they do not establish that a particular vendor or system guarantees better margins.
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