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ARealising partway through a project that an agreed deadline is no longer realistic puts a service provider in an uncomfortable position, yet delaying the conversation about it, hoping the gap can somehow be closed silently, almost always makes the eventual outcome worse.
BRaising the issue as early as possible, rather than waiting until the deadline has already clearly been missed, gives a client more options to respond to, such as adjusting their own downstream plans, rather than discovering the delay only once it has already caused a problem elsewhere.
CFraming the conversation around a revised plan, rather than simply an apology, tends to go over better; clients generally respond more calmly to "here is the new realistic date and why" than to a vague admission that something has gone wrong without a clear path forward.
DProviders who have a track record of flagging problems honestly and early, even when the news is unwelcome, often find that clients extend more patience over time than those who only ever report good news, since reliability in communication builds a different kind of trust than simply never having a problem.