Keeping change orders on paper

Scope creep on remodels is usually not one large decision. It tends to be a series of small favors, each awkward to price in the moment, and a job that finishes lighter than the estimate said it would.

Decide who can approve added work

Pick one or two people who can commit to added scope, and make sure everyone else has language ready instead. Something like this works.

"That is a good idea and we can do it. It is outside what we priced, so let me get you a number today and you can decide."

It is friendly, it is not a refusal, and it moves the decision onto paper.

Price it the same day when you can

Changes priced within a few hours usually get signed while the conversation is still fresh. Changes priced next week can read as opportunistic, even when the number is fair. A form a project manager can fill from the truck goes a long way.

What our change order form captures

• A numbered change order tied to the job
• Title and scope description in plain language
• The reason the change came up
• Line items, which total to the price impact on the contract
• Internal notes the client never sees
• Status through draft, sent, approved, and rejected, with the timestamps kept

Schedule impact is not a separate field today. If a change adds days, write the day count into the scope description so it lands on the document the client signs. Owners tend to negotiate on dollars and get genuinely upset about dates, so putting the day count in writing every time takes most of the heat out of a later conversation about why the job ran long.

Getting the signature

A change order saves as a draft first, then goes to the client for sign-off. The client can approve it by typed signature in their portal, and shops with e-signature connected can route it that way instead. The approval time and the name signed are stored with the record.

Verbal approvals

Sometimes waiting is not realistic. Send a text summarizing scope and price, get a yes in writing before anyone picks up a tool, and paste the exchange into the internal notes on the change order. A text thread is a document, and it has held up better than memory in every dispute we have watched.

A Friday habit

Once a week, walk the open jobs and ask one question. Has anything changed here that we have not priced? Ten minutes on that tends to protect margin more reliably than new estimating software.