Most lost money on a job isn’t lost on the work that was priced. It’s lost on the extra that someone asked for on site, that everyone agreed was a good idea, and that nobody put a price on until the invoice arrived. By then it’s an argument.
What a change order has to record
The AIA’s change order form (G701) is a good model because it records the two things that matter, money and time, as running totals:
- What’s changing, described well enough that someone who wasn’t there would understand it, with any drawing or sketch referenced.
- The contract sum: the original sum, the net change from earlier change orders, the sum before this one, the change from this one, and the new contract sum.
- The contract time: the days added or taken away, and the new date of substantial completion.
- Signatures from the owner and the contractor (and the architect, where there is one), with dates.
The habit that makes it work
The form is the easy part. The habit is getting it signed before the work starts. That means:
- Write it up the same day the change is asked for. A phone photo of a sketch and a one-line description is enough to start.
- Price it, even roughly, before you do it. If it can’t be priced yet, agree in writing how it will be priced: time and materials at agreed rates, for example.
- Include the time. A change that adds a week and says nothing about time has quietly given that week away.
- Number every change order and keep a log, approved and pending, so the contract sum on your next pay app is right.
When there’s no time to sign
Sometimes the work has to happen now. Then send a written note the same day, by text or email, saying what was asked, by whom, and that it’s a change you’ll price. That note, and the daily log entry, are what turn it into a change order later instead of a gift.
This is practical guidance, not legal advice. Your contract sets how changes must be asked for and agreed, and sometimes deadlines for giving notice; follow it.