Prime contract change orders

A change order (CO) occurs when there's a change to the original prime contract's scope of work. Changes can be initiated by the owner, architect, regulatory agency, or even your own firm.

COs can be documented regardless of contract type: Fixed Lump Sum, Cost Plus, or Unit Price. When marked approved with a signed date, the CO affects budgets for any type of contract.

Breakdown of change order budgets

Revised budgets shown on reports and project analytics are affected only if change orders are marked Approved with a status date.

Budget Types
Contract type Revenue or
contract amt. 		M/L/E/S/O cost Labor hours Equipment hours
Fixed lump sum Yes Yes Yes Yes
Cost plus with GMP Yes Yes Yes Yes
Cost plus without GMP Yes Yes Yes
Unit price Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes indicates that the CO will add or deduct from the original budgets in the prime contract.

Important things to know

  • Order #: The Order # field contains an integer and determines previous change order amounts. On the change order report, the previous change order amount is equal to all change orders that are marked Approved with a status date and have an order number less than the current CO value.
  • CO Status: Status options occur in the following sequence:
    • Draft
    • Pending Submission
    • Pending
    • Not Approved or Approved.
  • Approval Process: After the CO has been reviewed by the customer, be sure to update the CO status and Status date fields.
  • Invoicing COs: For the prime contract invoice to include COs, the following criteria must be met:
    • The prime contract type must be Fixed Lump Sum or Unit Price.
    • The CO must be marked Approved with a status date.
    • The CO status date must be on or before the prime contract invoice's issue date.
  • Budget Tracking: Financial dashboards in Project Analytics reflect only change orders that have been marked Approved with a status date.
  • Emailing: To email a change order, select Details Report. The select either Email doc or Email PDF. The change order is included as an attachment in the email so that the recipient can print and sign it.

For more information, see Business processes for change management.

Steps to complete before entering change orders

  1. Review Initiated By Options in Settings > Feature settings > Contract admin.
  2. Make sure the person who will review the change order is listed in the project directory.
  3. Make sure that the prime contract has been created and is marked Approved with a status date.
  4. Job cost codes must be established because they are a required reference in the change order's proposed items list.
  5. Tax Codes can be referenced in the change orders proposed items list, but they are not required.
  6. Add change proposal request markups or change order markups.

Change order add options

Change orders can be created manually, or they can be generated from an estimate, change proposal request (CPR), or work order (WO). Select one of the following links for more information.

Editing change orders

  • Change order items cannot be added or modified, even if they have not yet been invoiced under the following conditions:
    • A prime contract invoice exists.
    • In Settings > Feature Settings > Contract Admin, the Do not allow prime contracts or change orders to be modified after prime invoices have been created checkbox is selected.
  • Invoiced change order items cannot be modified.
  • If a workflow rule applies to the change order and the rule has been initiated or approved, nothing can be modified unless the rule is abandoned.

Edit Functions:

See Also