How to write a change order that actually gets paid
Almost every unpaid change order has the same fault: the work was already done when the paper appeared.
The rule that decides whether you get paid
Signed before it starts. Not signed at the end of the week, not "I mentioned it on Tuesday", not a text message. Once work is done, the conversation is about whether the client owes you for something they already have — and that is an argument you lose more often than you win, regardless of who was right.
The hardest ones to hold this line on are the small ones, and the small ones are where the habit is set. A client who has signed for a $180 change is not surprised by the process on the $4,000 one.
What has to be on it
Which contract it changes
The original agreement by date and address. A change order floating free of the thing it changes is just an invoice.
What is different, in scope terms
What is being added, removed or substituted. If a quantity moves, say the old one and the new one — "wall face 416 sq ft → 468 sq ft" tells the whole story.
Why
Client request, unforeseen condition, or design change. It costs one line and it is the line that stops the disagreement about whose fault it is.
The price of the change, on its own
Not the new total. The delta, so it can be checked against the work.
The effect on the schedule
Even if the answer is none — say none. Unstated schedule impact is the second commonest change-order dispute after price.
A signature and a date
Both parties, before the work.
Unforeseen conditions are a category of their own
Opening a wall and finding no header, rot, knob-and-tube, or a stack that is not where the drawings say — these are not scope changes and they should not be priced like one. They are discoveries, and the proposal should already have said that anything behind an unopened wall is excluded.
When one turns up, the sequence is: stop, photograph it, price it, get it signed. The photograph is the part people skip and the part that ends the argument.
Keeping the original honest
A change order only means something if there is a fixed thing it is changing. That means the signed scope has to be preserved exactly as signed — not edited, not updated in place, not "the latest version".
Trueline treats the signed proposal as a baseline that is never edited. Every later difference is a change order against it, so at any point you can show what was agreed, what changed, when, and who signed for each.
Free download: Change order — a blank PDF to print, generated by the same code that produces the app’s own documents. All the templates.
Questions people ask
- Can I do change order work before it is signed?
- You can, and you frequently will not be paid for it. Once the work exists, the discussion is about whether the client owes you for something they already have. Signed first, every time, including the small ones.
- What if the client will not sign a change order?
- Then the work is not in scope and it does not happen. That is uncomfortable once and much less uncomfortable than the alternative. Keep the original scope moving and let the change sit unsigned.
- Should a change order show the new contract total?
- Show the price of the change on its own so it can be checked against the work. A running total is useful as a second line, never as the only line.
- How do I handle a discovery, like rot behind a wall?
- Stop, photograph it, price it and get it signed before continuing. The photograph is what makes it a discovery rather than a claim, and your proposal should already have excluded anything behind an unopened wall.
Where this fits with Trueline
Trueline is an iPhone app that measures a room, takes it off, prices it from your own rate book and turns it into a proposal — with every length carrying whether it was scanned, drawn or measured, right onto the document a client reads. See how it works, or take the free templates and use them with whatever you already have.