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Scope and changes

A change order log that keeps the commercial picture current

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

The owner opens the monthly meeting with two questions: what the approved changes add up to, and what is still waiting for a decision. The answer is spread across four email threads, the estimator's spreadsheet and a folder of signed change orders. The figure your project manager gives is out by $60,000, and it takes a week to find out why.

A person works at a laptop showing a spreadsheet-style document, with a clipboard and notebooks on a grey desk in a bright office.
Photo: Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash

A change moves through several stages — raised, notice given, priced, submitted, negotiated, then approved or rejected — and each stage tends to live in a different place. Without one log, nobody can say what the contract is worth today, how much is at risk, or which requests have waited too long. The log is also an early warning: a column of unpriced items in month three is next quarter's cash problem.

  1. Open a line the day a possible change appears, before it has a price: number, title, date, source and who raised it.
  2. Give each line one status — raised, notice sent, priced, submitted, approved, rejected, withdrawn — and the date it last changed.
  3. Keep value and time in separate columns: estimated, submitted and approved amounts; days requested and granted.
  4. Give each change a cost code, so its actual cost stays separate from the base work.
  5. Link the paper: notice, request, backup, time and material (T&M) tickets and the signed change order.
  6. Mirror the trades: log each subcontractor's related request under the same number.
  7. Review it weekly with the site team, and send the owner a monthly summary by status, oldest items first.

Common mistakes

  • Adding a line only once a price is ready.
  • Overwriting the submitted value with the approved one.
  • Keeping owner and subcontractor changes in unrelated lists.
  • Reporting only approved changes, so pending ones surprise the owner.

Checklist

Columns your log needs

  • Number, title, date raised and source
  • Status and the date it last changed
  • Estimated, submitted and approved values
  • Days requested and days granted
  • Cost code for the change
  • Links to notice, request, backup and tickets
  • Related subcontractor requests

Check your understanding

Why keep estimated, submitted and approved values in separate columns instead of updating one number?

Show the answer
Each answers a different question: what the change costs you, what you asked for and what you will be paid. Compared across the job, they show where you under-price, where you concede in negotiation and how much is still unresolved. One overwritten number hides all three.

Sources

  1. FAR 52.243-6, Change Order AccountingU.S. General Services Administration (Acquisition.gov) · United States (federal contracts) · accessed
  2. FAR 43.205, Contract clauses (change orders)U.S. General Services Administration (Acquisition.gov) · United States (federal contracts) · accessed

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