Create and approve a change order
Track scope changes and cost adjustments, and approve them.
- 1Open the project and go to the Change Orders tab.
- 2Click New Change Order. Enter a title, amount (use negative for a deduction), reason, and who requested it (GC or sub).
- 3Optionally link it to a subcontract.
- 4Save. Then Approve, Reject, or Reset to Pending as needed.
Approved change orders flow into the Financial Summary and increase your Revised Contract total.
WHICH BUDGET LINE IT RAISES. A change order can be attached to a specific budget line, and it matters: attached, the amount is added to that line, and on a pay application that line's scheduled value goes up with it. Unattached, it appears as its own "Approved change orders" row - fine for owner-side extra work that belongs to no particular line, but it will NOT fix a line that has been billed past its scheduled value.
The quickest way to get this right is to start from the problem. When a pay application refuses a line for being over its scheduled value, the words "change order" in that message are a link - it opens this form with the exact overage and the right line already attached. The form shows "Raises <line name>" so you can see what it is going to do before you approve it.
They also raise the budget. An approved change order adds its amount to the budget line it belongs to - the line you picked, or the line its subcontract sits on. Without that, approving a change order raised the sub's contract while leaving the budget alone, and the line went red at the exact moment the extra was approved and funded. The Budget tab shows the increase as "incl. $X CO" on the line, and your original estimate is kept intact underneath.
This is derived, not written in - un-approving, rejecting or deleting a change order takes the amount straight back out of the budget. There is nothing to undo by hand and no way to count it twice.
An approved change order that names NEITHER a budget line nor a subcontract still counts in Total Budget, but it cannot show on any row - so the Budget tab lists it under "Not on a budget line" at the bottom, with a picker to file it against one. Until you do, the rows above will not add up to the headline, and that panel is the explanation.