How do I document change orders on site to ensure I get paid?

To get paid for a change, document it before the work starts: write down who asked for it and when, describe and photograph the change, price the labor, material and time, and get written approval from someone with the authority to give it. When the general contractor wants the work done before a price is agreed, get a written directive and have time-and-material tickets signed every day.

Why verbal changes go unpaid

The superintendent who said "just take care of it, we'll sort it out" may be on another project by closeout. The project manager who reviews your request was not there. The contract almost certainly says changes must be in writing and that you must give notice within a set number of days. Without paper, the fair answer and the contractual answer are different, and the contractual one is what gets paid.

Step one: recognize a change

A change is anything that differs from the contract documents you priced:

• Work added, moved or removed
• A condition that is not what the drawings show
• A different sequence, or working out of order
• Restricted access, or overtime to recover someone else's delay
• A revised drawing, or a response to an RFI that adds work

Train foremen to ask one question whenever they are told to do something: "Is this on our drawings?" If not, they stop and call the office before doing it.

Step two: give notice in writing, the same day

Most subcontracts require written notice of a claim for extra cost or time within a few days of the event. Miss that and you can lose the right to be paid at all, however real the change was. An email is enough:

"Today at 10:30 on level 2, J. Ruiz directed us to relocate four floor drains from the locations shown on P-201. This is a change to our contract. Pricing will follow. Please confirm how you would like us to proceed."

Step three: document it

• Who directed it, their role, the date and time
• What is changing, with the drawing or spec reference
• Why: owner request, design error, hidden condition, another trade
• Photos before the work, and during and after
• A sketch or marked-up drawing when words are not enough

Step four: price it

• Labor. Hours by classification, at your burdened rates.
• Material. Quantities with supplier pricing.
• Equipment. Rented or owned.
• Markup. At the rates your subcontract sets for changes.
• Time. The number of days it adds to your schedule. Ask for the days now. They are much harder to get later.

Add a date after which the price is no longer valid.

Step five: get it approved

You need a signature, or a written approval, from a person authorized to change the contract. The superintendent often is not: read your subcontract to see who is. Then do the work.

When they say "do it now, price it later"

It happens constantly, and refusing is not always possible. Protect yourself:

• Get a written directive to proceed, even one line by email.
• State that you are proceeding at their direction and reserving your right to cost and time.
• Fill out a time-and-material ticket every day: people, hours, material, equipment.
• Have the GC's representative sign each ticket that day. The signature confirms the hours and quantities, which is what gets disputed later.

Keep a change order log

One list for each job: number, description, date of notice, amount, days, and status (pending, approved, rejected, billed). Review it with the GC every week. Changes that are discussed weekly are approved. Changes saved for the end of the job are negotiated down.

Bill only what is approved

A pending change on a pay application gets the whole application sent back. Bill each change the month it is approved, as its own line.

Where ConstructStream fits

In ConstructStream a change order is written on the job with its own lines and prices and sent to the client, who accepts or declines it online from the link in the email. The answer is recorded with the change order. Once approved, it is added to the job's schedule of values as its own line, so it can be billed on the next invoice, and every change order on the job, with its status, is in one list.