Change orders priced, approved and signed
How the Construction pack takes a variation from a priced change order, through the contracts manager's approval, to the client's electronic signature.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Construction businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
"Move that window over." The client says it on a site walk, the foreman nods, and the bricklayers rebuild a section of wall the next morning. Months later, at the final account, the client's quantity surveyor finds no instruction for the extra work and no agreed price. The contractor did the work, paid for it, and now has to argue for the money.
Every builder has a version of this story. Variations are a normal part of construction, and clients change their minds for good reasons. What turns a reasonable change into a dispute is the gap between the instruction and the paperwork.
The Construction & contracting pack in Achekam's Industry CRM closes that gap with a simple rule: a change order is priced, approved inside the firm and signed by the client before it changes the job. Here is how each step works.
Why unsigned variations cause disputes
Disputes over variations usually come down to three questions that nobody can answer with a document:
- Did the client actually instruct the change, or did the contractor assume it?
- What price was agreed, and did it include the knock-on work?
- Did the change give the contractor more time, or was the completion date supposed to stand?
A verbal instruction answers none of them. A signed change order answers all three, which is why it is worth the small delay of getting it priced and signed before the work goes ahead, wherever the site conditions allow it.
Price the change line by line
In the Construction pack, change orders are their own record, priced line by line in the same way an estimate is built from bill-of-quantities lines. A change to a window opening might carry lines for demolition, new lintels, brickwork, plaster, the frame and the extra scaffold time.
Pricing line by line does two things. It forces the estimator to think through the knock-on work rather than quoting a round figure, and it gives the client something they can check against the original bill. A client who can see where the money goes signs faster than one looking at a single lump sum.
The rates are yours. The pack sets no prices, so every line on a change order carries the contractor's own rates.
Approval by the contracts manager
Before the client sees it, the change order is approved by the contracts manager. That is the firm's own check: the price covers the cost and the margin, the work is buildable, and the time effect has been thought through.
This step also stops a site team from promising a client a change at a price the firm cannot carry. The person who agrees variations with the client is then representing a figure the firm has already accepted.
The client signs electronically
Once approved, the change order goes to the client for an electronic signature. The document is sent with signature and initials fields on it, signers can sign in order or all at once, and the request can carry an expiry and reminders. When everyone has signed, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents.
The certificate lists each signer's e-mail address, signing times, IP address and browser, and the document's fingerprint. If the variation is ever questioned, you can show exactly which version of the change order the client signed and when.
Where a stage of the work depends on a signature, the Industry CRM can hold the record back until the signature is done, rather than relying on someone remembering to check.
A person updates the contract value and completion date
The signed change order does not quietly rewrite the job. After the client signs, a person updates the job's contract value and completion date. That is deliberate: a contracts manager should look at the cumulative effect of variations on the job's value and programme, and decide what the new figures are, rather than having them added up automatically.
Do it on the day the signature comes back. A job record that shows the original value long after several signed variations misleads everyone who relies on it, from the estimator pricing the next phase to the accountant preparing the month's figures. AccountingTools' guide to construction accounting explains how the figures fit together, from job costing by contract and percentage-of-completion revenue to change orders and retainage tracking.
Starter wording comes first
The pack's change order wording, like every contract or agreement in the industry packs, is starter wording that the business must review before use. Check it against the variation clauses of the contracts you work under, so that the signed change order fits the contract's own procedure for instructing and valuing variations.
A variation checklist for site and office
Use this every time a change is asked for:
- Record the request, who made it and when, even if it was verbal.
- Price the change order line by line, including knock-on work and time.
- Have the contracts manager approve it.
- Send it to the client for electronic signature before the work starts, unless site safety or the programme genuinely cannot wait.
- If work must start first, confirm the instruction in writing to the client the same day, and send the change order as soon as it is priced.
- When the signature comes back, update the contract value and completion date.
Change orders are one of three records in the pack, alongside jobs and estimates, described in jobs, estimates and bill-of-quantities lines. The signing set-up at the start of a job is covered in starting a job: contract, site documents and safety file.
The next time a client asks for a change on site, agree that it will be priced and signed first, and put the change order in front of them before the trowel comes out.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
