Change Order Log
A numbered register of every change from the moment it is raised to the day it is paid, plus the rules that decide whether a change is worth anything by the time you get to the end of the job.
Who it is for. Anybody who has done extra work on a handshake and then discovered that the contract had a notice period in it.
This sheet ladders into module 07, The Contract Clauses That Eat the Profit.
Why a log and not a folder
Change orders get lost one at a time. A folder tells you what you filed. A log tells you what is outstanding, how long it has been outstanding, and whether anybody ever answered you.
Number them sequentially from one and never reuse a number, including for the ones that get rejected. A gap in the numbering is the first thing anybody looks for when a claim goes anywhere serious.
Track time as well as money. A change that adds four days and no dollars is still a change, and if you never asked for the four days you have quietly agreed to absorb them.
Job header
- Job name and number
- Customer or general contractor
- Contract date
- Original contract sum
- Contract change clause, by article number
- Notice period for a change, in days
- Notice period for a differing site condition, in days
- Who is contractually authorised to approve a change
The log, part one: raising it
Fill this the day the change comes up, not the week after.
| No. | Date raised | Raised by | Description | Reason code | Days claimed | Proposed cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The number in the first column is the change order number. Carry the same number across to part two so the two halves stay tied together.
The log, part two: getting it decided and paid
Same numbers, same order. This is the half you read when you want to know what is still outstanding.
| No. | Submitted | Status | Approved amount | Approved days | Date approved | Invoiced | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reason codes
Use a code on every row. At the end of a job, sorting by code tells you something about the job you could not see while you were on it.
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| OD | Owner or general contractor directed change |
| DSC | Differing site condition: the ground was not what the documents said |
| DE | Design error or omission in the documents |
| UU | Unforeseen or mislocated utility |
| QV | Quantity variation against the bid quantities |
| RK | Rock or unclassified excavation |
| WX | Weather or a delay outside your control |
| ACC | Acceleration: you were told to go faster |
| AC | Access: the site was not available when it was supposed to be |
| OT | Other, described in full on the row |
The rules that make a log worth keeping
- Raise it the day it happens, in writing, to the person the contract names
- Give notice inside the contract's notice period, even if you cannot price it yet. Notice and price are two separate obligations
- Never do the work first and paper it afterwards, unless the contract's directive clause makes you, and then say so in writing
- Price it the same way you priced the bid, off the same worksheet, so it can be defended line by line
- Claim the time as well as the money, in the same letter
- If you are directed to proceed before it is priced, write proceeding under direction, price to follow, and keep daily tickets for every hour of it
- Keep a daily ticket for every changed work day, signed on site
- Photograph the condition that caused it before you fix it
- Chase anything sitting in submitted status, in writing, and log the chase
- Do not let approved changes go uninvoiced. A signed change order that was never billed is the easiest money anybody ever lost
Running totals
- Original contract sum
- Approved changes to date
- Current contract sum
- Submitted and awaiting a decision
- Raised but not yet submitted
- Rejected
- Approved but not yet invoiced
- Invoiced but not yet paid
- Days claimed to date
- Days granted to date
Read your own contract's clause
Every standard form handles changes differently, and a general contractor's own subcontract usually handles them worse than a standard form does. Find the change clause and the differing site conditions clause in the contract you are actually signing, and write their article numbers in the header above.
If there is no differing site conditions clause at all, that is not an oversight. It means the risk of the ground being different from the documents sits with you, and it belongs in your bid as a contingency rather than in a claim later.
Where this comes from
Every code, standard and statute this sheet leans on, with a link to the body that publishes it. Check them. That is what they are for.
- AIA Contract DocumentsA201 general conditions and the A401 subcontract are the forms most commercial dirt work is signed under.