Free Change Order Template & Construction Change Order Form

How to write a construction change order

1. Add your business and the customer

   Your company block is saved from the other generators on this site. Enter the customer and the job address the change applies to.

2. Set the change order number, date and project

   Number change orders in sequence per job (CO-0001, CO-0002). Name the project the same way it is named on the signed estimate so the documents find each other.

3. Enter the original contract total and prior change orders

   The contract total from the signed estimate, and the sum of every change order already approved on this job. The revised total calculates from these plus this change.

4. Describe the change and the reason

   What is changing, specifically, and why: a hidden condition found after demolition, an owner request, an inspector's requirement. The reason is what settles who pays.

5. Price the change as line items

   Adds as normal lines, credits as lines with a negative rate. Price at your real margin, including the cost of re-sequencing the job, not just the materials.

6. Enter the schedule impact, download, and get both signatures before work starts

   Days added to the completion date. Download the PDF, text it over, and do not start the changed work until the customer's signature is on it.

What to include on a contractor change order

What is a change order, and why don't unsigned changes get paid?

A change order is a written amendment to a signed contract that records one specific change to the scope, the price or the schedule, agreed to and signed by both parties before the changed work is done. The AIA's standard version, G701, describes itself as a form for implementing changes in the work agreed to by the owner, contractor and architect, where execution of a completed G701 indicates agreement on all the terms of the change, including any change in the contract sum and the contract time. Strip out the architect and that is exactly what a residential change order is: the price, the time, the scope, and two signatures.

Unsigned changes do not get paid for a simple reason: when the final invoice arrives with $2,300 of extras on it, the customer who asked for them in the hallway in week two does not remember agreeing to a price, because they did not. You remember doing the work. They remember a conversation. Without a signed piece of paper, the dispute is your invoice against their memory, and their memory is free. In some states the law says the same thing out loud. California requires a home improvement contract and any changes to it to be in writing and signed by the parties before the work covered by the change starts, and the required contract notice states that extra work and change orders become part of the contract once the order is prepared in writing and signed by the parties prior to the commencement of work. Your state may not have that sentence in a statute, but every small-claims judge has it in their head.

The practical rule I run my own jobs on: no change order, no change. The customer asks for the second bathroom exhaust fan; I say "absolutely, let me write that up," and the crew keeps doing the work that is already signed for until the new sheet comes back signed. It takes ten minutes with this page and a text message, and it has never once cost me a job. It has saved the price of a truck.

What has to be on a change order?

The original contract total, the sum of prior approved change orders, a specific description of this change and the reason for it, the price of this change itemized (adds and credits), the revised contract total, the schedule impact in days, when the change will be billed, and signature blocks for both parties with dates. This template prints every one of those; the revised total is calculated, so the arithmetic is never the argument.

The two lines contractors leave off most often are prior change orders and schedule impact. Skipping the first is how a customer who approved four $600 changes is shocked by a $2,400 line at the end. Skipping the second is how "you said it would be done by the 15th" becomes a deduction from your final payment. Fill both in every time, including for credits.

How do I price a change order?

Cost plus your real markup, where cost includes the disruption and not just the materials. A change in week three means re-sequencing trades, an extra trip to the supply house, idle time while the plumber waits on the new rough-in, and sometimes a second inspection. Those hours are as real as the plywood. Price them, or the change order that looked profitable on paper pays for itself and nothing more.

Get the markup math right, because change orders are where it goes wrong most quietly. A 30% markup on cost is a 23.1% margin on price, not 30%; to earn a 30% margin you need a 42.9% markup. The markup and margin calculator converts between the two, and the estimate-writing guide covers where overhead belongs so the markup is profit. Whatever margin you priced the original contract at, price the change at the same or higher, never lower; the customer's alternative is not another contractor, it is not getting the change.

• Known extent: fixed price, itemized, on the change order. Most owner-requested changes.
• Unknown extent (how far does the rot go?): time and materials with a not-to-exceed amount, and a second change order when the extent is known. Write the hourly rate and the cap on the form.
• Credits (owner supplies the vanity, drops the second coat of paint): the value of the work removed, net of costs already incurred, such as restocking fees or materials already cut. A credit is not a refund of the line on the estimate; it is the cost you actually avoid.
• Schedule-only changes: still a change order, with a price of zero and the days written in.

On this template, adds are normal lines and credits are lines with a negative rate; the net of the change and the revised contract total calculate from there. The general contractor example in Start from an example shows both on one sheet: a rotted-subfloor repair found after demolition, and a credit for an owner-supplied vanity.

Hidden conditions vs owner-requested changes: what is the difference?

Both need a signed change order; the difference is in the conversation. An owner-requested change is the customer choosing to buy more or different work, and the change order is a small estimate: price, schedule impact, signature, go. A hidden condition is something nobody could see until the demolition was done, such as rot under the tub, knob-and-tube behind the plaster, or a footing that is not there, and the change order is you showing the customer a problem they now own and the cost of fixing it. The first is a sale. The second is a delivery of bad news, and it goes better when the contract already said it might come.

That is why the hidden-conditions sentence belongs in the estimate, not just in the change order. The prefilled terms on the estimate generator say pricing may change if hidden conditions are found once work begins, and the exclusions list on that page starts with repair of hidden conditions priced by change order. A customer who signed that sentence in August is a customer who nods in September. A customer who never saw it thinks you are inventing rot to pad the bill.

• Stop and show. Photograph the condition before touching it, with something for scale, and show the customer on site or by text before you write the price. The photo goes on the change order or in the job folder.
• Explain the choice, if there is one. Patch versus replace, this year versus next; the customer decides, the change order records what they chose.
• Separate the code-driven changes. When an inspector requires something the estimate did not include, the reason on the form is "inspector requirement" and the customer understands it is not your preference.
• Same form, every time. Owner request, hidden condition, code, design: one template, one number sequence, both signatures.

How do I write a "no verbal change orders" clause?

One plain sentence in the signed estimate or contract, repeated on the change order itself. Something like:

Notice the last sentence cuts against you. That is deliberate. A clause that says unsigned changes are at your expense is the clause you will actually follow, because it makes the cost of skipping the paperwork land on you immediately instead of on the customer at the end. It also reads as fair to the customer, which is why they sign it without a second look.

Enforce it by making the form easy to produce. The reason verbal change orders happen is that writing one used to mean going back to the office. With this page, it means opening your phone in the driveway, entering three numbers and two lines, downloading the PDF and texting it. Under the federal E-SIGN Act a signature is not denied legal effect solely because it is electronic, so a photo of the signed sheet texted back, or a signature drawn on the screen, closes the loop. Keep the message with its timestamp.

How do change orders flow into progress billing?

Each signed change order changes the contract sum, and every invoice after it bills against the revised sum, not the original. On commercial work that is built into the AIA pay application: G702 requires the contractor to show the work completed and stored to date, retainage, previous payments, a summary of change orders and the current payment requested, and the AIA's instructions have change orders listed separately on G703 with the original contract adjusted by change orders entered on G702. If a GC or an owner's rep asks you for a pay app, that is the format they mean, and the change order log on it has to match the signed change orders in the file.

On residential work the same logic runs on a simpler document. The next progress invoice carries one line per signed change order, referencing the CO number, so the customer sees the original scope and the approved extras separately; the final invoice shows the original contract plus all change orders, minus every payment received, balance due. The invoice generator on this site is built for that: payments received, balance due boxed, one line per CO. Bill the change when the change order says you will, which for a hidden condition is usually the next draw and for an owner-requested add-on is usually on completion of that work.

Keep the sequence intact in the folder: signed estimate, CO-0001, CO-0002, each progress invoice, each receipt. When the customer disputes the final number, the folder answers in order. When they do not pay at all, the same folder is what the escalation ladder in what to do when a customer refuses to pay runs on, and a signed change order for every extra is what makes the lien or the small-claims filing straightforward instead of a story.

FAQ

• AIA Contract Documents — Summary: G701–2017 Change Order
• AIA Contract Documents — Summary: G702–1992 Application and Certificate for Payment
• AIA Contract Documents — Instructions: G703–1992 Continuation Sheet
• Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §7159 — Home improvement contracts (changes in writing and signed; change-order notice)
• 15 U.S.C. §7001 — E-SIGN Act, general rule of validity