Tracking change orders end-to-end

Change orders are where projects make or lose money. Buildra tracks every change order from the first field request to a signed PDF in the closeout binder, with the budget impact visible at every step.

The four states

1. Request for change (RFC). A field event has happened. Cost and schedule impact are not yet quantified.
2. Pending. Pricing is gathered, scope is documented, waiting on owner approval.
3. Approved. Owner has signed off. Budget moves.
4. Rejected. Owner declined. Logged for audit; no budget impact.

Creating a change order

1. Go to /projects/<id>/change-orders.
2. Click New change order. Buildra auto-numbers (CO-001, CO-002, etc.).
3. Enter a title and description.
4. Link to the trigger event: an RFI, a voice decision, a daily log entry, or a manual note. Linking gives the CO a clean audit story.
5. Add line items by cost code, with quantity, unit price, and total.
6. Pick the source of funds: Owner change (price goes up) or Contingency draw (price stays the same, drawn from contingency).
7. Save as draft, send to owner for approval, or save as pre-approved if you have already had the conversation.

Tip: Always link the CO to its trigger event. A change order without a linked RFI or decision is a CO without a story. The story is what wins disputes.

Owner approval flow

When you send a CO for approval, the owner gets an email with a one-click link. They see the description, the line items, the total, and an approve/reject choice with a signature pad. Approval logs the IP, timestamp, and signature image.

Approved COs immediately flow into:

• The project budget's “Approved changes” column.
• The next pay application's schedule of values (as a new line).
• The owner's contract amount on the project dashboard.

Reporting

The change order log offers three views:

• List view: Standard tabular log, sortable by date, status, amount.
• Summary view: Roll-up by cost code or trade, showing where changes are concentrated.
• Cash impact view: Cumulative change order impact on the contract amount, chartted over time.

Export any view to PDF (for an owner meeting) or CSV (for the bookkeeper).

Linking change orders to subcontracts

If a change order affects a subcontractor's scope, link the CO to their commitment under /projects/<id>/commitments. This propagates the change down to your sub's change order flow.

Common mistakes

• Verbal approvals.“The owner said yes on the phone” is not a CO. Send the formal approval link and wait for signature.
• Aggregating changes. One CO with 30 unrelated line items is harder to defend than 5 COs of 6 items each. Group by trigger event.
• Not tracking rejected COs. Rejected COs are gold. They prove you raised the issue and the owner declined. Keep them logged.