A card listing each change with its number, title, total, days added and date. The subtitle says how many are waiting on them, or the running value of what they approved — and every approved change is already counted in the project total at the top of their page. A selection they choose on the same page becomes an approved change order once you approve the pick. Drafts and cancelled ones never appear, and your cost on each line never leaves your side. A credit reads -$740.52, the way money is actually written. Built for post-frame and barndominium builders, where the mid-build change is usually a door, a porch or an upgrade the customer fell for at the showroom.
Also called: extras during the build · scope change · variation order · customer approves a change
Every change, once sent, is on the customer's dashboard
Number, title, cost, days added and status, with the running value of approved changes in the card subtitle. Drafts and cancelled ones never appear, so your work in progress stays yours. This is the argument that sours finished jobs — the customer who agreed to extras on site and disputes them at final billing — and it becomes a dated list instead of two memories.
The customer agreed to two extra overhead doors on site, and at final billing remembers agreeing to one.
Changes agreed in the truck turn into arguments at the final invoice. A dated list with cost and days on the customer's own page means both sides remember the same thing — and the builder gets paid for the work he did.
A branded Change Order Agreement, written per change
Six sections on your letterhead: the change described, with attachments; the reason, with the right one ticked; the cost adjustment showing the original contract price, the ADD or DEDUCT, and the new total with line items; the schedule adjustment in days; the binding clause; and the signatures. It replaces the photocopied form on the dash of the truck. The customer's copy, your preview and the printed page are the same document — so they cannot disagree.
The change is scribbled on a carbon form from the truck, the customer loses their copy, and nobody can read the price six weeks later.
A customer takes a change seriously when it looks like a contract. The original price, the ADD or DEDUCT and the new total on your letterhead make the decision clear — and the copy they keep is the same document you file.
They sign on the change order, without leaving their dashboard
Try itThe signature sits inside section six of the agreement itself: an authorisation tick, a typed name that must match the owner's, and drawn ink. The agreement exactly as the customer saw it is frozen onto the signature, so a later template edit can never rewrite what was agreed. The card flips from Pending to Approved in place — and the work is authorised before it starts, not after.
The crew starts the extra work on a verbal yes, and the signed paper turns up a week after the doors are hung — if it turns up.
Work should be authorised before it starts, not chased afterwards. Signing on the document itself takes the customer a minute, freezes exactly what they saw, and gives the crew the green light the same day.
A selection they choose becomes the change order
When the customer chooses a selection on their page — with the price difference in front of them and their name typed to confirm — and you approve the pick, it becomes an approved change order on its own: no second form for them to sign, because they already said yes on screen. A choice you record from a phone call becomes a Draft for them to sign the usual way. Either way it lands on this card, and once approved it's counted in the project total at the top of their page. Allowances themselves are set up on selections & allowances.
The countertop upgrade was agreed on the phone, billed on the next invoice, and disputed — because the customer never saw it in writing.
Nobody wants to sign the same decision twice. Treating the customer's on-screen choice as approval saves a round trip, while a phone-call choice still waits for their signature — so the record stays honest and the upgrade gets billed.
A decline comes back with a written reason
Declining goes through a confirmation that names the change order, warns that you will be notified, and will not submit without a typed reason. A rejected change with no explanation is just a phone call you now have to make. This one arrives with the why already attached and the decision on the record.
A change order comes back declined with no explanation, and the rep spends a day guessing whether it was the price, the timing or the doors.
A no with a reason is a conversation you can finish. The customer feels heard, and the builder knows exactly what to change — price, scope or timing — instead of making a cold call to find out.
It reads in customer language, and a credit reads as a credit
Try itA change order you have sent reads Pending, not sent. A change that reduces the contract renders as -$740.52 — not the $-740.52 a careless template produces — with the cost section saying DEDUCT instead of ADD. Line items and any signatures come down with the list, so the full agreement opens without a second wait — each line at its price, with your cost and markup on that line kept on your side.
A credit for a skipped window shows as $-740.52 and the customer wonders whether they're being charged or refunded.
Money written the way people write it is money people trust. Clear words and a proper minus sign mean a credit reads as good news — and the customer never sees what the line cost you.
- 1You send a change order and it appears on their dashboard
- 2They see what changed, what it costs and how many days it adds
- 3Pending is the word they read while it waits on them
- 4They sign or decline it in place
- 5A selection they choose on the page becomes an approved change order when you approve the pick
- 6Approved changes are counted in the project total they read first
- 7Your drafts stay yours — cancelled ones never show, and line costs stay on your side
Mid-build scope changes were agreed on site and confirmed by text — which works right up until somebody disputes what was agreed or what it cost. Now it is a dated list instead of two memories. Drafts and withdrawn orders stay hidden because your work in progress is not part of the customer's billing story — and a credit reads -$740.52, not the $-740.52 a careless template produces.
- Verbal change agreements with no record
- Cost and schedule impact of changes never communicated
- Draft or withdrawn changes visible to customers
A real Change Order Agreement, on your letterhead
Six sections, modelled on the paper form but written for you: your logo and name, the project and owner, the change described, the reason ticked, the original contract price, the ADD or DEDUCT and the new total, the days added, the clause, and the signature blocks. It always renders light, because it is a paper document.
Sign the change order in place
The signature inputs sit inside section six of the agreement, so they sign on the document rather than beside it. It takes an authorisation tick, a typed name that must match the owner's, and drawn ink. The card flips from Pending to Approved in place.
Decline a change order, with a reason
The dialog names the change order, warns that you will be notified and the change will not go ahead, and holds the confirm button dead until they type why. Confirming closes the document and flips the card to Declined.
