A change order doesn’t need legalese. It needs to be specific, priced, and signed before the work happens. Here’s the structure that holds up.
The fields every change order needs
- Job reference: job name, site address, customer name, date
- Description of the change: concrete and specific — “Replace failed shutoff valve and corroded drain pan under vanity,” not “extra plumbing work”
- Line items: each material and labor entry with quantity, unit, and price. Credits (work removed) go in as negative amounts
- New total: the adjustment amount, and ideally the resulting contract total
- Reason for change: hidden condition, customer request, or code requirement — this matters later if anyone questions it
- Schedule impact: if the change adds days, say how many
- Signatures: customer and contractor, with printed names and a date/time
A worked example
Mid-way through a bathroom renovation, you pull the vanity and find a failing shutoff valve. The change order reads:
- Job: Smith Bathroom Reno — 1247 Avenue de Lorimier
- Description / reason: Discovered failing shutoff valve while replacing vanity. Customer authorized on-site fix.
- Line items: Replace shutoff valve — 1 × $185.00 · Drain pan — 1 × $42.00 · Labor — 2 hr × $95.00 = $190.00
- Total adjustment: +$417.00
- Photo attached: the corroded valve, timestamped
- Signed: customer + contractor, April 25 at 8:25 PM
Thirty seconds of reading and there is nothing left to argue about — that’s the standard to hit.
Lump sum or time & materials?
If you can price the change on the spot, use a lump sum — customers sign faster when the number is fixed. If the extent is genuinely unknown (how far does the rot go?), write a time & materials change order: agreed hourly rate and material markup, with a not-to-exceed cap if the customer wants one. Then document hours and materials daily.
The one rule
Common mistakes
- Vague descriptions — “additional electrical” invites dispute; name the exact work
- Missing the reason — six months later, nobody remembers why
- No photo — hidden damage you didn’t photograph is hidden damage that “never existed”
- Editing after signing — any change after signatures needs a new revision, never an edit
Or let the app write it for you
In ScopeProof you just add line items — quantity × price auto-totals, the reason field and photos attach as evidence, and the formatted PDF generates itself. AI can even suggest line items from a photo of the problem.
