Construction change order form generator

How to fill it in

On the example, 4,800.00 of the sub's own cost takes 15% overhead and profit (720.00), the electrician's 1,600.00 takes 5% (80.00), and CO-003 comes to 7,200.00. Added to the 140,800.00 already agreed, the subcontract sum is now 148,000.00, and three days move completion from 2026-12-18 to 2026-12-21.

Why unsigned change orders go unpaid

Extra work gets directed on site, by a super or a project manager, usually with a deadline and no paper. The crew does it. A month later it turns up on your pay application as a line nobody signed, and the reviewer strikes it. Now you are arguing scope, price and whether anyone asked for it all at once, with the work already behind the drywall.

Most subcontracts say changes must be authorised in writing, and plenty add that extra work done without one is at your own risk. Read your changes clause (the construction payment terms guide covers what to look for) and assume it is the strict kind until you know otherwise. A signed change order turns a disagreement into a contract amount. You can bill it, it counts in what you can claim if the job ends in a lien or a bond claim, and it outlives the project manager who approved it.

From signed change order to the next pay application

An approved change order is never folded into an existing line. It goes onto the schedule of values as its own line, under its own number, and it moves the contract sum. On the next pay application it shows up twice: in the net change by change orders at the top, and as a new row on the continuation sheet, billed by percent complete like any other line.

Bill the change-order line the way the progress billing guide describes: percent complete, in the period the work is done, and only once the order is signed. Expect retainage to come off it at the contract's rate unless the change order says otherwise; the retainage calculator shows what the line will actually pay.

Pending and approved: price both the same way

Price a request exactly as you would price the signed order: the same cost lines, the same markup, the same days. The number on the request usually becomes the starting point for the number on the order, and a loose request invites a counter that starts lower. Keep pending requests in a log by number with the date sent, so at month end you can see what is signed, what is waiting, and for how long.

On AIA-form jobs the owner-level change order is G701–2017, a three-party form signed by the owner, contractor and architect; between a contractor and a subcontractor the matching form is G701S–2017. When owner and contractor cannot agree on price or time, AIA's construction change directive, G714–2017, orders the work to go ahead while the number is settled. This generator is not an AIA document. It carries the same information (the sum before, this change, the sum after, the days and the completion date), so whoever receives it finds what they expect where they expect it.

Ask for the days on the same form

Time is the half of a change order that gets dropped. If the change adds work that pushes your finish, put the days on the form you are pricing, not in a letter later. A change order signed with nothing in the time field is easy to read as your agreement that the change needed no time, and that reading surfaces when the job finishes late.

The generator counts calendar days from the current completion date; convert if your contract counts working days. When the full effect is not knowable yet, say a change that reshuffles the sequence for other trades, tick the reservation box. It states that the order covers the direct cost and time listed and that you reserve further time and cost for delay or cumulative impact. Whether a reservation holds depends on the contract and the state, and many owners strike it. Asking costs nothing.