Change order

Home / Glossary

A written addition or change to a signed job, with its own price, agreed before the extra work is done.

A change order is how work outside the original scope gets added without a fight. The customer wants another outlet, the wall turns out to be rotten, the tile they chose costs more than the allowance: each is a change order, written, priced, and accepted before anyone touches it.

The discipline is "in writing, before." A change agreed in the hallway and billed at the end is the one that gets disputed. A one-line change order the customer approved from their phone never is.

Related: Scope of work · Allowance · Exclusions

All terms · Bidding guides · Estimate templates · Check a bid