How to write a change order that gets accepted the same day
Four lines, sent from the job site, accepted before you pick the tool back up. That is the whole system.
You opened the wall and found the thing nobody could have seen. The customer is standing there. The right move is not to explain it and keep going. It is to write four lines and get a yes before the next cut.
The four lines
- What changed: "Found corroded galvanized supply line behind the wall, needs replacing to the main."
- Why: "Cannot connect the new heater to it. It will leak within the year."
- What it costs and what it does to the schedule: "Add $650. Adds half a day."
- The okay: the customer's name and the date, typed on their phone or signed on paper.
That is a change order. It does not need a form number or a paragraph of terms. It needs those four things, written down, and agreed to before the extra work starts.
When to write one
Any time the scope, the price, or the schedule moves from what the customer accepted. A $200 change is worth two minutes. The ones that end up in a dispute are almost always the small ones that were "just mentioned" and never written down, three of them in a row, adding up to a bill the customer did not expect.
Send it the same way you sent the estimate
If the estimate was a link they accepted on their phone, the change order should be too. Same page, same accept button, same record. If you are standing next to them, show it on your phone and let them accept it there. A change order that goes out by email that night, after the work is already done, is a request for forgiveness instead of permission.
The mistake that costs the most
Doing the extra work first because it was obviously needed, then adding it to the final invoice. The customer agrees it was needed and still feels ambushed by the number. That feeling is where bad reviews come from. The fix costs you two minutes on the job site.
Keep the original estimate untouched
Do not edit the accepted estimate to a new total. Add the change order as its own line so the invoice reads: original price, change order one, change order two, deposit paid, balance due. The customer can follow it, and so can you in six months.
The same four lines work on paper, in a text, or as a short proposal of its own. If you use BidWriter Pro, write the change as a new proposal to the same customer, with the original estimate number in the first line, and send it the same way. Sending it by text is the fastest.
Free, no account: job price calculator, markup vs margin, hourly rate, and 84 sample estimates.
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