Operating guide
A field-safe remodeling change-order workflow
Control discovered conditions and client changes from request through approval, production, and billing.
By Tyler Thompson, residential remodeling contractor and product founder · Updated 2026-08-24
Answer first
The safe change-order sequence is identify, stabilize if necessary, document, price, explain impact, approve, schedule, perform, and bill—with one durable record throughout.
Classify the event
- Client-requested addition, deletion, or substitution
- Concealed or differing condition
- Design clarification
- Code or inspector requirement
- Contractor correction that should not be billed as client change
Separate protection from permanent work
If immediate action is necessary to protect people or property, document the condition and temporary stabilization. Do not let emergency action become an undocumented blank check for permanent work.
Price and explain the full impact
- Scope added and scope removed
- Labor, material, subcontractor, fee, and tax basis
- Markup or pricing method
- Schedule and milestone impact
- Selection, permit, purchasing, and warranty effects
Close the loop
- Capture approval and date
- Update project value and billing plan
- Create or update production tasks and purchasing
- Retain photos, documents, and correspondence with the change
- Confirm the final invoice includes the approved amount exactly once
One-project change trace
| Checkpoint | Evidence | Stop condition |
|---|---|---|
| Identify | Dated observation, location, photos, and relationship to accepted scope | Cause, responsibility, or permanent solution is still assumed |
| Protect | Temporary action and reason, only if actually necessary | Temporary protection is being treated as approval for permanent work |
| Define | Added, removed, and unchanged scope plus exclusions | Scope cannot be priced or understood consistently |
| Price and impact | Cost basis, client price, tax/fee treatment, schedule, permit, selection, and purchasing effects | Authorized reviewer has not checked the commercial record |
| Approve | Current version, authorized client response, date, and retained evidence | Approval is verbal, ambiguous, expired, or tied to an older version |
| Perform and reconcile | Tasks, purchasing, completion evidence, project value, invoice, and payment state | The amount is missing, duplicated, or detached from the approved scope |
Questions the software cannot answer
- Is this condition the contractor's responsibility under the signed agreement?
- Does code, the authority having jurisdiction, engineering, or a manufacturer require the proposed work?
- Is emergency action legally or contractually billable?
- Who is authorized to approve the change, and is electronic approval sufficient for this contract and jurisdiction?
- Does the price, deposit, retainage, tax, notice, or lien treatment comply with applicable requirements?