Change Order

Why it matters

A change order turns an awkward money conversation into a simple, expected process. It protects your margin and signals to the client that scope has value.

Keep it light

A change order does not need to be a new contract, just a written, agreed note of the added deliverable, price, and revised timeline before you start the extra work.

What is the change order definition in plain terms?

A change order is a short written record that the agreed work has changed, signed before the new work starts. It names what is different, what it costs, and what it does to the deadline. The reason it matters is that scope creep is rarely one big request. It is a series of small ones, each reasonable on its own, and without a change order nobody can point at the moment the project stopped being the project that was priced.

What a change order contains

The industry-standard form is AIA Document G701, and its contents are a good checklist whatever business you are in. It carries a detailed description of the change, the original contract sum, the net change from previously authorised change orders, the contract sum before this one, the increase or decrease from this one, the new contract sum, any change to the completion date, and signatures from both sides.

Two details in that list matter more than the rest. The running total, because the fourth change order is where a client discovers the project has grown 30% and nobody said so out loud. And the date change, because extra work almost always costs time as well as money, and a change order that adjusts the fee while leaving the deadline alone has quietly made the schedule impossible.

Change order example for agency work

The client approved a five-page website. In week four they ask for a pricing page. That is not a favour or an argument, it is a change, and it takes about four lines to record: what is being added, what it costs, what it does to the launch date, and a signature.

A change order records an agreed change. Construction distinguishes this from a directive, where the client instructs work to proceed before the price is settled, using a separate form for it. The equivalent in agency work is the "just start, we will sort the money out later" conversation, and it is worth knowing that an entire industry treats that as a different document precisely because it so often ends badly.