The change order that ate the profit.
A change order is not the same work at a smaller scale. It interrupts a sequence somebody already planned, it carries its own admin, and it usually arrives when the crew is committed elsewhere. Price it at your base markup and you are doing the disruptive work at the easy-work rate. Enter one below.
Labor, material and sub cost for the added work.
What you add on base contract work.
The disruption premium
Re-sequencing, a second mobilization, the admin to write and chase it, and the schedule risk you just absorbed. Typical range is 10–25%.
The bigger leak is not the premium. It is the changes that get done on a handshake and never make it onto an invoice at all.
Why a change order costs more per dollar than the base contract
| What changes | Why it costs you |
|---|---|
| The sequence | Work already planned gets moved. Trades that were stacked get separated.The crew that was going to do it in one pass now does it in two. |
| Mobilization | A sub who already demobilized comes back for a half day. |
| Admin | Someone prices it, writes it, sends it, chases the signature and re-bills it.That person is overhead, and this is unbudgeted overhead. |
| Schedule risk | If the change pushes completion, you own the delay unless the change order says otherwise.Every change order should extend the contract time in writing, not just the price. |
The rule that saves the most money is not a number. No signature, no work. A change order priced and signed before the work starts collects at close to 100%. The same change discussed in a truck and invoiced three months later collects at whatever the client remembers agreeing to.
Do this at scale
One change order is paperwork. Forty is a system.
Price it, get it signed before the work starts, and keep a log that tells you what is outstanding and what is still unsigned.
Change Order Form
Client-ready change order with auto totals, scope language and a signature block — the version that gets agreed before the crew moves.
Change Order Tracker
Every change on every job: priced, sent, signed, billed. Dashboard totals so nothing sits unsigned for three months.
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