A change order form is a written agreement to change the work, the price or the schedule after a contract is signed. To use one well, price the change from your real costs, then get both signatures before the crew starts the work.
We make a change order form and sell it in our shop, PaperworkLighter. This guide stands on its own. The steps, the checklist and the calculator below are free, and they work with any form, including one you build yourself.
The contract says what is in the price. A change order covers what shows up after the job starts. These are the usual reasons:
Each one changes the work, the price, the time, or all three. Without paper, the price gets settled from memory at the end of the job.
Every good change order answers the same questions. Use this as a checklist.
| Job and people | Job name and address. Client name. The date. A change order number, so every change can be found later. |
|---|---|
| The original contract | The date it was signed and the original amount. |
| What is changing | The work, in plain words. Be specific. Point to a photo, a code section, or a line on the selection sheet. |
| Why it is changing | Client request, hidden condition, code or inspection, design or selection change, or other. |
| The price | Materials with waste. Labor hours at your burdened rate. Subcontractors. Equipment or disposal. Permit or inspection fees. Overhead on the added hours. Your markup. |
| Effect on the contract | Original amount, plus earlier approved changes, plus this change, equals the new contract amount. |
| Effect on the schedule | Calendar days added. Days lost to material lead times. Days spent waiting on an inspection or an approval. The new completion date. |
| Terms | The work does not start until both sides sign. Everything else in the contract stays in force. How the change is paid. How many days the price holds. |
| Signatures | Contractor and client, with printed names and dates. |
A change that adds no dollars can still add days. Put the days on the form, not just in your head.
Here is the arithmetic, line by line. Use the same lines every time.
Do not price a change on materials alone. Four added hours are four hours of burdened labor and four hours of overhead, written down or not.
A bathroom remodel is signed at $14,850. When the old tub comes out, two rotted floor joists and part of the subfloor show up. That is a change. The numbers here are invented for the example, so replace them with yours.
| Materials | $240.00 |
|---|---|
| Disposal | $35.00 |
| Labor, 8 hours at $44.07 | $352.56 |
| Overhead on those 8 hours, at $14.63 an hour | $117.04 |
| Subtotal | $744.60 |
| Markup, 22 percent | $163.81 |
| Change order price | $908.41 |
An earlier approved change on this job was $899.38. The new contract amount is $14,850.00 plus $899.38 plus $908.41, which is $16,657.79. The change also adds 3 days: 2 for the work and 1 waiting on an inspection.
The result: a change order to the client for $908.41, signed before the work starts.
Type over the sample numbers. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
If you would rather not build this in a spreadsheet, our Contractor Change Order Form does the arithmetic for you and logs every change on the job.
See the Contractor Change Order FormThe hard part is not the math. It is asking. A change feels small in the moment, and stopping for paperwork feels awkward. So it is easy to say, "We will settle up at the end." At the end, that turns into an argument about what everyone remembers.
Two habits help. Put the price, the days and both signature lines on one sheet of paper, so there is one thing to hand over. And keep a stack of forms in the truck, so you can fill one out on the spot.
Here is an order of events that takes about ninety seconds:
Three things to avoid: pricing it in your head on the spot, saying "we will settle up at the end," and starting the work before the paper is signed. A change already built is a change you have already given away.
A change order is easier to explain when the original scope is clear. List what is included, what is not included, and what you assumed. Common exclusions to name:
If the client has not picked a finish yet, write an allowance: a dollar figure for the item, and what happens if the real cost is higher or lower. The usual answer is a change order for the difference.
Keep one line per change: the number, the date, what changed, the price, the days added, whether it is signed, and whether it is invoiced. Then read three totals:
| Not signed off yet | Work nobody has agreed in writing to pay for. It should read zero at the end of every week. |
|---|---|
| Signed, not invoiced | Agreed changes you have not billed yet. |
| Signed and invoiced | Changes that are agreed and billed. |
Check the first line every Friday, while the details are still fresh.
You can use both: the spreadsheet to price the change, the printed page to sign.
Check the rules where you work. Change order rules, notice periods and lien rights vary by state, by trade and by type of contract. A form is a template, not legal advice. Have an attorney in your state review anything you ask a client to sign.
The Contractor Change Order Form is $6, one time. It is a digital download of four files in one zip:
It works in Excel and Google Sheets with standard formulas and no macros. The Change Order tab prints on one US Letter page. No sheet is protected and no cell is locked, so you can change anything. The files open on a worked sample so you can see them run, and every sample figure is invented. It is a set of templates and a calculation tool, not accounting, tax or legal advice.
See the Contractor Change Order Form, $6 The same file on Etsy
This guide was drafted with the help of AI tools and checked against the product's own files. The numbers in it are invented examples.