Manage change orders
Raise a change to the contract, take it through customer review, and move the budget, the finish date and billing only after approval.
Before you begin
The Change orders feature must be on. You see change orders with project.change.view. Raising and moving them needs project.edit. The decision at Customer Review needs project.change.approve, and the person who raised the change cannot make it.
Steps
- Open the project, Changes tab (or Commercial > Change Orders), and press Create Change Order.
- Enter a Title, choose the Kind (scope, customer variation, internal, budget, schedule or contract) and the party.
- Add lines with Description, Qty, Unit, Cost rate and Price rate. Revenue impact and cost impact are summed from the lines, and the margin follows.
- Enter the Schedule impact in days and a reason, then Save. The change is numbered CO-001 and starts as Potential Change.
- Move it one step at a time: Estimate, Proposal, Customer Review. Reaching Customer Review sends a notice to approvers.
- A person with project.change.approve, other than the one who raised it, moves it to Approved (or Rejected).
- After approval move it on: Budget Updated, Contract Updated, then Billed.
You cannot skip steps: 'A change in Approved cannot move to Billed.' A rejected change can return to Potential Change.
What happens at each step
| Step | Effect |
|---|---|
| Approved | Approver and time are recorded. Contract value on Project 360 rises by the revenue impact. |
| Budget Updated | An approved budget change of kind variation is created for the cost impact, so the budget rises. |
| Contract Updated | The expected finish moves later by the schedule days. |
| Billed | A billing step "Variation CO-001 - title" for the revenue impact is added to the billing plan, ready to invoice. |
Worked example
CO-001 "Extra basement waterproofing": one line, cost rate 35,000 and price rate 50,000, schedule impact 10 days. Revenue 50,000, cost 35,000, margin 15,000. After approval the contract goes from 1,000,000 to 1,050,000. After Budget Updated the budget rises by 35,000. After Contract Updated the finish is 10 days later. After Billed, a ready billing step of 50,000 appears on the Billing tab.
Good to know
- A change under customer review or approved is locked: 'A change under customer review or approved is not edited; raise another change.'
- Approving your own change is refused: 'Somebody other than who raised the change must decide it.'
- Cost impact and margin show as dashes to people without cost and margin permissions.
- The Change Order Report in Projects > Reports lists changes across projects.
- Switching the feature off keeps existing changes readable but refuses new ones: 'Change orders is disabled for this company.'