Change Orders: Getting Paid for the Changes You Build

Ask a builder where the margin went and the honest answer is usually the same: changes we built but never billed. The client asked at the framing walk, you said "sure, easy," and eleven easies later the job closed thin. Change orders aren't paperwork — they're the mechanism that turns "sure" into revenue.

The discipline

• Write every change, even no-cost ones — scope memory fades and disputes love ambiguity
• Price it with line items — labor, materials, and margin, not a round number pulled at the door
• Signature before work — an approved change order is a contract amendment; a text saying "go ahead" is a future argument
• Bill it promptly — changes billed at closing feel like surprises and get negotiated; changes billed as approved feel like the deal

Make signing frictionless

The discipline dies when approval means printing, signing, and scanning. Send the client a link: they see the scope, the line items, and the new total, and sign on their phone. NeatBuild generates the change order from cost-code line items, e-signs it with a legally-binding signature, adjusts the project budget on approval, and can bill it to the client — the entire "sure, easy" loop closed in minutes.