Create a Contract Change Order

The 'Change Order' interface lets the PM create a change order from scratch. You need to add a title, description of the work and attach references like plan markups, photos/images, and RFI and punch list items (optional). 

General Contractor

The general contractor can:

• Add their own estimates for the change and obtain approval from the owner. This is useful for any self-performed work.  
• Invite bids for the change work from the subcontractors, analyze then award the work to the winning bidder(s) after obtaining approval from the owner. This is useful for any additional work or work that deviates from the scope of the contract and requires budget and schedule amendments.

Subcontractor

The subcontractor can:

• Add their own estimate for the change and forward it to the general contractor for review and approval.  
• if required, the GC can invite bids from other subcontractors and vendors too. The GC accepts a qualifying bid(s) and approves the CO.

Step1 - Create a Contract CO

• Open the management portal of the project
• Click 'Change Order' on the top, then choose 'Boards' from the left
• Click the '+ Create CO' button on the top right of the 'Boards' screen

The change order creation wizard starts:

• Choose 'Contract' at the top
• Enter the details:
  • Change Order Title - A label for the CO shortly describing it (Max. 255 characters)
  • CO Type - Choose the type of the CO based on its reason
  • CO Sub Type - Select the sub-classification depending on the chosen type
  • Priority - Specify the criticality of the CO
  • Sequence - Specify the category of the change order as classified as per your company practices. The change order will be numbered in a series, depending upon the category. This numbering lets you quickly identify, filter/review change orders of a particular type.
• Click 'Create'

 The change order opens:

The screen contains four tabs:

• Details - Add plan sheet and spec book references, add the description for the change required, attach RFI/punch list items, and more. You can also add your colleagues to be notified of the progress of the CO, as watchers.  The 'Activity Log' at the top right shows the history of actions on the CO.
• My Estimate - Add your estimate/bid for the work involved in the change. This is mandatory for SCs and optional for general contractors. GCs can upload their estimates for any self-performed work.
• Bids - Applies only to General contractors - Request bids from the subcontractors for the change work and process them.
• Final cost - Applies only to General contractors - Add any further cost to the quote from the accepted bid and approve the CO.

Step 2 - Add more details, the description, and watchers

The mandatory fields in the 'Details' page are inherited from the details entered in the previous step. You can set a due date and add optional details and a description of the change work with supporting attachments. If the change order results from one or more RFIs / punch list items, you can attach them to your description. 

Ensure that you are in the 'Details' tab and add the following details:

• Due date - The date before which the change order should be closed. Use the calendar and specify the due date for the CO. (mandatory)
• Specification Code - The section in the project spec book related to the tasks and deliverables involved in the change work. Select the spec code from the drop-down. (optional) 
• Sheet Code - The plan sheet reference to the change work. Choose the plan sheet number from the drop-down (optional)    
• Description - Enter a description explaining the change work in detail. 
• • Use the tools on the left top to format your text.
  • Click the paper clip icon to add attachments to your description
  • You can edit the description at any time before you route the CO to the next step 
• Attachments

The next step is adding watchers (optional).

Add Watchers

The 'Watchers' pane allows you to specify your team members to notify them of the change order progress and details. Linarc sends a notification to the persons on each activity on the change order. If given access, they can view the details at each step from their Linarc project consoles.

• Start typing the name of the person in the text field under 'Watchers' and choose from the options

• Click 'Add'
• Repeat the process to add more watchers

Step 3 - Add your estimate

The 'My Estimate' tab lets you add your bid for the change order as an Excel file. You can download the template file, enter the values and upload the same as your estimate. The tab enables only after you fill all mandatory fields under the 'Details' tab. 

General Contractor - This is optional. You can submit your estimate for any self-performed work. Else, skip to inviting bids from your subcontractors.

Subcontractor - You can submit your bid proposal for the change order you create

You can submit your estimate in two ways:

• Create your estimate
• Upload your estimate

Create your estimate

• Click the 'My Estimate' tab

•  Click 'Create'

• Each line in the file should contain one task entry. 
• Enter the values for the tasks under the following column headers. 
  • Task - The cost code of the line item. Typically, this is the standard code for the task or deliverable as per CSI MasterFormat. If your company uses a custom coding system, enter the code as per your company's task code format. Contact your administrator for more details.
    • Click inside the cell and select the code from the drop-down
• Double-click inside a cell to enter the following values. Enter the monetary values in US dollars.
  • Name - The label of the task or deliverable
  • Qty - The amount of work done by the task 
  • Unit - The unit by which the amount of work done is measured 
  • Hrs - The period required for completion of the task in manhours
  • Labor$ - The manual labor cost estimated for the job
  • Equip$ - The estimate of cost incurred by the use of equipment and machinery for the work
  • Sub$ - Expenses related to external subcontracts, if any. 
  • Mat$ - Cost incurred by the materials used for the work 
  • Other$ - Miscellaneous expenses like transportation, material handling, fees paid to various vendors, agencies, and more.  
  • Oh$ - Overhead and operation costs that the company bears, relevant to the task
  • Profit$ - The profit expected from the work
  • Total$ - Auto-calculated from the values in the row
• Click '+Add Row' to add more line items
• Click 'Save' to save your draft

You can edit the values before submission. Click here to know more.

Upload your estimate

• Click the 'My Estimate' tab
• Click 'Download' at the bottom right to obtain a blank Excel file containing the required field headers. 

Requirements of the estimate file

• The Excel file should contain an exhaustive list of tasks for the completion of the change work. 
• Each line in the file should contain one task entry.
• Enter the values for the tasks under the following column headers. Enter the monetary values in US dollars. 
  • Task Code - The cost code of the line item. Typically, this is the standard code for the task or deliverable as per CSI MasterFormat. If your company uses a custom coding system, enter the code as per your company's task code format. Ensure that the task codes entered here are included in the task code list of your company. Contact your administrator for more details.
  • Task Name - The label of the task or deliverable
  • Estimate Time - The period required for completion of the task in days
  • Estimate Labor - The manual labor cost estimated for the job
  • Estimate Equipment - The estimate of cost incurred by the use of equipment and machinery for the work
  • Estimate Subcontractor - Expenses related to subcontracts, if any.
  • Estimate Material - Cost incurred by the materials used for the work
  • Estimate Others - Miscellaneous expenses like transportation, material handling, fees paid to various vendors, agencies, and more. 
  • Quantity - The amount of work done by the task
  • Unit - Units by which the amount of work done is measured
  • Overhead - Operation costs that the company bears
  • Profit - The profit expected from the work
• Save the Excel file with an appropriate name.
• Upload or drag and drop the file.

Your entries are validated and added to the draft list if there are no errors in them.

• Click 'Save'

The draft estimate is shown:

• Review your draft estimate
  • Use the toggle switch at the top right to switch between the detailed view and the summary view
  • Click 'Reupload' and repeat the process if you want to present a revised estimate
• Click 'Submit' to upload your estimate

Next step:

• General Contractor - Invite subcontractors to bid for the change work. See Request bids from subcontractors for more details
• Subcontractor - Click 'Route' to forward the change order to the general contractor

Tip:

You can chat with the team members and the participants of the change order at any stage. Click the button on the top right. See Chat and collaborate on a CO  for more guidance.

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To delete the following after updating the page for adding plans, RFI, and other attachments:

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The progress bar below the tabs shows the current status of the CO. 

• Drafts - The CO is in draft state.
• Request Bids - Bid requests have been sent to selected contractors.
• Review Bids  -Bid responses have been received from the subcontractors and are pending review.
• Bids accepted - The PM has completed the review of the bids.
• Owner approved - The CO has been reviewed by the owner and approved.
• Scheduled - The CO has been added as a scheduled task.

Creating the CO involves three steps:

• Step 1 - Add details
• Step 2 - Add your estimate (optional)
• Step 3 - Request bids from subcontractors

Step 1 - Add details

• Ensure that you are in the 'Overview' tab
• Add the following details:

Type - Specify the category of the change order as classified as per your company practices. The change order will be numbered in a series, depending upon the category. This numbering lets you quickly identify, filter/review change orders of a particular type. 

• Click 'Select a Sequence'

• Select the type of CO and click 'Done.' 

A serial number is assigned to the CO in the sequence according to the selected type.

Delay - The effect of the CO on the schedule. This field is auto-populated after you accept a bid and approve the CO, using the details from the accepted estimate.

Total cost - The effect of the CO on the cost. This field is auto-populated after you accept a bid and approve the CO, using the details from the estimate submitted by the selected subcontractor.

Attachments:

• Attach plans
• Attach photos
• Link RFIs
• Link punch-list items

Attach plan drawings with/without markups

• Click 'Attach Files'
• Choose 'Select from Plans' 

The 'Plans' module opens and shows the thumbnails of the plan drawings added to the project.

• Select the plan you want to use

• Create markups if required to explain the change in more detail. See Markups for guidance on creating different types of markups on the plan drawing.
• Click the 'Publish' and save it with a name to attach the plan drawing with the markup to the CO.
• Repeat the process to add more plan markups

The markups you make from the CO module are tagged as 'Change Order' markups and are available in the Plans module. You can view and manage them from the Plans > Markups screen. See Manage Plan Markups for more details.

Attach photos

• Click 'Attach Files'
• Drag and drop files or choose 'Browse' 
• Browse to the required image file and open
• Add a markup on the image, if required. The process is similar to adding markups to a plan drawing. See Markups for guidance on this. 
• Click the 'Publish' and save it with a name to attach the image with the markup to the CO. 
• Repeat the process to add more images or documents

The plan(s)/photos are added, and their thumbnails are shown:

Add RFIs

If the change order results from one or more RFIs, you can link them to the CO. This lets viewers have more information about the change from the RFI(s).

• Click 'Link RFI' under 'Attachments'

A list of all completed RFIs involved in the project is shown.

• Select the RFI and click 'Done.'
• Repeat the process to add more RFIs if required

Add punch list items

Depending on the amount of work, some punch list items require a change order for implementation and tracking. You can create a change order for the work and link the punch list item so that you can keep track of the effects of the item on the schedule and the budget of the project.

• Click 'Punchlist' under 'Attachments'

The 'Add Punchlist' pop-up shows all punch list items in the 'Open' state.

• Select the PLI to attach to the CO
• Repeat the process to add more PLIs

Description:

• Add a description of the change required. 
• • Use the tools on the left top to format your text.
  • Use the tools on the right to insert tables and convert your description into a To-Do list.

	-	Convert the text into a 'To Do' list item or checklist. This is useful for the responders to keep track of the items that they have attended.
	-	Add a table to the description.

All your details are auto-saved.

Step 2 - Add your estimate (optional)

The 'My Estimate' tab lets you add your bid for the change order as an Excel file. You can download the template file, enter the values and upload the same as your estimate. This is useful for commitment change orders, self-performed change work, or those created for budget revisions.  

• Click the 'My Estimate' tab

• Click 'Download file format' to obtain a blank Excel file containing the required field headers.

Requirements of the estimate file

• The Excel file should contain an exhaustive list of tasks for the completion of the change work. 
• Each line in the file should contain one task entry.
• Enter the values for the tasks under the following column headers.
  • Task Code - The cost code of the line item. Typically, this is the standard code for the task or deliverable as per CSI MasterFormat. If your company uses a custom coding system, enter the code as per your company's task code format. Ensure that the task codes entered here are included in the task code list of your company. Contact your administrator for more details.
  • Task Name - The label of the task or deliverable
  • Estimate Time - The period required for completion of the task in days
  • Estimate Labor - The manual labor cost estimated for the job
  • Estimate Equipment - The estimate of cost incurred by the use of equipment and machinery for the work
  • Estimate Subcontractor - Expenses related to subcontracts, if any.
  • Estimate Material - Cost incurred by the materials used for the work
  • Estimate Others - Miscellaneous expenses like transportation, material handling, fees paid to various vendors, agencies, and more. 
  • Quantity - The amount of work done by the task
  • Unit - Units by which the amount of work done is measured
  • Overhead - Operation costs that the company bears
  • Profit - The profit expected from the work
• Save the Excel file with an appropriate name.
• Upload or drag and drop the file.

Your entries are validated and added to the draft list if there are no errors in them.

• Click 'Save' on the next screen.

Step 3 - Request bids from the subcontractors

This step is applicable only for prime contract change orders.

• Click the 'Bids' tab.

• Click 'Request Bid' at the top right.

The 'Select Company' dialog shows all subcontractor and vendor companies associated with the project. 

• Select the companies you want to invite the bids from

The selected companies are shown in the 'Selected' list at the bottom.

• Click 'Confirm' to forward the bid request to the selected companies.

The subcontractors are notified and sent invitations for the CO. Their PMs can see the CO in the 'Change Orders' interface of their project management portal.

All settings and values are auto-saved. You can edit the details at any time from this interface.

Tip:

Once you request bids, you can chat with any of the invited contractors. Click the button on the top right to start a chat session. See Chat and collaborate on a CO for more guidance.

• The stage of the CO is moved to 'Request Bids.'

You will get a notification once the PMs of the subcontractor companies accept the invitation and submit their bids. You can review and choose bids from the 'Bids' tab.

• See the next section, 'Review and accept bids' for more details.