Add a change order to the schedule

Change orders are used when a new work, alteration, or extension emerges. There are two types of change orders:

• Commitment change order – Commitment change orders represent changes in the agreed cost and/or the timeline for the work covered by the scope of the contract. Contractors use commitment change orders if their deliverables would cost more than the committed cost or could extend the proposed timeline. Useful for budget amendments and schedule revisions.
• Contract change order– Contract change orders represent any addition to, alteration, or omission of planned work covered by the scope of the contract. These include work that is not covered in the scope of the contract, like deviations in plans and dimensions, changes in designs, materials, and more. There are two types of contract change orders:
  • Prime contract change order – Changes that affect the contract between the general contractor and the owner/developer. Typically prime contract change orders are initiated by the general contractor and approved by the owner.
  • Client contract change order - Changes that affect the contract between the subcontractor and the general contractor. Typically client contract change orders are initiated by the subcontractor and approved by the general contractor and/or the owner. 

The change orders undergo a series of processes and owner approval, after which the GC awards the change work to the qualifying subcontractor. See 'Change Orders - An Overview' to read more about the change orders.

In order to push the change work to the respective contractor(s), the GC needs to add the change work to the master schedule. A change order becomes eligible for addition to the schedule after selecting the contractor(s), obtaining owner approval, and closed. Once added to the schedule, you can directly assign to the chosen contractor(s).

To add a change order to the schedule.

• Navigate to the master schedule page of the project
• Identify the top-level task next to which you want to add the change order.
• Alternatively, click 'Add New Row', and right click inside the new row if you want to add the change order as a top-level task 
• Right-click on the row, then choose 'Add Change Order.'  

The approved and completed change orders pertaining to the project are shown: 

• Select the change order to add to  the schedule by clicking its serial number

•  Click 'Add.'

The CO is added as the next top-level task with the change order serial number as the WBS code and the title of the CO as the task name.

By default, subtasks with the same task name are added for the CO, with pre-assignment to the contractors whose bids were accepted. The estimated labor and the number of days are automatically fetched from the estimate tendered by the contractors. 

The assigned subtasks are pushed to the subcontractors once you publish them. They can access them on their contractor schedule. On the contractor schedule, the pushed item is added as a parent-level task. The line items on their submitted estimate automatically add as sub-tasks to the parent item.