WorkflowCapital Projects & Commissioning

Construction Change Order Management

Construction change order management that tests a contractor’s request against scope, instructions, allowances, notice and earlier changes, line by line.

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Follow one $3.86 million support request ↓

The problem

Each added support asked at contract rates, and thirty days to answer

A priced request lands with a count sheet, a batch of stress isometrics and a rate summary, and the answer is due in thirty days. To know what is owed, the contract engineer has to read the scope exhibit, the basis of estimate, the instructions issued, the notice dates and every change already signed.

Growth the price already carries gets paid a second time, a late notice slips through, and the requests nobody has priced age quietly until they come back at final account as claims.

Built forContract engineersCost engineersCommercial managersProject directorsInternal auditors

The Problem Today

Each request must be read against thousands of contract pages, so old work gets paid as new.

1,712: hours to read the priced requests by hand our estimate

Checked page by page today

Scope
Rates
Allowances
Old changes

Backlog turns into claimsUnpriced requests pile up until the final account
A thirty-day clockEach priced request needs an answer within the month

The Solution

Walk the contractEach line goes through five questions, each answered by its clause
Split new from pricedGrowth inside the allowance stays in the lump sum, family by family
Check price and historyEach rate against the contract, each line against earlier changes
People decideA person moves a line, a second countersigns, a director signs big ones

Built-in controls

A second person countersigns each request
Claim holds stop pricing and signing
Agents never sign, waive or send a letter

What You Get

Commercial teams answer from the contract, with each line tied to its page.

A backlog you can seeUnpriced requests by age, with a rough range
Earlier changes rememberedEach line read against the approved changes
Late notice caughtEvent and notice dates counted against the limit

One request, 14 days left

Construction change order management on a request for 486 added pipe supports

On a re-measured EPC contract for an offshore processing platform, the contractor asks $3,859,990 for pipe supports above the quantity in the basis of estimate. Here is how the owner’s team answers it, with 14 of its 30 days left.

demoThe contract, the platform, both companies and every amount are sample data.

01Morning
1,284 requests on one contract, 15 past the limit and 317 not priced
Contract engineer
The register holds every change request the contractor has raised: 512 signed, 268 found not to be a change, 62 withdrawn, 107 in review, 317 unpriced and 18 held as possible claims. Each priced request must be answered within 30 days, and 15 are already past it. The agents mark 3 as unsure, and 37 wait on the contract engineer.
0209:57
Not fixed scope, no instruction, and only partly design growth
Contract engineer
The entitlement tree walks the request through five questions, each answered from its clause. Supports are named in the scope exhibit, but the basis of estimate sets the quantity, so it is not fixed scope. No numbered instruction covers the extra supports. The basis of estimate carries 12 percent growth per family: 340 of the 486 added supports sit inside it.
0309:58
$2,720,000 already priced, and $1,139,990 owed at contract rates
Contract engineer
Notice came on day 21 of 28, so it is on time. The nearest earlier change paid for scaffold only, and the agent finds no approved change that covers these supports. The walk ends in two leaves: 340 supports already priced inside the allowance, and 146 beyond it, owed at the schedule rates. Each family is measured on its own; allowances never net against each other.
0410:15
Six spring supports the agent called growth, at 71% sure
Contract engineer
On the split, line 4b holds six spring supports on a new header run. The agent counted them as design growth but marked its doubt: the title block is a poor scan. The stress isometric’s revision note, shown beside the line, says per a company instruction, so the contract engineer opens the instruction itself. It moved the heating medium header tie-in to another frame.
0510:21
She moves the line, owed rises to $1,268,990, and notice is asked again
Contract engineer
She moves line 4b to owed, naming the instruction as her reason. Owed rises to $1,268,990 and already priced falls to $2,591,000. The agents then ask the notice question again for that line: from the instruction’s date, notice came on day 77 of 28, but on day 21 from the isometric revision that first showed the supports.
0610:24
Priced 385 days after notice, against 60 days in the contract
Contract engineer
The request itself shows the contractor held pricing until the last batch of stress isometrics. What the agent took from it sits beside the letter: event, notice and priced dates, and a flag that pricing came 385 days after notice where the contract gives 60, or a written reason. The reason is on file.
0710:27
Each rate looked up in the schedule, and each sum done again
Cost engineer
The cost engineer sees each line’s asked rate beside the schedule rate, the amount and the result. No rate here is above the schedule, there is no escalation, and no time is asked. The sum for the five owed lines is $1,268,990. Confirm the price or send it back.
0810:30
The commercial manager rules on notice for one line before countersigning
Commercial manager
Countersign waits for one decision. The commercial manager opens the instruction and the isometric herself, then rules on line 4b’s notice: on time from the revision that first showed the supports, or time barred, which would send the line back. Her ruling and what she opened go on the trail.
0910:42
The change order is drafted, and above $1,000,000 the director signs
Project director
The draft answer agrees $1,268,990 at schedule rates, line by line, and lists the lines not accepted and why. The contract value now, and what this would add, sit beside it. Three signatures are already on it, from the contract engineer, the cost engineer and the commercial manager. The project director reads it and signs, sends it back, or rejects it.
1010:45
$2,591,000 stays in the lump sum
Project director
Walked again after signing, the tree ends where the people left it. The notice question reads on time, with the ruling’s reason, and the leaves read $2,591,000 already priced and the owed lines at contract rates. Change order and signatures sit one click away.

The support count, family by family, against a 12 percent allowance

Growth above the basis of estimate is owed only beyond each family’s own allowance, at schedule rates.

Family	Added	Inside 12%	Beyond, owed
Shoes and guides	233	180	53
Line stops and anchors	98	54	44
Trunnions and dummy legs	80	48	32
Spring supports	33	33	0
Secondary steel frames	42	25	17
All five families	486	340	146

demoSample data, from the working solution. These are the agents’ figures before a person moved six spring supports; after the move, 152 supports are owed and 334 sit inside.

Who answers a change request, and the limit each one signs to

Contract engineer

Sees: The tree, the split and the source of each line
Signs: Prepares the answer and can move any line, with a reason

Cost engineer

Sees: Asked rates against the contract schedule, and the sums
Signs: Confirms the price or sends it back

Commercial manager

Sees: What changed since the agent read it, and any late notice
Signs: Countersigns, rules on notice and decides claim holds

Project director

Sees: The change order above the limit
Signs: Signs above $1,000,000, and waives a time limit if anyone does

Internal auditor

Sees: Every decision, the page behind it and who checked
Signs: Signs nothing; reads each step and exports it

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Around the request

Earlier changes, the trend register and the contract behind each answer

Six more screens the commercial team keeps open while requests come in.

Earlier changes compared with a request: the nearest approved change orders, what each paid for, and why none overlaps — **Has an earlier change paid for it?**The request read against all 513 approved changes. The nearest three each say why they do not overlap: scaffold only, fireproofing, steel outside the support count.

Trend register of unpriced change requests by age, a rough low, likely and high range, and the reminder rule for requests past 180 days — **The unpriced backlog**317 requests not yet priced, by age from notice, with a rough range of $24.3M low to $52.2M high. A range never reaches a change order.

Sign-off desk: limits for each level, requests waiting for the project director with their clocks, and requests past 30 days — **Who signs what**Under $50,000 in a sampled batch, up to $1,000,000 through three people, above it the project director as well. A split job counts as one.

Contract search across general conditions and exhibits, with a basis of estimate page on design growth allowance shown — **The contract, searchable**4,900 pages across the general conditions and exhibits, searched by word or phrase, with the page shown as written.

Audit trail for a change request: agent questions, the line moved, the price confirmed, the notice ruling and the signatures — **Audit trail**Each read, move, ruling and signature, by person or agent, with the clause or record it rests on.

Settings for change order management: signing limits, batch ceiling, sample size, contract terms and connected systems — **Limits that take two people**Signing limits, batch ceiling and sample size, the confidence flag and contract terms. A change needs a second signature and leaves requests in flight alone.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Behind the tree

Requests and the contract, read by eight agents that cannot sign or waive

Each one answers one question and hands on.

Request reader

Reads the request and attachments and makes lines.

Never guesses a quantity

Scope tester

Asks whether it is fixed scope or under a numbered instruction.

Never treats a meeting note as an instruction
Never gives legal opinions

Allowance checker

Measures growth against the basis of estimate, family by family.

Never nets one family against another

Notice clock

Dates the event and the notice and counts to the limit.

Never waives a time limit

Claim spotter

Finds reserved rights, delay and disruption, and proposes a hold.

Never decides a claim

Already-paid finder

Compares each line with every approved change.

Never rules alone

Rate checker

Checks rates and sums against the contract schedule.

Never prices above the schedule

Trend keeper

Keeps the unpriced backlog and drafts reminders.

Never sends a letter
Never lets a range reach a change order

What commercial managers ask about construction change order management

What is construction change order management?

Construction change order management is how an owner answers a contractor’s change requests. Here each priced request is walked down the contract: fixed scope, instruction, design growth allowance, notice and earlier changes. The split shows what is owed and what the price already covers, and people move lines, confirm the price and sign.

Is this change order management software for the owner or the contractor?

It is built for the owner. It reads the contractor’s requests against the owner’s contract, and the answer goes back as a signed change order with the refused lines and their reasons. A contractor’s commercial team could use the same tree from the other side.

Does it handle variation order management under other contract forms?

It reads your own contract: the scope, the rates, the basis of estimate and each approved change. Notice periods and the growth allowance are contract terms, shown read only, and they change only by amendment.

How is change order entitlement decided when the agent is unsure?

The agent marks its doubt on the line and says why. A person opens the source, moves the line if needed and names the reason. A move reopens any question it touches, such as notice.

What about requests the contractor has not priced yet?

The trend register keeps them by age with a rough range, drafts reminders for a person to send, and keeps any range off a change order.

How does scope change management stay auditable?

Each read, move, ruling and signature is on the trail with the page it rests on, and an evidence file exports with it.

Capital Projects & Commissioning

Bring one priced request
and the contract it rests on.

We’ll walk it down your own clauses and show what is owed and what you already pay for.

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Construction Change Order Management

Each added support asked at contract rates, and thirty days to answer

The Problem Today

The Solution

What You Get

Construction change order management on a request for 486 added pipe supports

1,284 requests on one contract, 15 past the limit and 317 not priced

Not fixed scope, no instruction, and only partly design growth

$2,720,000 already priced, and $1,139,990 owed at contract rates

Six spring supports the agent called growth, at 71% sure

She moves the line, owed rises to $1,268,990, and notice is asked again

Priced 385 days after notice, against 60 days in the contract

Each rate looked up in the schedule, and each sum done again

The commercial manager rules on notice for one line before countersigning

The change order is drafted, and above $1,000,000 the director signs

$2,591,000 stays in the lump sum