Change Orders

Price extra or changed work on a job, send it to the customer to approve on their portal with their signature, and bill it — on the job’s invoice or on its own.

A change order is extra or changed work on a job that is already under way: the valves you found corroded once the wall was open, the outlet the customer asked for halfway through. You price it, the customer approves it, and it goes on the bill — so nobody is surprised by the invoice.

Find change orders on the website under Work → Change orders, and on a job’s card on the Active jobs board. On both phones they are under Tools → Change orders, and in a job’s record under Change orders on this job.

Making one

Start it from the job — New change order on the job’s card or record. It belongs to that job and its customer, and each one on a job is numbered: Change order 1, Change order 2.
Add the lines: what the work is, the quantity and the price. A credit for work taken out of the job is a line with a negative price.
Say why, if you like, and whether it changes the schedule — more days, fewer days, or no change.
It is saved as a draft until you send it. Totals are before sales tax, which is added on the invoice.

The customer approves it

Send to customer emails them a link to it on their portal. They see the work, the price and any change to the schedule, and approve it by typing their name and ticking a box — or decline it, with a reason if they want to give one.
Their typed name is their electronic signature, bound to exactly what they were shown, with the time and their device. You are told the moment they answer, and they get a copy of what they approved.
Once it is sent it cannot be edited, so nobody can approve something that changed under them. To change it, withdraw it to a draft, edit it and send it again.
If the customer answers another way, record it: signed on your screen in person, or given by phone, message or email — with how.

Billing it

When you raise the job’s invoice, every approved change order not yet billed is added to it, line by line.
If the job is already invoiced, invoice the change order on its own.
A change order is billed once, whichever way you do it. If the invoice carrying it is voided, it is ready to bill again.

Who can do what

Making, sending and billing change orders is part of the Estimates permission. A connected assistant can read your change orders — "which change orders are still waiting for the customer?" — but cannot send, approve, record or bill one: only the customer approves a change order.

Frequently asked questions

Does approving a change order charge the customer?

No. It goes on an invoice, and the customer pays the invoice the usual way.

Can I edit a change order after I send it?

Withdraw it to a draft first. The customer then cannot answer it until you send it again, so what they approve is always what they see.

What if the customer approves by phone?

Record their answer on the change order and say how it was given. Recorded answers are marked as recorded by your team.

Is sales tax included?

No. A change order’s total is before sales tax; the invoice adds it where it applies, line by line.

Related guides

Related features and guides

Dispatch & Work Orders — Documentation. How jobs are routed to service pros, how work orders track status, and how approval limits keep spending in check.
Job Forms and Checklists — Documentation. Build the checklists, inspections and test records your crew fills in on a job, put them on the right jobs by themselves, require one before a job can be completed, and keep a PDF of every submitted form.
Customer Equipment — Documentation. Keep a record of the equipment you look after at your customers’ sites — make, model, serial, install date and warranty — put it on the jobs you do, and see every visit it has had.
Contracts, Change Orders & Purchase Orders — Feature. Signed contracts, documented change orders, and purchase orders — so scope creep becomes a billable, agreed change instead of an argument at invoice time.
Invoicing, Estimates & Statements — Feature. Create invoices and estimates, send customer statements, and collect payment through the same rails as rent — with everything posting to the ledger automatically.
Technician Dispatch & Live Arrival Times — Feature. Plan each technician’s route, tell the customer when they set off, and send a live arrival link that says how the time was worked out — without tracking your crew.