How to Create and Approve a Change Order
Price added or removed scope after an estimate is approved, get the client's signature, and see it land in the contract amount and project costing.
- Who can use this
- Anyone who can view estimates and projects can read change orders. Creating, pricing, sending, and approving needs estimate-editing permission.
- What the client sees
- Clients see the change order's scope, its total, and the approval page you send them. Internal cost and margin are never shown to a client, and a lump-sum change order can hide per-line prices as well.
Before you start
- An approved estimate that created a project
Why change orders exist
Once your client approves an estimate, that estimate locks. The signed scope and price stop being editable on purpose — it is the document you both agreed to.
Anything that changes after that goes on a change order: added work, removed work, an upgraded selection, or a credit. The original estimate stays intact, and the change order records the difference and who agreed to it.
Create and price one
- Open the project and click the Change Orders tab.
- Click Add Change Order. It is numbered in sequence for that project (CO-001, CO-002, and so on).
- Give it a title your client will understand, and describe the change in the description.
- Add line items with quantity, cost, and markup, exactly like estimate lines.
- For a credit or removed scope, use a negative quantity or cost so the amount comes off the contract.
- Click Save. Saving is what creates the change order — an abandoned draft leaves nothing behind.
Send it and get it approved
- Use Preview as client to check the page your client will open.
- Click Email to client to send a review-and-sign link. Your client needs no account or password.
- Or use Copy approval link to text or paste the link yourself.
- Your client signs in their browser. If they already agreed in person, use Mark approved internally instead.
- Once approved the change order locks, and its date and signer are recorded on it.
- Turn on the lump-sum option to show your client the scope and one grand total with no per-line prices.
What approval changes
- The contract amount becomes the approved estimate plus every approved change order.
- The change order's lines appear as their own group on the Project Costing tab, so added scope never hides inside the original budget.
- The lines become available to invoice, either on their own or as part of a remaining-balance invoice.
- A negative change order reduces the contract amount and shows as a credit.
A worked example
A $60,000 bathroom is approved. The client then asks for a heated floor at $2,800 and drops a $1,200 towel-warmer line.
You write two change orders: CO-001 at +$2,800 and CO-002 at −$1,200. The contract amount becomes $61,600, and Project Costing shows both groups separately against the original $60,000 of sold scope.
Troubleshooting
You need to change scope but the estimate won't let you edit.
That estimate is approved. Create a change order on the project instead — that is the correct record of the change.
The approval link says to save first.
The change order has not been saved yet, so it has no link. Click Save, then send or copy the link.
An approved change order isn't in Project Costing.
Confirm the change order is approved rather than sent, and that it is on the project you are looking at. Approved change orders appear as their own group.
The invoice total doesn't match the estimate.
Check for approved change orders. The billable contract amount is the approved estimate plus every approved change order.
You need to correct an approved change order.
Use Edit on the approved change order to fix wording without changing its status, or write a second change order for a real price change so the trail stays honest.
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Verified against the shipped product on August 24, 2026.