The change-order paperwork every subcontractor forgets

It starts the same way every time. The GC walks the site on a Friday afternoon, flags something that wasn't in the original scope — 'hey, can you guys add blocking in that wall while you're in there?' — and the sub says sure. The crew does it Monday morning. The GC texts a thanks. Six weeks later the sub sends an invoice with '+$1,400 extra — blocking' at the bottom of the base-contract bill, and the GC's PM says they never approved a change order. The money doesn't move. The sub has a crew that worked a day and a half and no document that says anyone agreed to pay for it.

Change orders are not paperwork the office asks for after the fact. They are the three documents a working sub needs in hand before the first nail goes into out-of-scope work — and the three documents most subs skip entirely because the GC said 'don't worry about it, we'll sort it out.'

Document 1 — The change-order request: in writing, before the crew starts

A change-order request is the sub's written ask for approval to do work outside the original scope. It goes out before the work starts — not the next morning, not on the Friday invoice. It names what the work is, what it costs, and how many calendar days it adds to the schedule. The GC's verbal ask on a Friday walk does not replace it, because the GC's PM who manages the payment applications may not know the GC's super asked for the extra blocking until the invoice arrives.

• Scope description: one or two sentences, in plain language, naming the exact work — "Add full-height blocking in Walls A and B per GC direction on 2026-08-04."
• Cost impact: the total dollar amount the sub is requesting, broken into labor and material if the GC asks for it.
• Schedule impact: the number of calendar days the extra work adds to the sub's schedule, even if it's zero — "No schedule impact" is still a field that gets filled.
• Submitted by + date: the sub's company name, the person submitting, and the date sent — so there is no argument about when the request was made.

Document 2 — The signed authorization: both signatures, both dates, before a dollar moves

The request is what the sub asks. The authorization is what makes it a contract. A change-order authorization is a separate document — or a sequentially numbered exhibit to the original contract — that carries both the GC's signature and the sub's signature, with dates, before any labor or material is invoiced on the extra work. A GC approval in a text thread is not an authorization. An email saying 'sounds good' is not an authorization. On a multi-prime job, only the GC's signature on a written CO authorization means the owner's payment application will include the line item.

• CO number: sequential, starting from CO-001, tied to the original contract number — this is what the sub references on the invoice and the lien waiver.
• Original contract reference: the contract date and number the extra work is an addition to.
• Final dollar amount and schedule impact: both confirmed by the GC, not just estimated by the sub.
• GC signature + date and sub signature + date: both lines, both filled. A single-party signature is a request, not an authorization.

Document 3 — The change-order invoice: a keyed line, not a note at the bottom

The third document most subs skip is the CO invoice — a separate line item, or a separately keyed entry on the service form, that references the CO number instead of riding as 'extra work' at the bottom of the base-contract bill. A CO invoice that calls out CO-001 by number ties the payment to the authorization when the GC's PM processes the payment application. It survives a billing audit. It gives the sub a paper trail at lien-waiver time — the sub can show the conditional waiver covers CO-001 specifically, not a vague 'extra work' line that the owner's counsel can contest.

For a handyman or solo sub working without a GC change-order log, the service form is the CO log. A dated line item on a service form — scope, parts, labor, CO number, client initial — is enough documentation to collect on scope creep at a small-job scale, and it is the form a solo operator can hand to the client before they leave the site rather than explaining a text thread six weeks later.

Why subs forget all three

The crew is busy. The GC says 'don't worry about the paperwork, we'll sort it Friday.' Friday becomes four weeks later, by which time the sub has moved on to two other jobs and the authorization exists only in a phone text from a number the GC's PM doesn't recognize. The habit that prevents the dispute is the same one that prevents a verbal change order from becoming a four-week argument: the request goes out before the crew starts, the authorization comes back before the first material is on-site, and the invoice references the CO number the day the work closes — not six weeks later when the base-contract bill goes out.

A change order without both signatures is a conversation, not a contract. The fourteen-hundred dollars in the text thread does not pay the crew on Friday.

— Gridpin founder · 20 years on a clipboard

The kit that holds the log

CC-01 (Construction Contract) carries the CO log as a pre-numbered exhibit. HM-05 (Handyman Service Form) carries the per-visit scope, parts, and sign-off that serves as the CO log for solo work. For a superintendent running multiple subs on a larger project — framing, MEP, finish all billing separate change orders at the same time — the Construction Superintendent Bundle carries both plus the RFI tracker, the daily log, and the full project-management stack a working super opens between Monday and the next Monday.