Change orders when you can’t stop work

What the delay actually costs

The figures in this section come from a SmartMarket Insight produced by Dodge Construction Network with Clearstory, a company that sells change order software. That affiliation is worth knowing when reading them. The numbers used here are the ones the research reports, not the vendor’s own marketing claims. Dodge / Clearstory

The gap most people quote is the external one: 26 days on average from submitting a change order request to getting a signed change order back in the specialty contractor’s hands. 43% of trade contractors say that authorisation takes three weeks or more. Dodge / Clearstory

The work is finished. The money is not moving. For that stretch, a subcontractor is funding a general contractor’s project out of their own working capital, and the research shows where that lands: 83% of specialty contractors say the change order process has a negative impact on their cash flow, and 77% have had to write off change order work as bad debt. Dodge / Clearstory

Only about one third of contractors report that their current change order management process functions very well. This is not a problem confined to badly run companies. Dodge / Clearstory

Why applications get held

The two most common reasons general contractors withhold or reduce change order payments are disputed pricing, cited by 66% of GCs, and insufficient backup documentation, at 53%. Dodge / Clearstory

That second figure is the argument of this whole page in one number. Pricing disputes are a negotiation, and both sides have a position. Insufficient documentation is not a negotiation — it is a gap you could have closed on the day, for free, and it is the second most common reason people do not get paid for work they actually performed.

Why “get it in writing” is not the whole answer

The standard advice is to refuse to proceed until a change order is signed. As a rule it is correct. As a description of what happens on a live job it is close to useless, and pretending otherwise is why most guidance on this subject gets ignored.

The superintendent asks for something on Tuesday morning. The crew is on site. The sequence depends on it. The super says do it and we will paper it later, and they probably mean it. A subcontractor who downs tools over paperwork acquires a reputation for being difficult long before they acquire a signature, and the cost of that lands on the next bid rather than this invoice. The power sits with whoever awards the next job.

That is the real dynamic, and no amount of advice changes it. What follows is not a way around it — it is what to do given that you are going to perform the work.

One state has legislated on exactly this

Texas is the exception worth knowing about. Texas Property Code 28.0091, effective 23 September 2023, lets a contractor or subcontractor decline to perform directed additional work where no written, fully executed change order has been received and the cumulative value of such work exceeds 10 percent of the original contract amount. A contractor who elects not to proceed on that basis is not responsible for damages associated with not proceeding. Gerstle Snelson

That is a genuine shift in leverage, above the threshold, in one state. The firm that wrote it up also flags the open question: it is not yet clear whether the protection can be waived by contract language, and many subcontracts require compliance with field directives regardless of written change orders. Courts or the legislature will have to settle it. If you work in Texas this is worth raising with your attorney before you need it. Gerstle Snelson

The confirming letter

This is the single most useful thing on this page, it takes about four minutes, and it costs nothing.

When you are given a verbal direction, send a short written message back to the person who gave it, the same day, summarising what was asked, when, and by whom — and inviting correction. You are not asking permission and you are not picking a fight. You are creating a contemporaneous record, and putting the other party in the position of having to correct it if it is wrong.

A construction defect attorney writing about exactly this scenario puts the value of that message plainly: Higgins Hopkins McLain & Roswell

“A two-sentence email sent during construction may ultimately become one of the most important documents in the case.”

Higgins Hopkins McLain & Roswell

The same firm sets out the hierarchy: the most effective protection is a formal change order signed by the general contractor. Where that is not available, the next best option is a written message — a letter, an email or a text — explaining the instruction and requesting confirmation of it. Higgins Hopkins McLain & Roswell

What it looks like

Every element of that is doing work. It names the person and the time, so the conversation is identifiable rather than generic. It describes the instruction specifically enough that nobody can later argue about which work is meant. It records that you flagged it as outside scope at the time, rather than remembering to do so at closeout. It says you are tracking cost separately. And it invites correction on the same day, which is what turns silence into something a reader can interpret later.

Send it to the person who gave the direction, copy their project manager, and keep it in the project record rather than only in your sent items. Do it the same day, every time, for every direction — including the small ones. The habit is the point; a confirming letter you send only when you sense trouble is a letter that says you sensed trouble.

When you can be paid without a signed change order

Most subcontracts say plainly that no additional payment is due without a written change order signed before the work. Courts have nonetheless allowed recovery in defined circumstances, and it is worth understanding which — while being clear that these are arguments made after a dispute has started, not a plan.

Waiver by conduct

A written change order requirement generally exists for the protection of the owner or general contractor, and a party can waive its own protection. Where the parties have in fact ordered and performed extra work without written change orders, a court may find the requirement effectively waived. Wolff Law

Course of dealing

This is the most common version in practice. Where a general contractor has approved and paid for changes all year without signed orders, it becomes harder for them to rely on the clause for the one change they would rather not pay for. The pattern of behaviour on the job is itself evidence. Wolff Law

Abandonment

Where changes are so numerous and so substantial that the original contract no longer describes the project being built, the contract may be treated as abandoned, and recovery measured by the reasonable value of the work performed rather than the contract terms. Wolff Law

Read that as the reason to write things down, not as reassurance. Every one of these doctrines is easier to run with a dated written record made at the time, and close to unwinnable on memory alone.

What to track from the first hour

Whatever system you use, the point is to be able to answer one question later: what did this specific change cost, separately from everything else on the job. Decide that on the first day, because reconstructing it at closeout from a general labour total is exactly the position you are trying to avoid.

1. Code the cost separately from hour one

   What that looks like: A dedicated cost code, phase or job number created before the work starts, with every hour and every material charge going to it. Not a note to split it out later — later is when the records are contested and the crew has moved on.

2. Log it in the daily log the day it happens

   What that looks like: A daily log entry naming the direction, who gave it, and what was done. The value is the date stamp and the fact that it was written before anyone knew there would be a dispute. A log written in arrears carries far less weight.

3. Photograph the condition and the work

   What that looks like: Photographs of the existing condition before you change it, and of the work in progress. Dated, and tied to the specific change rather than dropped into a general project album where nobody can find them in eighteen months.

4. Track labour hours against the change, not the base scope

   What that looks like: Hours booked against the change itself, by person and by day. This is the number that gets challenged hardest, because it is the largest, and it is the one most often reconstructed afterwards from memory.

5. Keep the confirming letter with the cost record

   What that looks like: The written confirmation, the daily logs, the photographs and the cost all findable together. A claim assembled from four systems three weeks later is an expensive afternoon and a weaker case than one assembled as it happened.

6. Log every potential change as it arises

   What that looks like: A site condition, a GC directive or a drawing revision all logged immediately, whether or not you think it will turn into a change order. FASA’s guidance to subcontractors is to log it immediately in every case; the ones you decide are not changes cost nothing to have recorded. FASA

One more item belongs before any of this, at contract stage rather than in the field: read the change order clause before you sign. FASA recommends reviewing every subcontract for language waiving the right to payment for change order work, and watching for immediate-notice requirements — clauses requiring notice within a short window of the event, which are easy to miss and fatal to a claim when missed. FASA

Where WorkHoist helps, and where it does not

The most concrete advice on this page is the first item of the checklist above: code the cost separately from hour one, while the change order is still pending. WorkHoist does not support that, and the rest of this section should be read with that in front of it rather than after it.

WorkHoist cannot attribute cost to a pending change order

There is a workaround and it should be described as one. Create a dedicated cost code for the change and code expenses to it, and create a dedicated phase and book labour hours to that. It gets you the number. What it does not get you is a link to the change order itself: two separate mechanisms, neither tied to the change, and nothing reconciling them back to it when the change order is finally approved.

The labour half is the weaker one. WorkHoist’s time entries carry a phase but no cost code at all, so the phase is the only handle available for hours — which is the number most likely to be challenged.

This is tracked on our internal backlog rather than described here and quietly left. If it is fixed, this section changes.

What WorkHoist does do

Change orders are first-class records with a real status lifecycle — requested, draft, submitted, approved, rejected — so a change exists in the system from the moment it is raised rather than appearing only once someone signs it. Each carries a cost impact, a schedule impact in days, a reason and a cost category, and the status is visible on the project rather than living in somebody’s inbox.

Daily logs are built in, with weather, crew count, delays and a delay flag, and photographs attach to them. That covers the second and third items on the checklist, and the logs are dated records in the project rather than notes in a phone.

On billing, invoice line items can be tied to a specific change order, so once a change is approved the billing for it is traceable back to the change rather than absorbed into a lump sum. That is the half of the workflow WorkHoist models properly.

And none of it is the confirming letter, which is the most valuable thing on this page and which no software has to do for you. Send the email.

Questions contractors ask

Can a contractor be paid for work done without a signed change order?

Sometimes, but it is harder than being paid under a signed change order and it depends on the state and the facts. Most subcontracts require a written change order signed before the work, and courts have allowed recovery anyway where the general contractor waived that requirement by its own conduct, where a course of dealing on the project shows changes were routinely approved and paid without signed orders, or where changes were so extensive that the original contract was treated as abandoned. Proving waiver generally requires clear and convincing evidence, which in practice means contemporaneous written records rather than recollection.

Is a verbal change order legally binding?

It depends on the contract and the state, and it is not something to rely on. Most construction contracts state that additional payment requires a written change order signed before the work is performed, which makes a verbal direction unenforceable on its own terms. Courts have nonetheless allowed recovery where the parties’ conduct waived that requirement. The practical answer is that a verbal direction plus a same-day written confirmation sent to the person who gave it is a far stronger position than a verbal direction alone.

Does a superintendent have authority to approve a change order?

Not necessarily, and a subcontractor should not assume so. Many subcontracts reserve the authority to approve changes to named individuals or require a signed written change order regardless of who gave the direction on site. A superintendent’s instruction may still matter as evidence of what was directed and when, particularly where the general contractor has approved and paid for similar directions earlier in the project. Confirm the instruction in writing the same day rather than relying on the superintendent’s position.

How long does a change order take to approve?

Research from Dodge Construction Network and Clearstory, a change order software vendor, found the average time from submitting a change order request to receiving a signed change order back is 26 days, with 43% of trade contractors reporting three weeks or more. The same research puts the internal stage — from a signed T&M tag in the field to a fully priced request submitted to the general contractor — at a further 22 days on average, so the gap between doing the work and holding a signed change order is often closer to seven weeks. More than half of requests require two or more revision cycles.

What should a change order include?

A change order should identify the work being added or altered specifically enough that it cannot be confused with the base scope, state the cost impact and the schedule impact in days, reference the direction or condition that caused it including who gave it and when, and be signed by someone with authority under the contract to approve changes. Supporting documentation matters as much as the form itself: insufficient backup documentation is the second most common reason general contractors withhold or reduce change order payments, cited by 53% of them.

What is a confirming letter in construction?

A confirming letter is a short written message sent to the person who gave a verbal direction, ideally the same day, summarising what was asked, when it was asked, who asked for it, and inviting correction if any of it is wrong. Its value is that it is contemporaneous: it records the instruction before anyone knows whether there will be a dispute, and it puts the other party in the position of having to correct the record at the time rather than dispute it months later. An email or a text is sufficient; it does not need to be a formal letter.