Change Order Example: Overview

About Change Orders

What is a Change Order?

A Change Order is a formal amendment to the construction contract that documents modifications in project scope, design, materials, schedule, or cost. Because Change Orders affect the legal and financial framework of a project, they must be formally reviewed and approved by the client or the contract administrator (the person or firm managing the contract on the client’s behalf).

Change Orders are usually initiated when conditions change or new requirements emerge. They often follow a Request for Information (RFI) or Request for Change (RFC), where the need for clarification or modification is first raised. Once approved, the Change Order becomes part of the official contract record, adjusting the agreed budget, timeline, or deliverables.

Characteristics of a Change Order

• Formal approval process – Requires sign-off from the architect (chief designer) and from the client or contract administrator before becoming contractually binding.
• Traceable record – Documents all proposed changes, revisions, approvals, and supporting attachments.
• Role-based workflow – Typically involves a requester (General Contractor or design team) and approvers (chief designer and client or contract administrator).
• Linked to project documentation – Can reference contracts, drawings, cost estimates, or schedules.
• Impact on project cost and schedule – May increase or decrease project budget and timeline depending on the nature of the change. Any cost or schedule adjustments should be clearly documented and approved as part of the Change Order.

Importance of Change Orders

• Defines scope clearly by documenting deviations from the original contract.
• Maintains accountability through a transparent approval trail.
• Controls risk by preventing disputes over cost, time, or design changes.
• Keeps the project organised by assigning numbers and attaching references to each change.

Regional Terminology

The term Change Order is most commonly used in US-based construction projects. Depending on local regulations, contract standards, or industry practice, equivalent processes may be referred to as:

• Variation Order (VO) – Common in the UK, Australia, and other Commonwealth countries
• Variation – Standard term under FIDIC contracts, widely used across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia
• VOB Nachtrag – Term used in Germany or just "Nachtrag" in Austria or Switzerland.
• Contract Change / Amendment – Used in international legal frameworks

Regardless of the terminology, the purpose remains the same: to document, review, and approve formal modifications to the contract scope, schedule, or cost in a traceable way.

Overview and Workflow

PlanRadar helps you document and manage Change Orders flexibly. You can fully customise forms, approval workflows, and field permissions to match your organisation’s processes. This example Change Order demonstrates a simple setup that you can adapt to your own project needs.

Roles

• Requester: Creates or fills out the Change Order ticket and uploads the required documentation.
  (In this example, the Requester is the Gerneral Contractor or Site Manager to be more specific.)
• Reviewers: Formally approve or reject the Change Order, making it contractually binding.
  (In this example, the approvers are Architect and Investor/Client.)

Workflow

Usually a Change Order is preceeded by an RFI or RFC where details are already clarified.

If the Change Order details are complete and approved by all reviewers, the workflow proceeds in one direction.

• The Requester provides all the Change Order details and starts the approval workflow. Reviewers of each step get notified automatically.
• If a Reviewer rejects the Change Order, the Requester can update the Change Order fields and/or attachments and start another Ticket approval workflow.
• The ticket (including all attachments) receives the final Approved status once all reviewers have approved.

Each step is explained in detail in Change Order Example: Workflow in Practice.

Read more about the Ticket Approvals feature below.

Ticket Form Fields

The following table shows all fields for this Change Order Example, their field type and their purpose.

Ticket Approvals

Change Orders rely on PlanRadar’s Ticket Approval feature to handle structured review and approval steps.

The Ticket Approval feature enables you to create custom, step-by-step approval workflows for any ticket type.

• Once the approval process starts, the ticket is locked to prevent any changes to the ticket fields and attachments that are about to get reviewed.
• The ticket (including all attachments) receives the final Approved status once all reviewers approved it.
• If any reviewer rejects the request, the approval process ends. The ticket needs to be unlocked in order to make corrections before restarting the approval workflow.
• The approval applies to the entire ticket (including all attachments). There is no partial approval of single fields or files.
• The approval status of a ticket is visible in Approvals, Ticket details, Tickets list view, and Ticket attachments view in Documents.

Read more in Ticket Approvals.

Email Notifications for Ticket Approvals

The following rules define who receives email notifications during the approval process:

• Only Reviewers of the active step are notified about:
  • Request pending their approval
  • Due in 3 days
  • Due today
• All involved users — including the requester, reviewers, ticket creator, assignee, receivers, and any users in custom user fields — are notified when:
  • An approval request started.
  • An approval is overdue.
  • A reviewer approved, rejected, or commented on a request.
  • All reviewers completed an approval step.
  • All reviewers completed all approval steps.
  • An approval request got cancelled.
  • A ticket got unlocked (approval status deleted and approval process cancelled).

If you do not want to notify receivers and users in custom user form fields, remove the checkbox in the approval workflow:

Notification Settings

All participants should have email notifications enabled to ensure timely responses.

Notifications are triggered when Change Orders are created, revised, or advanced through the approval workflow.

Read more in Configure E-Mail Notifications and in Message Center & Notifications in the Webapp.

Numbering Sequence

The Change Order form can be configured to automatically assign a numbering sequence (e.g. CO-001, CO-002, CO-003...). This ensures each Change Order can be referenced in meetings, reports, and correspondence.

Read more in Form Options > Numbering Sequence.

Steps to manage Change Orders in PlanRadar

The following articles explain each step to set up and process this example Change Order:

1. Change Order Example: Setup – Configure the Change Order form, set permissions, and prepare the approval workflow.
2. Change Order Example: Workflow in Practice – Create a Change Order ticket with details and attachments and run the approval workflow.

Additional Possibilities 

Processing Change Orders as Tickets offers several additional possibilities and integrations that can enhance collaboration and efficiency.

• Create and process Change Order tickets anywhere with the PlanRadar mobile app.
  Read more in Create a Ticket.
  
   
• Place the Change Orders ticket on a plan or even on a 360° image of a SiteView run
  Read more in Set, Change or Delete the Plan Position of a Ticket and in Add Tickets to 360° Images in the Webapp.
  
   
• Officially confirm a processed Change Order with signatures.
  Read more in Sign a Ticket.
  
   
• The PlanRadar Assistant can help to get documents insights which can speed up the Change Order process without compromising privacy.
  Read more in Get Documents Insights in the Webapp.
  
   
• Get insights about your Change Orders with statistics.
  Read more in Statistics.
  
   
• Create PDFs or Excel files to summaries and share approved Change Orders by creating ticket reports.
  Read more in Ticket Reports.
  
   
• Add Change Order tickets to your Schedule to keep track of your project on a timeline.
  
   
• Use Sub-Tickets to create Change Orders under a related RFI ticket.
  
• Use PlanRadar Connect or Open APIs for automations like generating PDF reports of Change Orders and save them in PlanRadar Documents or other cloud storage services or share them by email.