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This order is a credit. The contract sum goes down. You hold the printed copy of the change order in your left hand, your highlighter hovering over the line item that references uncompleted punch list work you agreed to remove from your scope last week. The fine print matches the verbal conversation you had with the project manager three days prior, no hidden clauses or unexpected deductions tucked between line items. Draw Jacket populates the core fields automatically when you upload the document, so you don’t have to manually transpose every number to your project tracking file.
Verify document validity first
You start your review by confirming this credit change order includes all required authorizing signatures to be enforceable. You look for the signature of your company’s authorized project lead, the signature of the general contractor’s assigned project manager, and the signature of the owner’s representative if the scope reduction impacts work that was explicitly approved by the property owner during the pre-construction bidding phase. You cross-check the date listed on the change order against the date you agreed to the scope reduction, to ensure there is no backdating that would shift liability for work you may have scheduled prior to the agreement. You also confirm the change order number matches the sequence listed in your project’s change order log, so you don’t misfile the document or miss a prior related change that impacts this credit. If any signatures are missing or the date is misaligned, you flag the document for follow-up with the GC’s project coordinator before moving forward with further review, to avoid wasting time processing a draft that will be revised later.
Cross-reference listed credit line items
Next, you go line by line through each listed deduction to confirm every credit aligns with the scope you agreed to remove from your contract. For each line item, you match the work description to the notes you took during your conversation with the project manager, to make sure no completed work is incorrectly listed as part of the removed scope. For example, if you agreed to remove only the vinyl flooring installation from your scope, you make sure there is no credit listed for the drywall patching work you already finished two weeks prior. You cross-check the per-unit pricing for each credited line item against the pricing you submitted in your original bid, to ensure the deduction amount matches the rate you quoted for the work, rather than an inflated rate that would reduce your contract sum more than the actual value of the removed work. If you already purchased materials for the removed scope, you confirm those material costs are not included in the credit, since you incurred those expenses before the scope reduction was agreed to. If any line item does not match your agreement, you note the discrepancy in the comment field of the document, to share with the project manager for revision before you sign off.
Calculate adjusted contract sum
Once you confirm all line items are accurate, you calculate the final adjusted contract sum to ensure the math on the document is correct. Illustrative example: If your original contract sum was $127,400 for the interior finish scope of the third-floor office buildout, the breakdown below reflects the credit adjustment for the removed vinyl flooring installation scope.
| Line Item Description | Dollar Amount | Reference Note |
|---|---|---|
| Original third-floor interior finish contract sum | $127,400 | Bid submitted 10/12/2024, fully executed 10/18/2024 |
| Credit: Removed vinyl flooring installation (12,000 sq ft) | -$18,600 | Scope removed per verbal alignment with GC PM 11/03/2024, no materials purchased for this task |
| Credit: Removed associated vinyl flooring subfloor prep | -$2,100 | Prep work was not scheduled prior to scope reduction, no labor allocated |
| Adjusted total contract sum post-credit | $106,700 | Valid for all pay apps submitted after 11/05/2024 |
You add the total credit amount manually to confirm it matches the total deduction listed on the document, to catch any typos or arithmetic errors that would leave you with a lower contract sum than you agreed to. You then update your internal project budget tracker with the adjusted contract sum immediately, so all future pay app requests you draft align with the new total, preventing overbilling mistakes that can delay payment reviews or create friction with the general contractor’s accounting team. You also note the effective date of the credit, so you know which pay periods are impacted by the adjustment and can adjust your billing accordingly for any work completed before the scope reduction went into effect.
Tag supporting documentation for your records
After you confirm the adjusted sum is correct, you attach all relevant supporting documentation to this change order file to create a single, centralized record of the agreement. You attach the screenshot of the text thread where you and the project manager agreed to the scope reduction, the page from your original bid that lists the pricing for the removed line items, and the email you sent to the GC last week confirming you had not purchased materials for the vinyl flooring work yet. You label each attachment clearly with the date and content description, so you can pull them up quickly if any questions arise about the credit during pay app reviews, project closeout, or any future audits of the project’s financial records. You save a copy of the fully signed change order to both your cloud-based project folder and your local office hard drive, so you have redundant access to the document if one storage system experiences an outage or data loss. You then send a signed copy of the change order back to the GC’s project coordinator within 24 hours of your review, so they can update their own project records and share the approved credit with their accounting team without unnecessary delay.
Next time you open this change order page
Next time you open this change order page, you will first cross-reference the adjusted contract sum against the total amount you have billed to date for the project, to make sure your next pay app request does not exceed the new contract total. You will pull the attached supporting documents immediately if the general contractor’s accounting team reaches out with questions about the credit deduction, so you can resolve their query in minutes instead of digging through weeks of old email threads and meeting notes. You will also confirm that the credit is clearly reflected on the next official pay app continuation sheet you receive from the GC, to make sure the adjustment is properly recorded in their official payment tracking system and applied to all future payment calculations. If you already billed for a small portion of the work covered by the credit on your most recent pay app, you will note the overbilling amount on your next submission and deduct it from your current request, to keep all your billing aligned with the adjusted contract sum and avoid any delays in payment processing. You will also add a dated note to the file if any revisions are made to the change order after this initial review, so every adjustment to the credit is tracked in one central location for the full duration of the project and through any post-closeout warranty periods.
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