Change Order Log

A free change order log that watches the contingency

Log every change order, approved and pending, and see what is left of the contingency and how much time has been added. The number that matters is not this change order — it is the running total, and it is the one nobody keeps.

Pending change orders are the ones that hurt

An approved change order is already in the contract sum; everyone can see it. A pending one is priced, probably being built, and invisible in every number on the project — until it is signed and the contingency turns out to have been gone for a month. This log shows both, separately, because the question an owner needs answered is not what has been approved but what is coming.

Time, which is half of a change order and gets logged half as often

Every change order should say what it does to the completion date. Money gets tracked because it is obvious; days do not, and a project can accumulate two months of granted extensions without anyone holding the total. Then the completion date arrives and nobody can say what it should have been. The log adds the days up.

When the contingency is gone

Running out is not automatically a crisis — a contingency exists to be spent. Running out quietly, or running out at 40% complete, is the problem. This flags when approved changes exceed it, and separately when approved plus pending would.

What it does not do

It logs what you type. It does not know about a change order that has not been entered, tie changes to the requisition that bills them, or notice that the same scope has been charged twice under different numbers. That is the paid product.