The Change Orders tab is where you track contract adjustments on a project that is underway: the extra work, credits, and scope changes that come up after the job starts. Riffle helps you follow each one from the moment it is identified through approval, and keeps a running picture of what it all means for your contract value.
Where to find Change Orders
The Change Orders tab appears on a project once it reaches the work in progress phase, which is a project you have won and are now building. Open the project and press the Change Orders tab.
The summary cards
Above the list, five cards give you the running picture across all of this project's change orders:
Approved Increases: the total of approved, billable change orders that add cost.
Approved Deductions: the total of approved, billable change orders that credit cost.
Net Pending Approval: the net value of billable change orders still out with the customer, waiting on an answer.
Net Absorbed Value: the net value of approved change orders your company is absorbing the cost of rather than passing it on to the customer.
Recovery Rate: shows how much of your change order value you were able to pass on to the client instead of absorbing yourself.
Creating a change order
Press Create a change order to add a row to the list.
Riffle fills in a suggested Change Order ID for you, like CO-1001, and counts up from there as you add more.
You can keep the suggestion or type your own ID, as long as it is unique within the project. Give the change order a name, then fill in the rest of the row as the details firm up.
Each row captures one change order. The main columns are:
Change Order ID: the reference number for this change, suggested by Riffle and editable.
Change Order Name: a short name for what the change is.
Requested/Identified: the date the change event happened.
Reason for Change: why it happened. Pick from Owner-directed change, Differing site condition, Design error / omission, Unforeseen conditions, Scope clarification, or Other.
Total Value: what the change is worth. This comes from the change order's worksheet, so it shows a dash until you build the proposal. A change order can be a positive amount for added work or a negative amount for a credit.
Billable?: turn this on to pass the cost through to your customer, or off to have your company absorb it.
Status: where the change order stands, covered in the statuses below.
Status Date: the date the current status was set. Riffle stamps today's date whenever you change the status, and you can edit it afterward.
More detail on a change order
Press the arrow at the start of a row to expand it and record more:
Customer Reference: the customer's own number or reference for the change.
Cost Responsibility: who is responsible for the cost.
Work Scheduled: the date the work is set to happen.
Work Completed: the date the work was finished.
From here, you can also see any documents that you've attached to the change order. When you've compiled your proposal, Riffle will automatically add that attachment to the change order row.
The work before approval alert
If you fill in Work Completed on a change order that has not been approved, Riffle shows an alert on the row.
It is a reminder that work is finished on a change nobody has agreed to pay for yet, so you can chase the approval before it becomes a problem.
Change order statuses
A change order moves through these statuses:
Pending: identified but not yet sent to the customer.
Submitted: sent to the customer and awaiting their answer.
Approved: the customer approved it. An approved change order turns green on the list.
Revise/Resubmit: the customer sent it back for changes.
Rejected: the customer turned it down.
Additional actions you can take on a change order
From each row you can:
Delete a change order: You'll be asked to confirm the action before the change order is deleted. If the change order status is approved, you'll be asked to confirm twice because this impacts the calculated budget and contract value for the project.
Create a task: turn the change order into a task for your team, with the change order's name filled in for you.
Open the worksheet: build out the line item detail and set the change order's value. To learn more, read How to Build a Change Order Worksheet.
When you expand the row you can :
Add notes: leave commentary on the change order for your team.
