GCs Get Paid for Extra Work When Every Change Is Priced and Logged
The AgentWorks Change Order Agent takes change order paperwork off your project manager's desk. It logs each change with its backup, collects the sub's pricing, routes it through your markup and owner submission, and keeps a running total against the original contract that everyone can trust.
What it takes off your plate
Here is how change orders go on most projects. The owner asks for a revision in the field, or an RFI answer adds scope. The superintendent mentions it to the project manager, who means to write it up. The sub sends pricing in an email thread, maybe with backup, maybe not. The project manager calculates the cost and schedule impact by hand, adds markup in a spreadsheet, and sends it to the owner when there is time.
Documentation is inconsistent from one change to the next. The running total against the original contract lives in a spreadsheet that falls out of sync with the approved changes in the project system. By the time the owner asks where the budget stands, nobody is sure, and extra work that was never properly written up is hard to get paid for.
What the Change Order Agent does, step by step
The Change Order Agent starts with the messages that turn a field conversation into a documented change.
- It opens the change. When the superintendent or project manager reports a change, the agent logs it with the description, the reason, the photos and the related RFI or directive.
- It requests pricing. It emails the affected subs for their pricing with the scope attached, and follows up until each price and its backup come in.
- It chases missing backup. A price with no breakdown goes back to the sub with a request for labor, material and equipment detail.
- It assembles the change order. With sub pricing in hand, it applies the markup your contract allows and builds the change order with the schedule impact the project manager provides.
- It routes approval. The project manager reviews and approves the package; then the agent sends it to the owner for signature, through DocuSign where you use it, and follows up until it is signed or returned with questions.
- It updates the running total. Every approved change updates the total against the original contract value, and pending changes are tracked separately so the difference is always clear.
Where the work is recorded
Every email, price, reminder and signature request the Change Order Agent handles is logged in the CRM your team already sees, on the project, the sub and the owner's record. When an owner's rep calls about a pending change, whoever answers can see where it stands and what is still missing.
The change orders themselves live in your project management system, such as Procore, with the backup attached, and the contract totals flow to your accounting system, such as QuickBooks, for billing. The next morning the project manager opens a short log: changes waiting on sub pricing, changes waiting on internal review, changes waiting on the owner, and the current contract total with approved and pending changes shown apart.
Many changes start as questions. For that side of the process, see how RFI control works with AI for construction project management.
What your people do instead
Your project manager stays with the client. They walk the owner through a change in person, explain the cost and the schedule impact, and answer questions, with a clean package in hand. They make the judgment calls on scope, pricing and schedule; the Change Order Agent does the collecting, the chasing and the math.
Your superintendent reports the change from the field and gets back to running the work. Subs get clear requests with the scope attached, and owners get consistent, documented changes they can approve without a fight. Client satisfaction on a construction project depends on no surprises in the budget, and on people who have time to explain.
To cut the field paperwork that feeds each change, read how the Daily Reports Agent gets your superintendent back on the job by lunch.
One next step
If change orders on your jobs live in email threads and spreadsheets, take the free Construction Industry Assessment. It walks through your field, estimating and project workflows and shows which one an agent should take first. To see every agent built for contractors, visit the AgentWorks construction page.
See where the Change Order Agent would start in your construction business.
I'm Jackie, the Construction ambassador here. The free Industry Assessment reads your website and asks how calls, follow-ups and records happen today, then shows the first workflow worth handing to an agent like this one — and what your team gets back. Leave your email and I'll send the link.
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