Manage Change Orders

Change orders describes the work that is added to or deleted from the original scope of work for a contract. Change order requests can come from either the owner or the general contractor. If the change request is approved, it will alter the original contract, so that the change order becomes part of the contract.

Typical construction projects allow for a project contingency contract award cost that is allocated for unforeseen change orders. This contingency is typically 20% of the contract. Sometimes projects operate on a 0% contingency basis with the cost of change orders being built into the original bid. The Facility Construction Project Manager must ensure that change orders stay within the project contingency allowance, or within the project budget. For this reason, there needs to be a clear process for requesting and approving changes.

Approved change orders are included in the Revised Contract amount for the project, and are shown in the Commitment Progress Status report.

You approve or reject change orders by selecting the Approving Manager from the list of approvers associated with the project. This action enables the Approve and Reject buttons, so that with the Approving Manager's authorization you can perform these actions.

Procedure: Adding, Approving, or Rejecting Change Requests

To record a change request for a project and approved work package:

Select Capital Budget Projects / Projects / Facility Construction Project Manager / Manage Change Orders task.
Note: You can also access the form for adding change orders from the Commitment Progress Status report. From this report, when you select to add a change order, you are taken to the Add or Edit Change Orders form, so you would start from Step 5 in the below procedure.
In the Filter, type the Project Code (the unique identifier for the project) in the Project Code field. A list of projects for which you are the Project manager and that match your typing appears as you type. Select the project from the list, and click Show.
The approved work packages for the project appear.
Select a work package from the Select Work Package pane.
The Select Change Order pane appears.
In the Select Change Order pane, click Add New.
The Add or Edit Change Order form appears.
Enter the following required fields:
Change Order Title : Provide a descriptive name that helps you identify this change order.

WBS Code : The work breakdown structure code for this change order action. Typically, the WBS code for the work package is the prefix for the change order's WBS code. This code indicates the change order's place in the structure of tasks for this work package.

Cost - Est. Baseline - (Exp.) / Cost Est. Baseline - (Cap.) . By entering the estimated capital and expense costs, you can track baseline costs. You can obtain this information from company data or from Web sites that provide standard pricing estimates. Baseline costs are used by approving managers when deciding whether or not to approve the project, and are shown as a guide when entering scenario costs in the Capital Budgeting application

Duration Est. Baseline (Days) . Enter the number of days it will take to complete the action for the change order. The duration is used to compute the average daily person-hours or average daily costs used when analyzing work using the S-Curve analysis. By default, this is set to 1.
Enter the following information as needed:
Hours - Est. Baseline . Enter the number of person-hours you estimate for this action. For example, if the action's Duration is two days, and two people will be working on this action for eight-hour days, then the person-hours for this action is 32 hours. The S-Curve analysis uses person-hours in its calculations for work, so it is important to enter these hours if you are generating S-Curve charts.

Date Requested. . Date the change order is requested. By default, this is set to the current date.

Date Required. Select the date by which the action for this change request should be completed.

Date Planned For. Date the work for this change request is planned to begin. By default, this is set to the current date.

Requestor Type. Select whether the owner or vendor requested this change.

Description. Record any notes about this change request.
Approve/ Reject . Do one of the following:
- To enter the change order request without approving it, click Save.
- To save your entries and approve the request:
  1. Select the Approving Manager from the list.
  2. Click Approve.
- To save your entries and reject the change order.
  1. Select the Approving Manager from the list.
  2. Click Reject.
  3. Click Yes in the Confirm form that appears.

Editing change requests

Based on negotiated scope, time line, and costs, the change order request is subject to change. You can edit change requests for projects for which you are the Project Manager. You can edit change orders as long as the change order's status is Requested. Once the change order has been approved or rejected, you cannot change it.

You can edit any information for the change request except the Status and Action Item ID that are system-generated. See the above procedure for adding a change request for a description of the information you can add for the change request.