A Change Order (CO) is a change in the previously approved Bill of Materials (BoM) of a Project. Change Orders are helpful to accommodate customer preferences, changes in the Project budget, or swap Products due to price or unavailability. For example, adding a new location, removing the A/V system, or subbing a Television.
Some of the key things to note about Change Order management are:
CO creation and management are similar to that of a Proposal. COs also support Templates, Email Templates, and all the options to share with the customer—Present proposal, Share via Email, and Share via URL.
COs can be Internal or External. An External CO should be approved by the customer for the changes to be factored into the BoM. Internal COs do not require customer approval and are used for internal approval or for changes that do not impact the scope of the Project.
COs only list the Products and/or Labor added to or removed from the scope of the Project.
Create Change Order
To create a CO:
Go to the relevant Project, and click the Change Orders tab under Details.
Click New change order.
In the New Change Order modal, select External or Internal, and name the CO.
Click Create and open the CO.
Make Changes
COs can accommodate changes to Product or Package items in the BoM.
Add new items - Search for the new items and add them to the CO, the same way you add them to a Quote.
Remove items - Click on an item and click Delete from CO.
Replace items - Delete the item and add a new item.
Add Labor - In addition to adding Labor using Labor Package items, you can also add new Labor Types if the Project has a unique Labor requirement.
For items, adds and replacements will show in Green, and removals will show in Red.
Check out this article for all changes you can make to the BoM to create a Change Order.
Review Change Order
You will want to review a CO before sending it to the customer or internals. Here are some ways you can review a CO.
Use the tabs above the CO to show the list of items by All, Net, Changed, Adds, and Removals.
Go to the pricing summary and review changes to each location, system, and phase.
Preview the entire CO to see what the customer sees
Learn more about Managing Change Orders
Share and Get the Change Order Approved
Always preview the CO before sharing it with the customer. COs provide the same options as Proposals—Present proposal, Share via Email and Share via URL.
Check out this article about the options to share Proposals for more details.
Even the approval process is the same as that for Proposals. After a CO is Accepted and Signed, the changes are merged into the Project's BOM and updated in the Project.