Change Order Request Checklist

Capture the job number, owner, and prime-contract type (lump sum, GMP, cost-plus, unit price). Pricing markups and contingency treatment differ by contract type — a GMP COR pulls from contingency before increasing the GMP, while a lump-sum COR is additive.

Pull the next sequential potential change order number from the project COR log in Procore or ACC. Skipping numbers or duplicating breaks reconciliation against the SOV at pay-app time.

Tie the change to a specific trigger: ASI, bulletin, RFI response, owner directive, field condition, or designer error / omission. The trigger drives the entitlement argument — owner-directed scope is compensable; a field-condition discovery has shorter notice windows under most AIA A201 contracts.

Upload dated field photos, the affected drawing sheet (with revision number), and any RFI / ASI that triggered the change. Differing-site-condition claims live or die on contemporaneous documentation — gather it before crews proceed.

Describe the work being added and any work being deleted in plain construction language — trade by trade, with drawing references. Vague scope ('miscellaneous electrical revisions') gets returned by the architect and delays approval.

Send the scope narrative and marked-up drawings to affected subs; require itemized labor hours, material quantities with unit costs, and equipment line items. Lump-sum sub quotes without backup get rejected by most owner reps.

Apply the contract's permitted markups: GC fee, overhead, subcontractor markup, bond rate, and insurance. Confirm whether the contract caps subs' markup on lower-tier work — a common audit finding is double-stacked markup.

Run the fragnet against the current P6 baseline and check whether the affected activities are on the critical path. Concurrent-delay analysis matters: a non-critical activity disrupted by a CO does not earn a time extension on most AIA contracts.

Document the TIA per the contract's prescribed methodology — typically a fragnet inserted into the most recent updated schedule, not the original baseline. Include the requested calendar-day extension and the effect on the substantial-completion milestone.

The PM confirms scope narrative, sub quotes, markups, schedule analysis, and supporting documents are all attached and consistent. CORs returned for missing backup are the most common cause of approval delay.

The super walks the affected area and reconciles sub-quoted labor hours and material quantities against what the work actually requires. Sub quotes routinely overstate hours on T&M-likely changes; the super's signoff is your defensive posture in audit.

Chief estimator compares unit costs in the COR against unit costs already in the schedule of values. Material price escalation is fair game; rate changes that contradict the original bid invite owner pushback.

Architect or engineer of record reviews the technical scope and confirms the change is consistent with the design intent. Their recommendation precedes owner approval on most AIA B101-based projects.

Submit through the owner's required channel (Procore, e-Builder, Newforma, or paper transmittal). Track aging — owner CORs over 14 days unanswered should be escalated to the OAC meeting agenda with named impacts.

Walk through the owner's redlines item by item — typically markup caps, deleted line items, or schedule-impact disagreements. Keep negotiation correspondence in the project record; verbal-only resolutions evaporate when payment is contested.

Issue the AIA G701 with final negotiated cost and time, route for owner / architect / contractor signatures, and confirm the executed copy returns to the project record. Field directives proceed only after G701 execution unless a Construction Change Directive (G714) was issued first.

Issue subcontractor change orders mirroring the executed G701 — same scope, same time, prorated cost. Subs working off a verbal directive without paper risk lien-claim disputes if invoicing diverges from the executed CO.

Add the new line items (or adjust existing ones) on the G703 schedule of values and update the P6 schedule with the granted time extension. Pay-app rejections at the next billing cycle are usually traced back to a missed SOV update here.

File the signed G701, all backup, and the negotiation correspondence in Procore / ACC under the project's change-order folder. The closeout package's CO log reconciles directly against this archive at substantial completion.