Every specialty sub eats change order money — the industry just argues about how much. The work gets done, the crew moves on, and three months later there’s no signed anything and the GC’s project manager who verbally approved it has changed companies. None of that is bad luck. It’s a documentation problem, and documentation problems have documentation solutions.

The short version

  • Your subcontract’s notice clause is the clock: claims for extra compensation typically must be noticed in writing within 5–10 days or they’re waived. Read it before the job starts.
  • Get written direction before doing extra work — and confirm verbal directions by email the same day.
  • Run T&M tickets daily and get them signed daily, with photos. A signed same-day ticket is a record; an unsigned weekly one is a negotiation.
  • Give extra work its own cost code from day one and price it within days, not billing cycles.
  • Keep a change order log at every project meeting — the dangerous CO isn’t the rejected one, it’s the approved-but-unpriced one that rolls forward for months.

The rule that governs everything: your subcontract’s notice clause

Before your next job starts, read the changes clause and the notice clause of the subcontract. Almost every one says some version of: written notice of a claim for extra compensation within X days of the event, or the claim is waived. X is commonly 5 to 10 days. Courts and arbitrators enforce these clauses more often than field folklore says they do.

That deadline — not the pay app cycle, not “when we get around to pricing it” — is the clock your change order process has to beat.

Before the work: get a directive

The single most valuable piece of paper in a change order file is something in writing, from someone with authority, directing the work before you did it. It doesn’t need to be a formal change order. A construction change directive, an RFI response that changes scope, a field directive, even an email that says “proceed with the revised layout” — all of it works.

If the super says “just handle it and we’ll square up,” the move isn’t to refuse — it’s to send a short written confirmation the same day: “Per our conversation, proceeding with X on a T&M basis per section Y of our subcontract. Advise immediately if this is not approved.” Silence in response to that email is a very different fact than silence in response to nothing.

During the work: T&M tickets, signed daily

For time-and-material work, the standard that survives disputes is simple:

  • One ticket per day, per extra-work item — not one ticket summarizing the week
  • Names, hours, and classifications for labor; quantities for material; hours for equipment
  • A description a stranger could understand — “core drilled 14 penetrations, level 2 north, per RFI 47” beats “extra work per super”
  • The GC representative’s signature, that day. A signature only confirming hours worked is still worth getting — note “acknowledges time only” and move on. An unsigned ticket is a negotiation; a signed one is a record.

Photos cost nothing. Before, during, and after shots with timestamps have settled more change order arguments than any contract clause.

After the work: price it fast and track it separately

  • Give the extra work its own cost code the day it starts. If the labor lands in base contract codes, you’ll be rebuilding the cost from memory — and underbilling it.
  • Price and submit within days, not billing cycles. The longer the gap between work and paper, the more the value erodes in negotiation.
  • Follow the contract’s markup rules. Most subcontracts cap overhead and profit on changes; submitting at the contractual markup removes an easy objection.
  • Keep a change order log — number, description, dates, submitted amount, status, approved amount. Bring it to every project meeting. A sub with a current CO log gets treated differently than one who shows up at closeout with a shoebox.

The unpriced-change trap

The most dangerous change order isn’t the rejected one — it’s the approved-in-concept, unpriced one that rolls forward for months while you keep performing. Every open item on the log should have a next action and a date. If a CO sits unsigned past the next pay app, it belongs in the pay app conversation, not in a someday file.