A change order is the moment a job's scope and its price move together. This is the full path from noticing a variance to a signed document that has changed the spec.
When to write one
The app already knows when an actual price has blown past an allowance. That variance is the usual trigger, and the composer pre-fills the money from it so you are checking a number rather than calculating one.
The other trigger is scope: the client wants something added, removed, or swapped.
Compose it
Open Change orders from the project sidebar and start a new one. Give it a title the client will recognize six months from now, such as "Primary bath tile upgrade" rather than "CO 3".
Then add lines. A change order line is a structured operation, not a note:
Addition adds a new item to the selections list. Removal takes one out. Swap replaces one item with another, which is the common case: the client saw a different pendant.
You author these in the same add-a-line flow you use in the editor, so a swap carries the full product identity of what is going in.
Send it
Sending freezes the document and hashes it. From that point the change order is a fixed artifact: what the client is looking at cannot change underneath them.
It goes out on the share portal, so the client opens it the same way they open the spec sheet, with no account.
They sign it
The client types their name, confirms their intent, and signs. What gets recorded is the typed name, the consent, the server timestamp, their address and browser, and the hash of the exact document signed.
The signature is what changes the spec
This is the part worth understanding. Composing a change order does not touch your selections list. Sending it does not touch it either.
The moment the client signs, the operations apply: additions appear, removals go, swaps replace. The live sheet and the signed agreement move together, and they cannot drift, because one caused the other.
Afterwards
The project carries a contract summary: the approved base plus the signed change order deltas, which is the running contract value.
Every change order can be exported as a branded PDF for your own records or the client's.
Availability
Change orders are on Pro and up. See pricing.