Change Orders

Change orders let you add or deduct scope from a job you’ve already agreed a price on, without altering the original document. The original stays locked as a clean record of the initial agreement, while each change order documents what changed and by how much.

#When to Use a Change Order

Scope changes are a normal part of contracting. A client might want to add a feature, upgrade materials, or remove part of the original scope. Instead of editing the agreed document (which would lose the original agreement), you create a change order.

Each change order is a separate document tied to the project. It has its own line items, totals, and approval workflow. When the client accepts a change order, the revised contract value updates automatically.

#Creating a Change Order

Open an accepted estimate and click New Change Order in the action bar.

Skipped the estimate? If you agreed a price with your client and sent an invoice directly, open that sent invoice and create the change order there instead. You don’t need to go back and write an estimate after the fact.

What you can’t do is raise a change order before a price is agreed — a draft or declined estimate, or an invoice you haven’t sent yet, has nothing to amend.

You can create multiple change orders on the same project. Each one is independent and tracked separately. Change orders are numbered CO-001, CO-002, etc. within the project — each project has its own sequence starting at CO-001.

Starting one from a field note

The change your client just asked for on site is usually already in your field notes — you talked it into your phone standing in the room. You do not have to go and find the estimate afterwards.

Select the notes on the Field Notes page and start a document. Jobkore asks “What would you like to create?” with three choices — New Estimate, New Invoice, and Change Order. Pick Change Order and it asks “Which document is this change order for?”, listing only documents that actually set a price on a project. Both accepted estimates and sent invoices appear in that list, because a change order amends whichever document struck the contract — and on a project you billed straight from an invoice, that is the invoice.

Your notes go across with it, so Hank drafts the changed scope from what you actually said rather than from a blank line. If you have no accepted estimate and no sent invoice yet, the Change Order option is greyed out and says so — there is nothing on the books to amend.

#Adding and Crediting Scope

Every line on a change order has an Add / Credit toggle. Add is the default. Switch a line to Credit and it shows in red and subtracts from the change order's total — that is how you deduct scope.

A single change order can mix both. Swapping tile for vinyl is one document: a credit for the tile you are no longer installing, an add for the vinyl you are.

A change order can also go net-negative overall, when you are removing more than you are adding. Jobkore never collects a negative amount as its own invoice — the money comes back either through a smaller next invoice on the project, or as a direct refund to your client.

#Status Flow

Change orders follow the same workflow as estimates: Draft → Sent → Accepted or Declined. You can edit a change order while it's in Draft or Sent status. Once accepted, it locks.

#Signatures

Client signatures are always required on change orders. This is enforced regardless of your global signature settings. Before any scope change moves forward, the client must sign to confirm they agree to the revised cost.

#Tracking on the Original Document

A Change Orders card appears on whichever document set the price — the accepted estimate, or the sent invoice if you skipped the estimate. It lists every change order with its number, status, and amount.

Alongside it sits a Contract Summary, which is the running arithmetic of the project:

• The original total
• Each accepted change order, and the net they add up to — shown as "Original $24,000 (+$3,150 from 3 change orders)"
• The Revised Contract Value
• Total Paid across every invoice on the project, and the Balance Due

Only accepted change orders move the contract value. Ones you have drafted or sent but that are not signed yet appear on their own Pending approval line, named by number, so a stack of unsigned changes never quietly inflates what you think the job is worth.

How it looks in your lists

Once one change order on a project is accepted, the amount on the estimate’s row — in the Estimates list, on the dashboard, on the client’s page — switches to the revised contract value. It is no longer the figure you first quoted.

So the row carries a small count beside it, reading 1 CO or 3 COs. That badge is the disclosure: the number next to it is a rollup, and there are extras behind it. Every change order counts toward it whatever its status — drafted, sent, signed, declined. On the estimate and client lists the count is a control: tap it and the change orders unfold underneath the row. On the dashboard it is a plain label, because nothing there expands.

The count does not tell you which change orders are signed or what they are worth. Tap it for the breakdown.

#Invoicing Change Orders

You can create an invoice directly from an accepted change order. The invoice number includes a -CO suffix to distinguish it from the main project invoice (e.g., INV-0047-CO). The invoice also shows a subtitle indicating it's for a change order.

#Sharing, PDF, and Email

When a client views a change order via a share link, they see context about the document it amends — its title, number, and original contract value — whether that is an estimate or an invoice. The PDF header reads "Change Order" and references that document, and emails use "Change Order CO-001" in the subject line with the same context in the body.

#QuickBooks Sync

Change orders themselves don't sync to QuickBooks since they're supplementary documents. However, invoices created from change orders sync normally, just like any other invoice.

#When the Number Is Assigned

The form shows the next change order number — CO-002, say — as a hint, before you have committed to anything. The number is not actually taken until you send the change order or mark it as sent.

So starting one and abandoning it costs nothing and leaves no gap in the sequence. Your change orders run CO-001, CO-002, CO-003 with nothing missing, which is what you want when a client or an adjuster reads the set.