Introduction to Change Orders in Fieldwire

Overview

On every construction project there are changes that impact the original scope, cost, and schedule. To capture those changes, contractors utilize Change Orders that describes what has changed and the associated cost/schedule impact of that change. There can be anywhere from dozens to thousands of Change Orders on a project, and it is vital to the contractor’s financial health and reporting to ensure they are managing them correctly. 

The Change Orders module is the newest addition to Fieldwire's suite of Project Management tools, and it integrates with other Fieldwire features, allowing you to have a single source of truth for agreed scope changes, faster data gather from relevant parties/stakeholders, faster approval process, etc.

In order to acquire this feature on your account, you can schedule a demo with our sales team or you can purchase it with Business Plus. If you are already on Business Plus, Change Orders will be automatically added to your Account.

Note: Change Orders are only available on the web version of Fieldwire at this time.

 

Table of Contents

• How to Enable PM on a Project
  • Change Order Permissions Table
  • Project Management Onboarding
  • How to set a Lead Company
• The Change Order Workflow
  
  • Watchers
• The Change Orders Tab
  • Filter Change Orders 
  • Change Order Presets
• Create a Change Order
• Request Cost
• Submit for Approval
• Send Rejection
• Create Revision
• Send Approval
• Linking Change Orders
• Void

 

How to Enable PM on a Project

For information on companies and how to enable PM on a project, please see this article: How to Enable PM and Manage Companies on a Project.

 

Change Order Permissions Table

 

Key items to note:

• All permissions assume the user is in the same company as the current assignee unless noted.

 

Project Management Onboarding

If you are accessing the Change Orders (or any Project Management) tab for the first time, you will see a pop-up to help get you started with Project Management in Fieldwire and setting up your “Company” on the project. First, you’ll need to add your company name and click the "Next" button. This will be the same company name for all PM modules on the project. However, it is not automatically filled by the “Company” information you put into your profile settings. (For more information about profile settings, check out this article: Q&A: How do I update my email address and other profile information?)

 

Next, you’ll be asked to enter your company code, which will help you and your team stay organized throughout the project.

 

And, that’s it! In the example shown in these screenshots, we used the company name, ABC, as well as the company code, ABC.

 

How to set a Lead Company

To make sure that all RFIs, Submittals, and Change Orders go through your "company" in Fieldwire, you can now set a Lead Company. To get started, you'll first want to go to the project People tab and then click on "Set lead company" for the company that you want to be considered the "lead".

 

After clicking on "Set lead company", you'll get a pop-up that indicates what the users in the Lead company can do vs users in the "Other companies" that were not designated to be the lead. For example, users in the Lead company can send submittals to or request submittals from any company, whereas users in the "Other companies" can only send submittals to the lead company.

 

Once you've decided that you do want to set a lead company, you'll need to click on the blue "Set lead company" button. After you click the blue button, you'll see the lead company indicated with a crown icon and "Lead company" next to it.

 

The Change Order Workflow

A Change Order can adopt different ‘statuses’, depending on the stage the Change Order is in. Since all Change Orders follow the same flow for progression, review the table below for an explanation of the different statuses a Change Order will adopt:  

Change Order Status	Definition
Draft	A Change Order is in the ‘Draft’ status when it is first created. To create a Draft Change Order, you must have the Manager permission within PM access. While the Change Order is in the ‘Draft’ status, you can add details and cost information. When the change order is ready, it can either be submitted for approval or requested. Note: While the 'Draft' status is where you initially add details and cost information, these details can be updated in any status by Managers in the Change Orders creator's or assignee’s company.
Requested	If requested (the status transitions from Draft to Requested), the new assignee can then add cost information to the change order and submit it back to the user who requested it from them, transitioning the status from Requested to Pending approval.
Pending Approval	In the Pending approval status, the new assignee can either approve or reject the change order, sending it back to the user that submitted it to them. This will transition the status to either Approved or Rejected respectively.
Rejected	If Rejected, the user who submitted it for approval is the new assignee and they have the option to create a revision of the change order if they want to modify the cost details and resubmit.
Pending Revision	Once a revision is created, the status transitions from Rejected to Pending revision. If a revision is created, the user has the option to copy over the last version’s cost information and backup documents, so they can build off of the previous revision or start from scratch. Once the change order is ready to resubmit, Managers can submit for approval again transitioning it from Pending revision to Pending approval. The Pending approval workflow recommences with the new revision.
Approved	If Approved, there is no further action to be taken on the change order.
Void/Unvoid	If a change order is made 'void', then it is no longer valid. However, it can be 'unvoided' if something needs to be updated or if it was voided by mistake.

 

Watchers

Within the “Watchers” tab you’ll be able to add and remove “Watchers” at each step of the workflow. In order to do so, you’ll need to click on “+ Add watcher” and click on the name of the person/persons that you'd like to add. You can also remove that Watcher by clicking the “x” that appears by hovering over their name.

 

If that user is not currently on that project, you have the ability to invite them. However, please note that if the new user you are inviting is not on your Account, you will be charged an additional fee if you do not have the available license(s) to cover that user. 

 

In addition to adding Watchers in the 'Details' section, you’ll also be able to add/remove Watchers within most Change Order status pop-up boxes.

 

The Change Orders Tab

Any individual associated with a Company, as either a Manager or Contributor, can access the ‘Change Orders’ tab - here, they are able to access each change in the project, independent of the ‘Status’.

The headers in this tab provide a high-level overview on the #, Name, Status, Due Date, Total cost, and Assignee of the Change Orders across the project. More specifically, these headers are defined below: 

• #: The 'Company Code' is assigned by the company the change order is being requested from and added when the change order moves from Draft to the Requested or Pending approval statuses.
• Name: The title of the change order, added when the change order is created.
• Status: The current state of the change order, which dictates what actions are available to the users - can be ‘Draft’, ‘Requested’, ‘Pending review’, ‘Pending approval’, ‘Pending close’, ‘Closed’, and ‘Void’.
• Due date:  Added by the user requesting the change order. It reflects the date the submitter should send the change order to the user requesting it.
• Total Cost: The total cost captured in the change order.
• Assignee: The current owner of the Change Order's next actions.

In addition, you'll notice the various statuses up at the top where you'll be able to easily see how many change orders are on the project in each status as well as keep track of the dollar amount that's been approved.

 

Filter Change Orders

1. Go to the Change Orders module
2. Select the Filters button

You can filter your change orders by:

• Watching: Shows change orders that the logged-in user is watching
• Status: The phase that the change order is currently in: Draft, Requested, Pending revision, Pending approval, Approved, Rejected, and/or Void
• Company: The companies that have been created within the project
• Assignee: The individual assigned to the change order at that given time
• Reason: The reason for the change order: Design change, Owner change, Unforeseen condition, Drawing error, Trade damage, Weather impact, Material delay, Trade constraint, and/or Other
• Schedule impact: Is there an impact to the schedule based on the contents of the change order: Yes, No, Maybe
• Last update: The last time the change order has been modified

 

If you are filtering by a Company, you are able to view a summary of the original contract value, approved changes, and the current contract total, which this offers immediate insight into how change orders shape the project’s financial scope. 

 

Change Order Presets

To help accelerate the change order creation process, you can establish preset costs that are often reused when creating a change order. These preset costs can be set for Materials, Labor, Equipment, Subcontractor, Other, and Cost markups. These match the 6 sections that you can fill out during the change order creation process. All Admin users on the project can set and edit the presets.

 

To start creating presets:

1. Click on the Manage cost presets button in the upper right-hand corner
   • This will bring up a new pop-up where you'll be able to create new presets for the 6 different sections mentioned above
2. Click on the relevant section name
3. Click Add [section] preset
4. Enter the relevant information for:
   • Name, Unit type, and Unit cost [currency].
     • The only required field to create a preset is Name 
     • The Unit type field is a dropdown where you'll see the same types that are listed when filling out the change order, itself. This field captures what you need with units such as Linear meters, Gallons, and Liters to name a few.
     • The currency shown in the Unit cost field changes depending on which currency you have selected in the Project Settings.
   • The fields for Cost markups are different. Check out the next paragraph to see how to fill out those presets.
5. Click the checkmark if you wish to save your cost presets for a particular section

For Cost markup presets, you'll notice different options:

• Name
• Applied section
  • This option refers to the other 5 sections of the change order as well as options for Subtotal and Subtotal + Markups.
• Percentage (%)
• Apply by default
  • Toggling it on means that particular line of cost markup will be automatically added to all of the change orders upon creation.
  • Toggling it off means that it will not be added by default, but you can easily add it to your change order under the cost markup section on the change order, itself

Note: Once a preset is deleted, it cannot be recovered.

Note: As is mentioned on the pop-up, Presets will be visible to all project users when creating change orders.

 

To accelerate the change order creation process even more, you can import presets. To do so, do the following:

1. Click on the Manage cost presets button in the upper right-hand corner
2. Click Import presets
3. Download the template that's provided
4. Fill out the relevant information on each of the tabs on the spreadsheet
   • This includes the presets that you want to import for Materials, Labor, Equipment, Subcontractor, Other, and Cost Markups
   • The entries on the spreadsheet match the fields that you would fill out as if you were completing the presets within Fieldwire
5. Save the updates you made to the spreadsheet

 

Once you have entered your cost preset information on the spreadsheet, do the following:

1. Navigate back to Fieldwire
2. Click on the Manage cost presets button, again, if necessary
3. Click Import presets, if necessary
4. Click Select file or drag and drop the spreadsheet from your computer's files
5. See that the presets are automatically imported and created as specified in the spreadsheet.

 

Once you're done creating your presets, you're all set and ready to go in creating your change orders. Below is a short video of a change order created with presets:

 

Create a Change Order

To create a Change Order Draft, you must have the Manager permission within PM access. To create a new Change Order, navigate to the Change orders tab, select “+New change order”, then enter the name of your change order. You can add a description of your change order if you'd like, though it is not mandatory. Once you're ready to create the change order, click "Create draft". 

Note: The "Name" of the Change Order can be adjusted later on in any state, not just ‘Draft’. This action can only be performed by Managers in the Change Order's creator's or assignee’s company. To do so, click on the pencil icon by the Name once you've opened the Change Order.

 

A new change order draft is created. On a change order, there are no required fields, but when a Draft change order has been created, details and cost information can be added to it. The change order is split up into 3 areas: header on top, Details on the right, and Cost information on the left.

 

Cost information is further split up by the cost sections on top (Materials, Labor, Equipment, Subcontractor), Cost markups, Cost summary, Backup documents, and Notes.

 

The primary difference between the cost sections is the Unit types that are available. For instance, under the "Materials" section, in the "UNIT TYPE" dropdown, you can select, "Each", "Linear feet", "Square feet", "Square yards", etc. Whereas under the "Labor" and "Equipment" sections, in the "UNIT TYPE" dropdown, you can select, "Hours", "Days", "Weeks", etc.

Additionally, the cost sections can be marked up independently or together in the cost markups. A final markup can also be applied to the change order which is essentially a markup on top of a markup, most commonly used for a bond, insurance, etc.

 

If you are looking to provide additional documentation for your change order, you can add an attachment. To do so:

1. Click the + Add attachment button under Backup documents
2. Choose either Attach from Files or + Upload new file
   • When attaching existing Files from your project to the Submittal, you can simply click within the search field, and you'll see a list of all of your files currently on the project. You can scroll up and down this list to locate the correct one.

 

Lastly, you can create and link change orders with other change orders as well as RFIs, making it easier to communicate dependencies or related scope.

 

Request Cost

When the change order is ready, a blue ‘Send’ dropdown button will be available. By clicking the blue dropdown button, you'll see two options, "Request cost" and "Submit for approval". This workflow will be going over the 'Request cost' option. After selecting ‘Request cost’, choose between assigning the Change Order to a "Project user" or an "Email address", enter the “Assignee”,  add "Watchers" (optional), and the “Due date” as well as an optional “Message”. Once this information is filled out, click the blue "Request" button. 

 

If you chose to assign the Change Order to a 'Project user', this will move the change order into the 'Requested' status, and an email notification will be sent to the new Assignee directing them to add their costs and submit the change order in Fieldwire.

 

If you're assigning the change order to an "Email address", it will also move the Change Order into the 'Requested' status, and the assignee will receive an email copy of the Change Order. In the email, they are provided with the name of the Change Order as well as instructions stating that they have been assigned this change order and to reply to the email with their cost impacts, which will send an email to the creator of the Change Order so that the creator can respond on the assignee's behalf.

 

Once the Change Order is assigned to the email address, you'll see that the Assignee field in the header is flagged to indicate that the they are an external user. In addition, this email address will appear in the activity feed and in any reports created.

 

Once an external email address is used, you'll be able to select it again when assigning a Change Order to an email address on all other Change Orders on the project. 

 

Submit on behalf

Once the change order is in the 'Requested' status, the new assignee will be able to download a PDF copy of the fields on the change order. They can then add cost information directly to the PDF version if they have a PDF editor and email it back to the email address listed on the email they received, or they can send the pertinent information by directly replying in the email they received. Once the creator of the Change Order receives the necessary information from the external user, they'll click on the 'Submit on behalf' button.

 

Once they do this, the fields of the Change Order will appear for the creator to fill out with the information they received. After the information is filled out on the Change Order, the creator will click on the 'Submit on behalf' button again where they'll be able to assign the Change Order to a new person (or back to themselves), add Watchers, and fill in the Due date. Finally, the creator will click on the blue "Submit" button, which will transition the status from Requested to Pending approval.

 

Submit for Approval

As opposed to selecting 'Request cost', you can also select 'Submit for approval' when the Change Order is in 'Draft' status. In this status, you'll fill in all of the necessary cost information as outlined above in the "Create a Change Order" section. Once the cost information has been entered, take the following steps:

1. Click on the Send dropdown button
2. Select Submit for approval 
3. Choose an Assignee 
   • Project user provides a dropdown in the Assignee row allowing you to assign the Change Order directly to someone already on the project in Fieldwire
   • Email address provides a free text field in the Assignee row allowing you to assign the Change Order to external users not currently on the project
     
     • CC is for when assigning a change order to an email address. This keeps users who aren’t on Fieldwire informed on the status and progress of the change order. 
4. Add Watchers, this is not required to submit the Change Order
5. Add the Due date, this field is not required to submit a Change Order
6. Add an optional Message
7. Click Submit

After the Change Order has been submitted, the status will change to 'Pending approval'.

 

Send Rejection

In the 'Pending approval' status, the new assignee can either Approve or Reject the change order, sending it back to the user that submitted it to them. This will transition the status to either Approved or Rejected respectively.

 

If "Reject" is chosen, you'll receive a pop-up that asks you to confirm that you do want to send the rejection to the submitter. 

 

Also, as indicated in the messaging in the pop-up, if you decide to reject the change order, Fieldwire will allow the submitter to create a revision.

 

Create Revision

To create a revision, the assignee simply has to click on the "Create revision" button and then choose the "Assignee", "Watchers", and select the "Due date". If a revision is created, the user has the option to copy over the last version’s cost information and backup documents with the checkboxes as shown in the screenshot below, so they can build off of the previous revision or start from scratch. Once a revision is created, the status transitions from Rejected to Pending revision.

 

In the Pending revision status, a new revision of the cost table allows the user to edit the content, as well as add more Backup documents and add more Notes before they resubmit. Notice in the screenshot below that "rev. 1" is next to "Cost" to indicate that this is the 1st revision.

 

In addition, past revisions can be seen beneath the current revision in case you want to reference past responses or submissions.

 

Once the change order is ready to resubmit, Managers can submit for approval again transitioning it from Pending revision to Pending approval. The Pending approval workflow recommences with the new revision.

 

Send Approval

Once again, in the 'Pending approval' status, the new assignee can either Approve or Reject the change order. 

 

If the new assignee clicks 'Approve', they will see one more pop-up to confirm their action. By clicking the blue "Send" button, the status of the change order will be changed to "Approved", the change order process is complete. 

 

Once a Change Order is Approved, Managers in the creator’s company can streamline their workflow and minimize rework with the option to reopen “Approved” change orders, which will move them back to the "Pending approval” status.

 

Void

If a Change Order is made ‘Void’ it will make the Change Order uneditable, since it will adopt a ‘Void’ status. However, you can 'Unvoid' a Change Order and restore it to its prior state. Unvoiding a change order will revert the assignee to the original one even if they weren't the assignee when the change order was voided. These actions are all captured in the change order's "Activity" tab.

 

Linking Change Orders

You can link existing Change Orders to other Change Orders or create a new Change Order from an existing one. This feature is useful when Change Orders are related and supports keeping related documents organized and easily accessible.

You can also link RFIs to Change Orders.  You can also have multiple COs for the same RFIs and vice versa.

Note: You can also create a Change Order from an RFI - 

 

 

 

More Information

• The Submittals Workflow in Fieldwire
• Introduction to RFIs in Fieldwire
• How to Enable PM and Manage Companies on a Project