🇺🇸United States

Administrative Burden of Change Order Pricing Consuming Estimating and PM Capacity

4 verified sources

Definition

Case analysis of change order request workflows shows that preparing, pricing, and processing a single change order can consume multiple hours of project management and office staff time, even before the general contractor reviews it.[9] Industry guidance acknowledges that thorough documentation, negotiations, and meetings are required for each change, creating a recurring overhead load that displaces staff from bidding new work or managing field production.[2][3][8][9]

Key Findings

  • Financial Impact: One study example shows two hours of project staff time at $50/hour to prepare a change request, costing $100 before review; scaled across hundreds of change orders on a typical nonresidential portfolio, this equates to tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in indirect labor and lost opportunity capacity.[9][8]
  • Frequency: Daily
  • Root Cause: Fragmented documentation (emails, PDFs, spreadsheets), manual quantification and pricing for each change, and repeated back‑and‑forth with owners and subs cause excessive administrative work; lack of standard templates and digital workflows increases the number of touchpoints per change order.

Why This Matters

This pain point represents a significant opportunity for B2B solutions targeting Nonresidential Building Construction.

Affected Stakeholders

Project Manager, Project Engineer, Estimator, Contracts Administrator, General Contractor’s Project Accountant

Deep Analysis (Premium)

Financial Impact

$100 per change order ($50/hour x 2 hours) scaling to $10,000s-$100,000s annually across hundreds of change orders in typical portfolio • $100 per change order ($50/hour x 2 hours), scaling to $100,000+ annually across portfolio • $100 per change order ($50/hr x 2 hours staff time), scaling to $10k-$100k+ annually across hundreds of change orders per portfolio

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Current Workarounds

Email threads with subcontractors, paper records, phone negotiations, manual entry into contract tracking sheets, tracking approvals via Excel, managing quotes in inbox • Excel cost breakdowns and regulatory documentation • Excel cost estimating with email approvals

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Methodology & Sources

Data collected via OSINT from regulatory filings, industry audits, and verified case studies.

Evidence Sources:

Related Business Risks

Unpriced and Late-Priced Change Orders Eroding Billable Revenue

For a $50M nonresidential project, change orders typically represent $5M–$7.5M; under‑recovery of only 10–20% due to weak pricing/approval controls equates to ~$500K–$1.5M per project, i.e., low‑ to mid‑seven figures annually for a contractor running multiple projects.[2][7][8][9]

Productivity Loss and Rework Costs from Poorly Managed Change Orders

If total change order value equals 10–15% of a $50M contract (~$5M–$7.5M), a 10–30% productivity hit on affected work can easily translate into several hundred thousand to multi‑million‑dollar unpriced labor and overhead costs per project.[2][7][8]

Rework and Defects from Informal or Rushed Change Order Implementation

Given change orders commonly total 10–15% of contract value, even a modest 5–10% rework rate on changed work can represent low‑ to mid‑six‑figure quality‑related costs on a $50M–$100M nonresidential project.[2][7]

Slow Change Order Approval Extending Time to Cash and Tying Up Working Capital

On a project where change orders equal 10–15% of a $50M contract (~$5M–$7.5M), it is common for millions in change order value to remain unapproved for months, effectively acting as an interest‑free loan to the owner and materially worsening the contractor’s cash conversion cycle.[2][7][9]

Disputes and Claims from Non‑Compliant Change Order Procedures on Public/Institutional Projects

While the specific dollar impact varies per dispute, on large nonresidential and transportation projects change order claim disputes routinely involve millions in questioned costs and can lead to partial or full disallowance of compensation, effectively converting extra work into an unfunded cost burden on the contractor.[7][2]

Inflated or Opaque Change Order Pricing Enabling Abuse and Disputes

For owners on large nonresidential projects where change orders total 10–15% of contract value (~$5M–$7.5M on a $50M job), even a 5–10% premium from opaque or excessive markups on changes can mean several hundred thousand dollars in avoidable spend.[2][6][8]

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