Use this guide to group a scope change, create vendor and Prime Change Orders, copy vendor pricing to the owner side, adjust owner markup, control when values affect SOVs and reports, prepare change documents for signature, and export change exposure.
Start here
- Record a scope change: Create a Change Event.
- Price cost and revenue: Create vendor and Prime Change Orders.
- Start owner pricing from vendor cost: Copy vendor pricing to a Prime Change Order.
- Check or override overhead and profit: Review and adjust Prime Change Order markup.
- Understand when values count: Understand change status and financial timing.
- Approve and sign a change: Prepare a Change Order for e-signature.
- Report or export: Find, group, and export changes.
- Something is blocked: Troubleshoot Change Events.
Create and price changes
Create a Change Event
A Change Event is the folder for one scope issue: vendor cost on one side, owner revenue on the other. Create it as soon as the issue is real, even if nobody has a price yet — that's how the rest of the project sees the exposure.
- Open Change Events.
- Select Add Change Event. On a phone, that's the plus button in the header.
- Enter a specific Title.
- Save. Constructable gives the event the next number after the highest one on the project, sets its Event date to today, and opens it.
An unpriced change still represents exposure; add line items when pricing arrives.
Every Change Event opens to the same page. Overview — number, title, description, and attachments — sits beside Schedule, which holds the Event date, Schedule Impact, and Schedule notes. On a phone the two stack. Below them, the Vendor Change Orders and Prime Change Orders panels list each Change Order on that side with its lines, and the Activity Log is at the bottom. You only see a Change Order panel for a side you can read.
To fill in or correct the event, select Edit on the block you need. Both take Create/edit change events.
- On Overview, change the Number, the Title, the Description, or attachments. The number can be any whole number, including one another Change Event already uses, and the change is recorded in the Activity Log. A new Change Event always takes the next number after the highest one on the project, so renumbering an event to 100 makes the next one 101.
- On Schedule, set Event date to the day the issue actually happened, enter Schedule Impact in business days (up to 1,024), and use Schedule notes for free-text context such as which activities slip. If you clear Event date, the field opens at today's date the next time you edit.
A Change Order you start from the event takes the event's title, description, and schedule impact days. The event date and schedule notes stay on the Change Event.
Create vendor and Prime Change Orders
Vendor and Prime Change Orders are how you price a Change Event: cost against a Commitment, revenue against the owner. Each side has its own panel on the event — Vendor Change Orders and Prime Change Orders — and the button in its header starts a new Change Order or adds lines to one you've already drafted.
Each panel lists its Change Orders one under another. A Change Order's header row links to it and shows its number and title, status, company, and total — plus Budget Impact on the Prime side. Its lines sit underneath with cost code, description, retention, billing progress, and Amount. Select the arrow at the start of a header row to collapse that Change Order. The last row adds up every Change Order on that side. On a phone, each Change Order becomes a card with the same header, and each line shows its cost code, description, and amount.
To start a new Change Order inside the Change Event:
- On the Vendor Change Orders panel, select Add Vendor Change Order in the panel header. For the owner side, select Add Prime Change Order on Prime Change Orders. When that side already has a Draft Change Order, the button opens a menu instead — select New Vendor Change Order or New Prime Change Order at the top of it.
- Pick the commitment — a subcontract or Purchase Order on the vendor side, the Prime Contract on the owner side.
- Fill in the first line. Vendor lines take cost code, cost type, Qty, Unit, Unit Price, Amount, retention, and subproject. Prime lines take revenue coding, Qty, Unit, Unit Price, owner Amount, markup, and Budget impact. The description placeholder asks What is this line for?
- Select Add another line item to start the next line. The line you just finished collapses into a one-row summary showing its cost code, description, and amount, so the sheet stays short no matter how many lines you enter.
- Keep adding with Add line item. Select the pencil on a collapsed line to reopen it, the trash can to remove it, or the up chevron on the open line to collapse it. From the second line on, the footer shows the running total and how many lines you've entered.
- Select Save and Close. The Change Order and every line are created together, so cancelling before you save leaves nothing behind.
- Attach supporting documents, then review each side independently before approval or signing.
Opening another line, collapsing, or saving checks the open line first, so a line with a missing cost code or amount stays open until you fix it. A blank line you added and never filled in is simply dropped.
To add lines to a Change Order that's already on the event, select the plus button at the end of its header row. You can also open the Add Vendor Change Order or Add Prime Change Order menu: below the new-order option, it lists every Draft Change Order on that side by company, with its CO or PCO number and status. Either way you get Add Change Order Line Items, where you enter lines the same collapsing way. A Change Order that's out for signing, executed, or void shows a lock in place of the plus button and isn't in the menu, because its lines are locked.
When you pick a vendor commitment for a new Change Order, the sheet can show two informational notes. Neither blocks the save:
- FYI, this vendor has a commitment that is not fully executed. The link opens that commitment.
- FYI, this vendor has an unsigned change order. It appears when another Change Order on that commitment isn't Fully Executed, isn't void, and has no Billable On date. The link opens the lowest-numbered one.
Following either link leaves the Change Event, and lines you haven't saved yet aren't kept. Prime Change Orders don't show these notes.
Vendor and Prime amounts don't have to match. Margin, allowances, and costs not billed to the owner legitimately separate them.
On a vendor Change Order, the cost-code picker groups codes already on that commitment's SOV under On this commitment, so the codes you're already using float to the top.
Qty, Unit, and Unit Price are optional. When you enter quantity and unit price, Amount follows from that product. Leave them blank for a lump-sum line and type the amount directly.
Line items can be added, edited, or removed only while the Change Order is Draft. Once it's out for signing, ready to countersign, Fully Executed, or void, the edit pencil disappears from its lines, and a line-item sheet left open shows Line items can only be changed on draft change orders in place of a working save. To change the lines, move the Change Order back to Draft first — see Prepare a Change Order for e-signature.
Open Overview to change the Change Order Number. It has to be a positive whole number; two Change Orders can share a number. On a Fully Executed Change Order the overview, Billable On, and executed date are locked for everyone. If someone executes it while you have the overview open, your save is blocked with Overview cannot be changed after the change order is executed.
The two sides take different access, and they're independent of Manage financials like change orders, contracts, receipts (excluding financial reporting). Create/edit change events and Create/edit vendor change orders let a project engineer run the subcontract side. Create/edit prime change orders is what opens the owner side. Keep Manage financials like change orders, contracts, receipts (excluding financial reporting) for Prepare for Esigning and the rest of the contract workflow.
On a Sage-connected project that isn't excluded from sync, you can't start a Prime Change Order until the Sage Intacct project estimate has synced into the Budget. Add Prime Change Order — or New Prime Change Order in its menu — and Copy all from Vendor Change Orders are disabled, with the tooltip Prime change orders cannot be created until the Sage Intacct project estimate has synced into the budget.
Copy vendor pricing to a Prime Change Order
Once your subs have priced a change, you can carry their lines to the owner side instead of retyping them. You pick which vendor lines go, choose the Prime Change Order they land on, and see the markup and total before anything is created.
- On the Change Event, select Copy all from Vendor Change Orders below the Prime Change Orders lines.
- Choose where the lines go. If the event has no Draft Prime Change Order, the dialog tells you it Creates a new prime change order. If it has at least one, choose between adding to a Draft — the highest-numbered one is selected — and New PCO. With more than one Draft, pick the one you want from the list under that choice.
- When you're creating a new one and the project has more than one Prime Contract, choose it under Prime Contract.
- Review the vendor lines. Every line from every vendor Change Order on the event starts checked. Clear the box on any line you don't want to bill — it's struck through. The link above the list reads Uncheck all while everything is checked and Check all otherwise.
- Check the preview underneath. It lists what's already on the Draft you're adding to, the vendor cost of the checked lines, each markup from the Prime Contract with its rate, and the PCO total.
- Select Create PCO, or the add button labeled with the Draft's number.
Each copied line keeps the vendor line's cost code, cost type, description, Qty, Unit, Unit Price, subproject, and amount. Its Budget Impact equals the vendor amount, and its retention starts at the Prime Contract's default. The Prime Contract's markups are then recalculated over the whole Change Order — if it already has markup rows, they update to the new subtotal. See Review and adjust Prime Change Order markup.
That final button stays disabled until at least one line is checked (Check at least one line) and, when you're creating, a Prime Contract is chosen (Choose a prime contract).
Note: The dialog doesn't track what you've already copied. Copying a line a second time adds it again. If that happens, open the extra line with its pencil and delete it — a Draft's lines can be removed one at a time.
Copy all from Vendor Change Orders only appears when revenue codes are disabled and the event has at least one vendor line. With revenue codes enabled, build Prime lines directly. When you add or edit a Prime Change Order line, Markup % is on the form. Progress-bill lines default to 0%; T&M lines pick up the rate from the SOV line. A non-zero markup hides quantity and unit pricing and drives Amount and Budget Impact from the markup instead.
This action copies change pricing, not invoice progress. To seed an Owner invoice from vendor billing, use Copy Line Items to Prime on the vendor invoice.
Review and adjust Prime Change Order markup
You don't add overhead, profit, or insurance to a Prime Change Order by hand. When the Prime Contract has Change Order markup set up, each markup shows as its own row between the work lines' subtotal and the Change Order's total. You see the same rows on the Change Event and on the Change Order itself.
While the Change Order is Draft, the markup follows the lines. Adding, editing, removing, or copying in a line recalculates every markup from the new subtotal, and so does changing the markups on the Prime Contract. Each row shows the markup's name, its cost code, and how it's figured, such as 10.00% of subtotal or 5.00% of subtotal + overhead, with an Auto tag. Markup counts toward the Change Order's amount but not its Budget Impact.
When you've negotiated a different number with the owner, override it:
- On a Draft Prime Change Order, select the pencil beside the markup's amount.
- Type the amount and press Enter, or click away. Press Escape to cancel.
The amount you typed stays put when the lines change later, and any markup that compounds on it uses your number. To go back to the contract's formula, select the circular arrow that appears beside an overridden amount.
Once the Change Order leaves Draft — out for signing, executed, or void — its markup stays at the amounts it had when it left. There's no pencil, and later contract changes don't touch it. If a stored amount doesn't match the contract's current formula, the row shows the contract rate beside it. Moving the Change Order back to Draft recalculates any markup you didn't override.
If the Prime Contract has no markup set up, people who can edit commitments see a note saying so in place of the markup rows, with an Add markup link to the contract. For how markups are defined and compounded, see Set up Change Order markup.
Your Prime Change Orders now carry the contract's markup without anyone redoing the math.
Status, approvals, and consequences
Understand change status and financial timing
Change document status and financial timing are separate:
- Pending: the Change Order isn't executed and has no Billable On date.
- Billable On: the date its value begins counting in billable reporting.
- Fully Executed: the approval and signature lifecycle is complete.
- Void: the record remains in history but isn't active.
When a Change Order becomes Fully Executed, its lines become available on the contract SOV for invoicing. When a Prime Change Order reaches Billable On, Constructable creates or updates its Budget Modification and locks it.
A change can be executed before it is billable or billable before the final signature. Don't execute a change merely to include it in totals. Use Billable On or the Budget's Show Pending Change Orders in Totals according to the project's policy.
When you execute a Change Order by hand — Actions → Mark as Fully Executed, or the status badge — a dialog asks for both dates before anything changes. Executed On starts at the Change Order's existing executed date or today. Billable On starts at its existing billable date, or follows Executed On until you edit it. Select Execute to mark it Fully Executed with those dates. Pick them carefully: once it's executed, neither date can be edited.
Prepare a Change Order for e-signature
Finish the Draft lines and supporting documents, then use Actions → Prepare for Esigning to configure approvers, signers, and fields.
That action needs Manage financials like change orders, contracts, receipts (excluding financial reporting) — Change Order write access is not enough.
The document proceeds through Draft, Awaiting Approval when approvers are configured, Out for Signing, Ready to Countersign, and Fully Executed. Notifications go to each configured participant when their action is due.
While the signing flow controls status, don't force a manual status change.
A Fully Executed Change Order is locked for every role: its line items, overview, Billable On, and executed date can't be changed in place. To correct one, take it out of Fully Executed first:
- Open the Change Order and select Actions.
- Select Mark as Draft to reopen it for edits, or Mark as Void to retire it.
- Make your corrections on the Draft, then execute it again or send it back through e-signing.
Moving it takes the same access as executing it: Create/edit vendor change orders for a vendor Change Order, Create/edit prime change orders for a Prime one. From Fully Executed it can only go to Draft or Void — the signing statuses are disabled with An executed change order can only move to draft or void. Two things keep it executed no matter who you are:
- It was signed through Constructable e-signing. Status changes are disabled with This change order is managed by the esigning workflow.
- It's billable and has already been invoiced against. Status changes are disabled with This change order has already been invoiced against.
Reopening it in Constructable may not update an accounting document already created from the original execution, so coordinate with accounting before you change an executed Change Order.
Download PDF on a Fully Executed Change Order uses the values from that execution. Mark as Draft or Mark as Void clears the frozen copy. The next time you mark it Fully Executed, Download PDF uses the new values.
On vendor and Prime Change Order PDFs, Qty, Unit, and Unit Price are omitted when no line has a value, and that width goes to the description. On a Prime Change Order with markup, the PDF lists the work lines, a subtotal, and then the markup lines in gray. When revenue codes are enabled, a Prime Change Order PDF rolls matching lines up by revenue code; the in-app line items stay at cost-code detail.
Understand Budget, SOV, invoice, and sync effects
- Vendor Change Orders add cost exposure and, once executed, billable SOV lines on the selected Commitment.
- Prime Change Orders add owner revenue and, once executed, Prime SOV lines.
- A Prime Change Order reaching Billable On creates or updates a locked Budget Modification labeled Budget Impact #NNN.
- While a Change Order is out for signing, ready to countersign, or Fully Executed, a contract SOV line it revises is locked on the Commitment or Prime Contract. The line shows This line item is used by a change order that is out for signing or executed, so it cannot be changed. A void Change Order doesn't hold that lock.
- Invoice progress can be entered only against SOV lines available to that contract.
- The Budget can include or exclude pending Change Orders from totals without changing their records.
Sage Intacct can create purchasing and project-contract change documents from executed Constructable Change Orders according to configured mappings. Some flows create only and don't send later edits. Coordinate corrections with accounting.
Fix and retry a failed integration link. Don't create a duplicate Change Order to work around a sync error.
Find and report
Find, group, and export changes
The Change Events page is three lists — Change Events, Prime Change Orders, and Vendor Change Orders — so you can work one side at a time. You only see the tabs your role can read.
From Change Events:
- On Change Events, desktop can switch Rows view and Table view. Phones stay on rows. The two Change Order tabs always use the table. On a narrow layout the Change Order tabs shorten to Prime COs and Vendor COs.
- In Rows view, filter with Filter change events by title.... Each row shows Created and, when it's set, the Event date, along with Prime, Budget, Expenses, and Days of schedule impact. View Change Event opens the record.
- In Table view, search with Search by change event title, change order title, or company.... Group by Change Event, Company, or Status, and filter by company and status.
- The table shows an Event date column on all three tabs — the day the issue happened, as entered on the Change Event's Schedule block. A Change Order row shows its event's date.
- Add the Created Date column from the column controls when you need to see how long a change has been sitting in Constructable. It's hidden until you turn it on; on a row grouped by Change Event it shows the event's own created date.
- Export the current table to PDF.
- Open Change Orders Report for progress, retention, and invoiced-to-date details. Description is the line-item description, not the Change Order overview narrative. Group header rows leave that column blank.
The empty-state card — No change events have been created yet. — appears only when the project has no Change Events and no Change Orders. If Change Orders exist without an event, they still show on the Prime and Vendor tabs.
Check filters and access before exporting. Some roles see only Non-draft or billable Change Orders, or only those Related to my company, so users can report different totals from the same project.
The Budget provides separate PDF and CSV exports and a Show Pending Change Orders in Totals option. An exported file is a snapshot and doesn't update.
Troubleshooting
Troubleshoot Change Events
Change Events or one side of the event is missing
Confirm the Financial package and the matching read permission: Read change events, Read vendor change orders, or Read prime change orders. A tab you can't read doesn't appear. Company restrictions (Related to my company) and Status access of Non-draft or billable can further limit results. If you have none of those read permissions, the page shows Access denied. You don't have permission to view change events or change orders.
Pricing isn't known yet
Create the Change Event anyway and add pricing when it arrives so the event remains visible as exposure.
New Prime Change Order is blocked on a Sage project
The participating Sage project has no Budget lines from the Sage Intacct project estimate. Sync the estimate, or confirm whether the project should be excluded from accounting sync. The disabled tooltip is Prime change orders cannot be created until the Sage Intacct project estimate has synced into the budget.
Copy all from Vendor Change Orders is missing
Either revenue codes are enabled or the event has no vendor lines yet. With revenue codes enabled, build the Prime Change Order lines directly. Otherwise, add lines to a vendor Change Order first.
Copied Prime totals are higher than vendor totals
That's the Prime Contract's markup, added on top of vendor cost. Check the markup rows under the copied lines, and override an amount with its pencil if the owner agreed to something different. Copied values are a starting point, not a required match.
Markup amounts changed on a Draft Prime Change Order
That's expected. Draft markup recalculates whenever its lines change or the Prime Contract's markups are edited. To hold a negotiated number, override it with the pencil beside the amount — an overridden amount doesn't move. See Review and adjust Prime Change Order markup.
There's no pencil on a markup amount
The pencil only appears on a Draft Prime Change Order, for people with Create/edit prime change orders. Once a Change Order leaves Draft, its markup is fixed until it's moved back to Draft.
No cost codes appear for a Prime line
When the project's revenue codes aren't mapped to cost codes, the line-item picker shows No cost codes are mapped to this revenue code on this project. instead of an empty list. Add the mapping under Project Settings → Revenue Code Mappings, then return to the line.
I can't edit, add, or delete lines on a Change Order
Line items change only on a Draft. If the Change Order is Fully Executed, use Actions → Mark as Draft first. If that option is disabled, hover it: the Change Order was signed through e-signing, or it's billable and already invoiced against, and either one keeps it executed. Record the correction on a new Change Order instead.
Change lines aren't available for invoicing
Confirm the Change Order is Fully Executed and its lines were added to the intended contract SOV.
I can add vendor Change Orders but not a Prime Change Order
That's the expected result of having Create/edit vendor change orders without Create/edit prime change orders. The owner side is a separate permission. Prepare for Esigning still needs Manage financials like change orders, contracts, receipts (excluding financial reporting) even when you can create both sides.
Download PDF doesn't match the Change Order I just edited
If the Change Order is Fully Executed, Download PDF is the frozen copy from execution. Mark it Draft, finish the edits, and mark it Fully Executed again when the PDF should reflect the new values.
A colleague sees more Change Orders
Compare vendor and Prime read permissions, Related to my company, Status access, filters, and whether the view includes only billable changes.