Share Change Orders

Overview

When you have completed the change order and are ready for client feedback, you can use the Buildwise Change Order Proposal Builder to generate a customized change order and share it with your client.

This article covers the steps to customize your change order and ways to share it with your client:

• Create a Change Order Proposal
• Customize the Change Order
• Scope of Work
• Review the Change Order
• Share the Change Order

Create a Change Order Proposal

On the dashboard, for the change order you want to share, click the Share tab.

The Buildwise Change Order Proposal Builder displays the change order template with the Scope of Work (SOW) and rich text editor fields. 

Notes

• The change order template includes:
  • Brand logo uploaded in your Company Settings
  • Change order name
  • Client name(s) and project address entered in Project Overview
  • Current date

Next, you will customize the change order.

Customize the Change Order 

Enter information for the following sections:

• Scope of Work Summary – Enter a clear description of the modifications or alterations to the original approved estimate. This section displays before the SOW. If nothing is entered here, then this section, including the section title, is excluded from the change order.

• Terms And Conditions – Clearly define the terms and conditions of the change order. This section displays after the SOW. If nothing is entered here, then this section, including the section title, is excluded from the change order.

Scope of Work 

Depending on the Contract Type selected in Project Settings, you can choose how to display the SOW. 

• Fixed Cost Pricing – Display a lump sum total or section pricing.
• Cost Plus Pricing – Display the cost item total or the cost item breakdown.
• Allowances – Available for both fixed cost and cost plus projects. 

Fixed Cost Pricing

For fixed-cost projects, you can choose to display a lump sum total or section pricing.

Lump Sum	Scroll to the Pricing section and click the Lump Sum radio button to display one price at the bottom with markup applied (hidden).
Section Pricing	Scroll to the Pricing section and click the Section Pricing radio button to display one price for each Cost Group section with markup applied (hidden).

Cost Plus Pricing

For cost-plus projects, you can choose to display the cost item totals or the cost item breakdown.

Cost Item Total	Scroll to the Pricing section and click the Cost Item Total radio button to display a total for each Cost Item data line.
Cost Item Breakdown	Scroll to the Pricing section and click the Cost Item Breakdown radio button to display a breakdown of COGs (Labor, Materials, Trade) as well as a total for each Cost Item data line.

Allowances

Cost Items in your change order that have Allowance checked in the data line will display in the Allowances section after the Scope of Work. Allowances are available for both fixed-cost and cost-plus projects and are grouped by Cost Group.

Note: Allowances are calculated in the SOW and allowances summary tables and are not double-counted.

Review the Change Order

It’s always a good idea to review the change order before you share it with the client.

Click Client Preview. A new tab opens with the generated change order.

Share the Change Order

There are three ways to share the change order with your client:

• Share by Email via a templated email to the client – option for digital signature
• Copy the URL and paste it into an email to the client – option for digital signature
• Download a PDF and email it manually to the client – no option for digital signature

Share By Email

Buildwise allows you to personalize the templated email to send to your client with a link to view and digitally sign the change order. A signed document automatically updates the change order status to Client Approved in Buildwise.

In the Change Order Proposal, click Share by Email.

The Share By Email popup opens with the following editable fields:

• Email – Auto-populated with the email address(es) added to the project.
• Subject – Auto-populated with “Change Order from [your Company Name in Company Settings]” 
• Body – Auto-populated with templated content, including:
  • Client name from the project
  • Link to the change order with signature functionality
  • The company owners email address from your personal settings

Click Share. A Thank You! confirmation popup opens. Click OK to close.

Buildwise sends the email with a link to the change order.

Copy the URL

You can copy the URL of the change order and paste it into an email to send to your client. This will allow them to view and digitally sign the document. A signed document automatically updates the change order status to Client Approved in Buildwise.

In the Change Order Proposal, click Copy URL. A popup message in the bottom left of the screen confirms the link was copied to your clipboard.

Download a PDF

You can download the change order as a PDF and attach it to an email to send to the client.

Note: While the PDF document includes a space for a Customer Signature, it does not allow for a digital signature. We strongly encourage you to obtain a digital or physical signature for your change orders prior to proceeding with the additional work. If you receive a signature by other means, such as DocuSign, make sure to update the status of the change order to Manually Approved in Buildwise. If you do not update this, the costs will not populate in Project Reporting!

In the Change Order Proposal, click Download. The PDF file is downloaded to your computer.