Painting Change Order Template: The Form That Gets Paid

Extra work on a painting job is normal. Unpaid extra work is also normal, and the difference
between the two is almost never the quality of the conversation. It is whether a document existed at
the moment the customer said yes.

This page is the form itself, field by field. It does not cover when to raise a change order,
how to price one, or how to put it to a customer without souring the job, because
handling change orders on a painting job already covers all of that in
detail. Read that first if the question is whether to raise one. Read this if the question is what
goes on the paper.

Why the form has to be short

A change order is signed standing up, on site, often on a phone screen, by somebody who wants to
get back to their day. Every field you add reduces the chance it gets signed at all. The version
that works fits on a single side and can be completed in about a minute.

That constraint is the whole design problem. Everything below earns its place because leaving it
out creates a dispute you have actually seen, not because it makes the document look thorough.

The identification block

Four fields, all of which tie this document to the original agreement:

• Change order number. Sequential within the job. The third change on job 214 is
  214 to 03. Without numbering you cannot prove which changes were agreed when there are several.
• Original contract number and date. This is what makes the change order an
  amendment rather than a loose piece of paper.
• Property address.
• Date raised. Not the date the work happens. The date you put it in front of
  them.

The description of the change

Write what changes, not why it changed. The temptation is to justify yourself, and justification
reads as defensiveness and invites argument. Two or three plain sentences describing the work, in
the same language your scope document uses, is enough.

Split the description into what is being added and what is being removed, if anything. Changes
frequently substitute rather than simply add, and a customer who sees only the addition experiences
the price as pure inflation. If a room is being dropped so another can be added, show both lines.

Where the change is a discovery rather than a request, say what was found and where, in neutral
language. Rotten timber behind a downpipe is a fact. Whether it should have been spotted at the
estimate is a different argument, and the change order is not the place to have it.

The reason code

One field, and one of a very small set of options. The reason a change arose determines who is
expected to pay for it, and having the category on the document stops the discussion drifting.

The last row exists so that the category is honest. Rework caused by your own crew is a cost you
absorb, and what it actually costs is in
painting callback and rework costs. Putting it on a change order is how
painters lose customers permanently.

The price and time impact

Two fields that must both be filled in, even when one of them is nil.

Price impact. A single figure for the change, stated as an addition to or
deduction from the contract price, followed by the revised contract total. Show the revised total.
A customer who only sees the increment loses track of where the job has got to, and the
conversation you do not want is the one at the end where the final invoice is a surprise.

Schedule impact. Stated in working days added to the completion window, or
explicitly as none. This field prevents the most common secondary dispute, where the extra work is
paid for happily but the customer still believes the original finish date applies. Handling the
consequences of that is covered in
handling painting job delays.

Both fields need a nil option that is actively filled in rather than left blank. A blank field
means nobody decided. A field reading none means somebody did.

The two lines that actually make it work

Above the signature, two short statements. These are the operative part of the whole document and
everything above is context.

• A line stating that all other terms of the original contract remain unchanged. Without it, a
  change order can be argued to have replaced the agreement rather than amended it, taking your
  warranty terms and payment schedule with it.
• A line stating that the work described will not begin until this document is signed by both
  parties. This is the one that protects you, and it only protects you if you honour it.

That second line has an uncomfortable implication. If you carry on working while the customer
thinks about it, you have taught them the signature is decorative, and the next change order will
not be signed either. The rule only holds if you stop.

Signature block

Both parties, printed name, date. Same requirement as the contract: if two people own the
property, both signed the original and both should sign the amendment.

An electronic signature is better than a paper one here, because it timestamps agreement to the
minute. On a change order raised at midday and worked that afternoon, the timestamp is the whole
evidential value.

What the form should not contain

No apology, no explanation of why the estimate did not include this, and no breakdown of your
labour and material costs. A cost breakdown invites line by line negotiation on a document that is
meant to be a yes or no, and it exposes your rates in a way your original quote did not. If you
price in tiers, the same logic applies as in
pricing painting jobs in tiers: present a decision, not a calculation.

No blank fields for later completion. A change order signed with the price left open is not a
change order, it is a signed blank cheque in the customer’s favour, because the unfilled figure will
be disputed and you will have nothing to point at.

Numbering when several changes overlap

On a job of any size, changes do not arrive one at a time and fully resolved. A customer asks
about an extra room on Tuesday, decides on Thursday, and meanwhile you have found rot at the back
door. If both sit in your head as pending, the numbering breaks and so does the revised total.

The rule that keeps it straight: a change order number is allocated when the document is raised,
not when it is signed. A raised and unsigned change order stays on the job file with a status of
pending, and it holds its number. If the customer declines it, it stays in the file marked declined
rather than being deleted, because a declined change is the record that you offered and they said
no. That record matters when the same issue resurfaces at the punch walk.

The revised contract total on each new change order should reflect only signed changes. Including
pending ones produces a figure that is wrong the moment a customer declines, and a customer who
spots an inflated total loses confidence in all your paperwork at once.

A stripped version for the phone

The full form is what you send. What you need standing on a driveway is smaller, because the
purpose there is capture rather than agreement. Six fields, typed into a note or a message:

• Job number and today’s date.
• What changes, in one sentence.
• Reason code from the table above.
• Price impact.
• Days added, or none.
• Who asked, by name.

That is enough to produce the real document the same evening while the detail is fresh. The
common failure is not that painters lack a form, it is that the change gets discussed on site and
written up three days later from memory, by which time the exact wording of what was agreed has
softened into something neither party can quite recall.

How this differs on commercial work

On commercial and general contractor jobs the change order is usually the end of a longer paper
trail rather than the whole of it. A condition gets raised as a question, priced as a proposed
change, and only becomes a change order once it is accepted, often by somebody in an office rather
than the person supervising site.

Two practical consequences for painters. First, the person telling you to proceed frequently
does not have authority to commit the money, so the signature you need is not the one in front of
you. Second, the lag between raising and approval can run past the point where the work has to
happen to keep the programme, which is precisely when painters get talked into proceeding on a
promise. That is the position to avoid, and the reason it is worth confirming the approval chain
before the job starts rather than during it. See
bidding commercial painting jobs for how that chain usually runs, and
prevailing wage painting jobs if the work is publicly funded, where added
hours carry reporting obligations of their own.

Filing and what happens next

The signed change order becomes part of the contract file, and its value carries into three other
places: the revised contract total on the final invoice, the job cost record so you learn whether
your change pricing is right, and the punch list at the end. Work added by change order is work the
customer will inspect, and it needs to appear on
the punch list document like everything else.

Record the change against the job in your cost tracking too. Painters who never review change
orders after the job never find out that a particular category, usually hidden conditions, is
systematically underpriced. Tracking painting job costs covers where
that record belongs.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a text message as a change order?

A message describing the work and the price, with a clear reply agreeing to it, is far better
than nothing and is often enough in practice. What it lacks is the line preserving the rest of the
contract and the revised total, so it works for simple additions and gets shaky on anything
involving schedule or specification.

What if the customer refuses to sign but wants the work done?

Then the work does not happen. That sounds rigid, and it is the only position that holds. A
customer who will not put their name to a price is telling you they intend to argue about it later.
The alternative is described in handling change orders.

Should small extras get a change order?

Set a threshold below which you absorb minor items without paperwork, and be consistent about it.
Goodwill on genuinely trivial additions buys more than it costs. The problem is drift, where the
threshold quietly rises until you are absorbing half a day.

Do I need a change order for a colour change?

If it changes the number of coats, the product, or means repainting something already finished,
yes. A colour swapped before anything is opened usually costs nothing and needs only a record on
the colour approval form.

Who signs on a commercial job?

Whoever the main contract says has authority, which is often not the person on site asking for
the change. Confirming that before you start is part of why commercial paperwork is heavier, as
covered in bidding commercial painting jobs.

Does a change order affect my warranty?

It should extend the same warranty to the added work, which is exactly why the line preserving
the original terms matters. Without it, the added work arguably carries no warranty at all, which
is not a position you want to be in when it fails.