Change order register. A cause before a check.
On CM at risk, the cause written on a change order decides who pays. This module records the cause, who set it, when, and what it is worth, and counts the notice clock in days.
The change order register, as it renders in the product. Fictional project. Every chart is inline SVG.
Cause classification
Five values: owner scope change, design gap or error, unforeseen condition, coordination, and unclassified. Owner scope is owner money and adds to the GMP. Design gap is the contractor's fund under most agreements. Unforeseen conditions usually go to the owner's contingency. Coordination is argued case by case. Unclassified means nobody has decided yet.
Classification is a judgment. The software does not make it. It records who made it, when, and what it cost, and it flags any item that has stayed unclassified for more than thirty days.
The audit table
Every change to a cause writes a row: the item, the field, the old value, the new value, the user and the timestamp. A reclassification is not an edit. It is a recorded event the owner can read later, with a name on it.
Notice deadlines counted in days
Each item carries its notice date, the contractual notice deadline, and the days remaining. Inside seven days the item is flagged. A passed deadline is recorded as missed, with the value it affects. Missing a notice deadline is a money event, and the register says so in those words.
What the register shows
Four tiles by cause with the count and value of each. The open items table with PCO number, description, cause chip, value, age in days, and who pays once the cause is set. The cause split chart, a horizontal stacked bar where unclassified is always drawn in the flag color. The sensitivity of the shared savings pool to the open items, which lives in the shared savings module and reads from here.
What it is not
The register is not a workflow tool and does not route approvals. The contractor keeps its change management in its own platform. The owner keeps a second record, written from the documents the owner receives, with the one field the contractor's system does not show the owner: who decided the cause.
Instead of the spreadsheet
Why owners pick this over the spreadsheet: when a cause changes in a spreadsheet, the cell just changes. There is no record of what it said last month or who edited it, which is exactly the record a dispute needs. The audit table is the difference, and a workbook cannot keep one.
Notice deadlines on the open items. Inside seven days is flagged. A passed deadline is recorded as missed.
The audit trail. Every change to a cause carries the old value, the new value, a name and a time.
Questions owners ask
Who sets the cause?
Whoever the owner grants that right to. Usually the owner's representative or the owner's project manager. The audit table records the name either way.
What does the thirty day flag do?
It keeps an undecided item visible. Unclassified items are listed first in the monthly report, with their age and value, until someone decides.
Does the register compute markup?
It records the value as submitted and the value as approved. Fee, general conditions and insurance markups are read from the baseline terms and shown beside each item, not recalculated.
Next and previous
Previous module: Contingency ledger. Next module: Buyout tracker. Or read how the eight fit together.
See the change order register on a project like yours.
Thirty minutes. We open the fictional project, walk the change order register, and show the page of the monthly report it produces.