The change was “minor.” The approval came late. Now the job is $30K over—and 4 days behind.
Change orders aren’t inherently bad. But when vendors handle them informally—or without documenting the downstream impact—they introduce cost creep and schedule risk that the PM absorbs.
Common change order failures:
Verbal scope shifts with no written backup
Out-of-sequence material substitutions with no QA updates
Pricing impacts logged too late to re-budget
What PMs really remember:
Who communicated clearly vs. who disappeared
Who flagged scope-impact vs. who sent vague revisions
Who gave cost transparency vs. who invoiced first, explained later
Distributors who rise above the red flag:
Send formal CO memos with impact to spec, install, and QA
Get written approval—not just procurement email chains
Deliver revised documentation with material drop
Change orders done right can elevate trust. Done wrong? They become the trigger for non-renewal and internal postmortems that don’t end well.
