Change-Order Calculator + Doc Generator
A 10% markup on the obvious cost feels fair — until you count the rework, the out-of-sequence trades, and the productivity you lose on work you'd already scheduled. Price the whole thing on your margin, and generate a change order you can send in a minute.
One-time purchase · Excel / Google Sheets · printable CO document included
Notice the old way's true margin goes negative — you'd pay to do the change.
Change orders run 8 to 14 percent of contract value on a typical job — and roughly a third of projects hit a major scope change. Underprice each one by a few hundred dollars and forget the ripple costs, and you've handed back real money by December. This tool makes sure every change pays its way and stays on the record.
Sources: Navigant Construction Forum (8–14%); industry (~35% of projects). See the Benchmarks tab.What it does
Direct materials, labor, and subs are the easy part. The tool also captures the productivity you lose on disrupted work (10–30% is typical) plus remobilization and out-of-sequence trades — the costs that quietly sink change orders.
Not an arbitrary 5–10% markup. You set your target margin, and the tool prices the full cost to hit it — then shows the old way side by side so you can see exactly what it was costing you.
Fill in the change once and a clean, professional change-order document fills itself — your company, the project, the scope, the price, the revised contract total, and signature lines. Print it or save to PDF and send.
A running log ties every approved change back to the original contract, shows the revised total, and flags when change orders climb past the typical 8–14% — so scope creep never surprises you.
The change-order ranges, productivity-loss figures, and the markup-to-margin math are all sourced and cited in the workbook — no made-up numbers.
The change-order trap
A 10% markup can be a negative margin.
Mark up the visible cost by 10% and ignore the ripple, and once you count the real cost of the disruption, you can end up paying to do the change — while believing you made ten points. It's one of the most common ways good contractors bleed profit without ever seeing it on an invoice.
What's inside
Real spreadsheet, real formulas, Excel or Google Sheets. Ships pre-filled with a worked example; overwrite the yellow cells with your change.
A one-page guide and the change-order trap explained up front.
Price a change: direct cost, ripple cost, on your margin — vs the arbitrary-markup mistake.
A printable, client-ready form that fills itself from the tab above.
Track every change against the contract and watch the cumulative creep.
Sourced change-order ranges and the markup-to-margin conversion table.
Pricing
The readout above shows a single change leaking two thousand dollars. This tool is $99, once. Get one change order right and it's already paid for itself — every one after that is money you'd have left on the table.
Instant download · 14-day money-back guarantee
Questions
It's the cost a change creates beyond its own materials and labor: redoing work already done, remobilizing a crew, running trades out of sequence, and the productivity you lose on scheduled work the change disrupts. It's usually the biggest hidden cost of a change order — and the one most contractors never price in.
Yes. The Change Order Document tab is a clean, professional form that fills in from your inputs — your company, the project, the scope, the price, the revised contract, and signature lines. Print it or save it as a PDF and send it.
No. Standard spreadsheet, opens in Excel or free in Google Sheets. No macros, nothing to install.
Pricing a change to actually cover its cost isn't padding — it's not doing the change at a loss. The tool shows you the real number so you can charge fairly and explain it clearly, with a document that makes the scope and cost transparent to the client.
14-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked.