Free Change Order Template
A change order is the document that moves the contract price after the contract is signed. It is not a note in a text message and it is not a line added quietly to the final invoice. It names the change, prices it, and shows what the contract is worth afterwards.
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What belongs on a change order
- A change order number, so number three can be told apart from number two
- The original contract date and the original contract price
- What is actually changing, written so somebody who was not there can follow it
- The line items and the price for this change only
- The revised contract price, which is the number the client cares about
- How many days the completion date moves, including zero if it does not move
- A signature line for the client, dated, before the work starts
A finished change order, filled in
A bathroom remodel where the subfloor turned out to be rotten once the tub came out. That is the change order every remodeler meets: work nobody could have priced at the walkthrough, found in the middle of a job that already has a signed price. The sheet names the change, prices it in four lines a client can check, and shows what the contract is worth afterwards.
- ORIGINAL CONTRACT DATE carries 21 September 2026A change order changes a particular contract, and this field is the only thing on the sheet that says which one. It is the same company, the same client and the same job as the invoice example further along this site, and that invoice mentions the contract signed on 21 September. Without this field a change order is a loose piece of paper with a price on it, and six weeks later nobody can say what it amended.
- Four prices, and only the last one mattersSubtotal $1,245.00, this change order $1,245.00, original contract price $8,800.00, revised contract price $10,045.00. Nobody argues about the $1,245. The argument at the end of a job is always about what the contract was worth, and a change order that prints the revised figure has already settled it. The final invoice has to add up to $10,045.00 and now there is a document that says so.
- Priced in four lines, not as one numberLabor to tear out, labor to sister the joists at two units of 8 ft, materials, labor to relay. A client can check every one of those. A single line reading "subfloor repair, $1,245" cannot be checked, so it gets read as a guess, and a guess is something people negotiate.
- Why the change is needed, written as facts with a dateFound when the tub came out on 25 September, two joists soft, not visible at the walkthrough, not in the contract. That block is answering one question and it is the only question that matters: is this extra work, or is it work that should have been in the original price? "Additional work as discussed" loses that argument in one sentence.
- The completion date moves, in both formsThree working days, and then the two dates: 16 October becomes 21 October. A duration on its own gets argued about later, because nobody agrees when the three days started. Two dates are checkable. A change order that moves the price and says nothing about the date is how a contractor ends up late on a job he was paid extra to extend.
- Client signature goes on before the work, not with the final billThis is the whole reason the document exists. Signed first, it is a purchase the client made. Produced at the end with the final invoice, it is a bill for work they never agreed to, and in several states extras on a residential job are simply not collectable without a signature in advance.
This is a template and a worked illustration, not legal advice. A change order is an amendment to a signed contract, and some states put conditions on one for residential work: it has to be in writing, it has to be signed before the work, and there are limits on what can be added to a job without a fresh contract. Get the structure right here, then check what your state asks of a residential contract amendment once.
Price the change before you do the work, not after
The single most expensive habit in residential contracting is doing the extra work first and pricing it at the end. By then the client has already decided in their head what it should cost, and the number in your invoice is always higher than that.
A change order signed before the work starts converts an argument into a decision. The client can say no, and saying no is a perfectly good outcome, because unpaid extras are worse than work you never did.
Show the revised contract price, not just the change
A change order that says "add $1,840" is technically complete and practically useless. The client is tracking one number, which is what this job now costs in total.
The template does that arithmetic on the page: original price, this change, revised price. Three lines. Most disputes at final payment are actually disputes about which of those three numbers was agreed.
Time is part of the change
An extra bathroom is not only money, it is days. If the completion date moves and the change order does not say so, the original date is still the date you promised, and a liquidated damages clause or a simple angry client will hold you to it.
Write the number of days even when it is zero. "No change to the completion date" is a sentence worth having in writing.
Questions people ask
Does a change order have to be signed?
To be worth anything, yes. Most contracts, including the one on this site, say a change to the scope has to be agreed in writing before the work is performed. A change order nobody signed is just your own note to yourself.
What if the client will not sign but wants the work done?
Then you have a decision, not a paperwork problem. Some contractors send the change order by email and treat a written "go ahead" reply as the signature. That is better than nothing and worse than a signature. Keep the email.
Can a change order reduce the contract price?
Yes. Deletions are change orders too. Put the removed work in as a negative line so the revised contract price comes out lower, and the paper trail still shows what happened.
Is this template free?
Yes. No signup, no email, no watermark. The PDF is built in your own browser and nothing is uploaded.