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Change orders | General

You use a change order for reduced or additional work after your customer has approved a quotation. The approved quotation is your contractual reference and it is better not to change it any more. With a change order you record every change separately and traceably. That way your approved quotation stays unchanged, and your project budget, your recalculation and your invoicing remain correct. The change orders module is included in the Pro licence.

Example: your customer approved a quotation with a specific air conditioning unit. After the approval he chooses a different model after all. You record the price difference with the original quotation in a change order.

Navigate quickly to:

the overview of the change orders
creating a new change order
the change order file and its fields
the various tabs
the action buttons
invoicing a change order

You can find answers to frequently asked questions in the change orders FAQ.

Overview screen

You can adjust the overview of the change orders via the settings: which columns you want, in which order, which quick filters? In addition, every user can create their own overviews and personalise them. Via the overview screen you can make bulk changes to several change orders at once.

Views

Besides the table view, the change order overview has two more views:

Kanban: your change orders as cards, in a column per status.
Map: your change orders on a map, based on the project address.

Creating a new change order

There are three ways to start a new change order:

from a project, via the plus sign next to 'Change orders' in the Overview block of the Overview tab. That is the recommended way: Robaws then already fills in the project, the customer, the end customer, the contacts, the customer reference, the company, the project address and the kilometres.
from a customer file, via the plus sign next to 'Change orders' in the Overview block.
from the overview of your change orders, via the Add (+) action button.

In each case you choose a template. A change order uses the same templates as a quotation. A template is therefore either a simple or a calculated quotation. If you want to follow up the reduced or additional work in the recalculation as well, choose a calculated template.

The change order file

A change order is built up like a quotation. The first block is called Change order info and contains the same fields as the quotation details, as well as the date fields, the extra fields and the project address. Three fields are especially important for a change order:

Field	Explanation
Project	The project to which the reduced or additional work relates. If you create the change order from the project, this is already filled in. If you choose a project yourself, Robaws takes over the customer, the end customer, the contact, the customer reference and the company of that project.
Active on project	(visible if a project is linked) Ticked: the change order counts towards the budget, the financial overview and the recalculation of the project, just like an active quotation.
Status	The status of the change order. Change orders use the same statuses as quotations, including the statuses that change automatically, for example after invoicing.

All fields of the change order file can be used as a replacement code in your texts and PDFs.

Tip: if you create the same extra fields for customers and quotations, or for quotations, orders and invoices, Robaws takes over their content when you make a change order for that customer, or make an order or invoice from the change order. See Copying extra field information to another module.

Tabs

Change order

Here you draw up the content of the change order: an Introduction, the lines and an End. You work here in the same way as in a quotation: with items, posts, line types and chapters, and on a calculated change order with the line detail and the calculation tabs. How to build up the lines is explained in Structure of the quotation.

Remarks

You use remarks to communicate internally about this change order and as a reminder. They are not visible to the customer.

Documents

Here you add files that belong to this change order, for example the e-mail in which the customer asked for the additional work.

Tasks

As in all modules, you can also create a task from the change order.

Financial planning

Here you prepare the financial planning of the change order: in which phases and for which percentage or amount you invoice.

Action buttons

In the overview screen

For most action buttons in the overview, you first tick the change order(s) on the left on which you want to perform the action.

Action button	Explanation
Add	Create a new change order, see Creating a new change order.
Duplicate	Create a new change order based on the selected change order, with a new number.
Excel	Export the change orders from the overview to Excel.
Make supply order	(visible if Make supply order is switched on in the quotation settings) Order the material of the selected change orders via Quick order.
Delete, Archive, Lock	See the explanation in the table below.

On the change order file

At the top of the change order file there is a row of action buttons. The name of an action button appears as soon as you hover over it with your mouse.

Action button	Explanation
Pdf	View the PDF of the change order. Via the drop-down list you choose one of your PDF templates, the Bill of materials or, on a calculated change order, the Pdf calculation, among others.
E-mail	Send the change order to the customer by e-mail with an email template. You can also have the change order signed digitally.
Default documents	Draw up a default document from the change order.
Measurements	(visible if Measurements is switched on in the project settings) Open the measurements of the change order.
Make order	(visible if Make order is switched on in the quotation settings) Create an order for this change order.
Make invoice	(visible if Make invoice is switched on in the quotation settings) Invoice the change order in full, see Invoicing a change order.
Make supply order	(visible if Make supply order is switched on in the quotation settings) Order the material of the change order via Quick order.
Change number	(visible as long as the change order is not locked) Change the number of the change order manually.
Delete	The change order disappears from the overviews. Use this for a change order that was created by mistake. More explanation in Archiving and deleting.
Archive	The change order disappears from the overviews, but stays linked to the project, the invoice, ... More explanation in Archiving and deleting.
Lock	The change order can no longer be changed. More explanation in Locking documents.
Audit log	(visible for administrators) The history of retrieving and saving the change order.

Don't see Delete, Archive or Lock? Then your user role does not have the right to edit or delete quotations and change orders. Archived and deleted change orders can be found again via the advanced filters in the overview.

Invoicing a change order

You decide yourself whether you invoice the reduced or additional work separately or together with the rest:

Separately: click the Make invoice action button on the change order. Robaws makes an invoice with all lines of the change order.
On an existing invoice: click the Add (+) action button on the invoice and choose Change order. If the change order has discounts or surcharges, they come along.
In instalments: invoice a phase from the Financial planning of the change order.
Via a progress claim: if you work with progress claims, you add the change order to the current progress claim. On the PDF and on the invoice, the total of the change order is then shown separately from the base.

After invoicing, the change order gets the Status after making invoice from the settings.

Updated on: 16/10/2026

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