Available in Sage 50 Premium Accounting and higher.

Change Order

A change order allows you to keep track of changes to estimates for the job. The estimates on the job record are updated when you select Update Job Estimates. The change order must be approved before the job estimates can be updated.

Who approves change orders?

This depends on your process. It may be the customer the job is for or it may be someone in your company. The approved date and approved by fields give you a way to track who approved this change and when. You don't have to enter this information if it isn't useful for you or doesn't apply to your company.

What does Change in schedule do?

This allows you to use this change order to update the projected end date for the job. When you select Update Job Estimates, the projected end date will be updated if this checkbox is checked.

Note: If you're only changing the projected end date and no estimate amounts, be sure to enter information in the Change description field. Otherwise, you can't save the change order. If this job uses phases, you'll need to select a phase also. The date doesn't affect anything with the phase. It's just necessary to save the change order.

Tips:

  • When you enter the amount for the change order, enter the amount that the estimates are changing by, not new estimate amounts. For example, if an estimate is increasing by $50, enter 50. If it is decreasing by $50, enter -50. The amounts you enter here will be added or subtracted from the current estimates for the job when you update the job estimates.
  • You can print or email this change order. Simply select the appropriate button in the toolbar. The change order form shows changes to the estimated revenues and the projected end date. Those are the changes that your customers would need to know about. Changes to estimated expenses are not shown on this form.
  • You can view a list of change orders by clicking the List toolbar button.
  • Checking the Applied to transaction checkbox does not automatically apply the change amounts on this change order to any transactions. It is just a way to note that the change amounts on this change order have been entered on a transaction such as an invoice or proposal for this job.
  • If you want to see what the current estimates are for the selected job, click the View current estimates for Job link located under the Change note field. This will open the job record.
  • A change order cannot be modified after it has been used to update job estimates.

Important! The primary purpose of change orders is to update estimated revenues. For this reason, you can only save change orders for jobs that have estimated revenues, even if the change orders are for updating estimated expenses or the projected end date.

Important Note about Change Orders for Jobs with the Percent of Proposal Billing Method

Estimated revenues for jobs with the Percent of Proposal billing method are applied to the job from proposals. Change orders cannot be used to update estimated revenues for these jobs. You must enter or update a proposal to change the estimated revenues.

Note: You can use change orders to update other estimates for jobs with the Percent of Proposal billing method, just not estimated revenues.