Puplify / Skills / Sales

Change order approval

Tells you whether the customer's new request is inside the order you already accepted or genuinely extra, prices it from your real costs, and writes the approval request.

Updated September 17, 2026 · Sales · In the $149 pack

What you get

An internal comparison against the accepted scope, a costed change with its schedule effect, a customer approval request, and a change record row.

What you need to hand

• The quote or purchase order the customer actually accepted, with its inclusions, exclusions and allowances
• The new request in the customer's own words, with the date it arrived
• What the change costs you: hours, machine time, material, freight, tooling, scrapped work
• Where the order has got to, and any ship date the customer has been given
• Your change process: who approves a change, and in what form

How you might ask

We accepted a PO for 2,400 brackets at $9.80 each, the quote excludes plating. The customer now wants rev C with a tighter bore and all of them zinc plated, and 900 are already machined. Here is the accepted quote, the PO and their email. Tell me what is extra, price it, and write the approval request.

Worked example: Price the guard rail, not the upright you bent

An authored, fictional illustration so you can see the shape of the result. Not a customer outcome.

Input

Later in synthetic order N-2041, Harbor Foods has issued PO HF-8817 against the $48,000 quote, which excludes the guard rail and covers material delivered undamaged. They now ask for 40 ft of mezzanine guard rail, and separately report one bent upright found on offload. Owner-confirmed guard-rail costs: manufacturer's quoted materials $2,146, subcontract crew two installers for six hours each at $62 per crew-hour, no extra freight because it ships on the existing load, additional overhead recovery of half a job-day at $230. Same 22% margin after listed costs and no sales tax added. A written change order is required before extra work. No change order has been received.

Illustrative result

• Guard rail: apparently additional to the accepted order. Bent upright: a correction of our own delivery, not a chargeable addition on the supplied facts.
• Guard-rail cost: $2,146 + (2 × 6 × $62 = $744) + $230 = $3,120. Proposed extra price: $3,120 ÷ 0.78 = $4,000. It consumes twelve crew-hours, not a guaranteed six-hour extension to the install window.
• Buyer draft: ‘40 ft of mezzanine guard rail sits outside PO HF-8817. We can add it for $4,000, net-30, no sales tax added on our stated basis. We will confirm the install date once the guard rail is on the factory schedule, before you issue the change order. We will replace the bent upright as part of the original supply, at no charge to you.’ Change-order status: pending.

Checks before using

• Do not charge again for material already on the PO or for the business's own correction.
• Whether the carrier or the manufacturer pays for the bent upright is unresolved; do not net a recovery into the price.
• The original install window is not extended or promised without agreement.
• A draft change order is neither the buyer's written approval nor a ruling on entitlement to charge.