A change order starts as a conversation on a slab and ends as a line on an invoice. In most contracting businesses those two events are separated by four handoffs, three tools and at least one person who is on a roof.
When we map it on a whiteboard the pattern is always the same: the field captures it fast, the office waits for paperwork, and accounting waits for the office. Nobody is slow. The queue is slow.
Where the two weeks actually goes
We time-stamp every hop for a month. The work itself - writing the description, pricing it, keying it - adds up to about 40 minutes. Everything else is waiting.
| Stage | Work time | Wait time | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Field captures scope | 8 min | 0–1 days | Foreman |
| PM reviews and prices | 20 min | 2–4 days | Project manager |
| Office keys into ERP | 7 min | 3–5 days | Coordinator |
| Accounting posts + bills | 5 min | 2–4 days | Controller |
40 min
Actual work per change order
13.2 days
Median time to post
4
Handoffs between field and invoice
The three failure modes
- 01No named owner. When two people can do the step, neither does it today.
- 02Re-entry as the integration. Every re-key is an excuse to wait for a batch.
- 03Approval by inbox. Email is a queue with no visibility and no SLA.
“We didn't hire anyone or buy anything. We deleted two handoffs and change orders started posting the same week.”
VP Operations, 180-person mechanical contractor
The fix: one artifact, many readers
Choose the artifact that gets created first and closest to the truth - usually the field-captured change order with photos, scope and rough quantities. Everything else reads from it. Pricing appends, it doesn't recreate. Accounting posts from it, it doesn't re-type it.
Frequently asked
- How long should a change order take to hit the books?
- Under 48 hours from field capture to posted cost is achievable for most contractors. Best-in-class teams post same-day because pricing appends to the original field record instead of recreating it.
- Do we need new software to fix change order delays?
- Usually not. The majority of the delay is queue time caused by unnamed owners and duplicate data entry. Naming a single owner per step and eliminating one re-key typically cuts the cycle in half before any purchase.
- What metric should we track?
- Median days from field capture to posted cost, reviewed weekly. It's a leading indicator - it improves weeks before billings and cash collection do.
