A Change Order Client is work that falls outside the original scope agreed in the contract between the client and the main contractor.
Unlike a Change Order Sub — where the change normally increases costs for the main contractor — a Change Order Client is normally income-generating. It is the main contractor who raises a claim against the client for additional work, extra deliveries or the consequences of circumstances the client is responsible for.
There are also cases with a negative sign: the client reduces the scope, and the main contractor receives lower remuneration.
The two amounts
As with Change Order Sub, AIMZ distinguishes between what has been notified and what you assume:
Income requirement — the amount you are claiming from the client.
Income — the amount you assume, which affects the income forecast.
Income is the most important parameter, because it drives the income forecast — the expected income for the project when it is complete.
Income requirement = Cost price + surcharge
The income requirement sent to the client is calculated as cost price plus surcharge, where the surcharge is an amount in NOK.
Per income line, AIMZ works with two separate cost parameters:
Parameter | Function |
Cost | The actual cost that affects the final forecast of the project |
Cost price | The cost basis shown to the client, which together with the surcharge (NOK) defines the income requirement |
Default: Cost price is automatically set equal to Cost. They follow each other unless you actively change it.
When Cost and Cost price part ways
Sometimes you want to show the client a cost price — and thereby get an income requirement with surcharge — without the cost actually being charged to the final forecast. Two typical cases:
1. The cost is already covered in the subcontract. The subcontract often contains more than the contract between the main contractor and the client. Extra work ordered by the client may therefore already be included in the subcontractor's contract. In that case you have no real additional cost and do not want to add it to the final forecast again, but you still want to show the client a cost price as the basis for the income requirement.
2. The cost is marginal or not real. Towards the end of the project, the client orders an extra kitchen on the top floor, which has to be lifted up by crane. The crane is already on site for other reasons, so you incur no real extra cost. It is still common industry practice to invoice the client for the crane use — or at least have part of it covered. Here you set Cost price to the amount you want to show the client, while Cost is set to NOK 0 or to an amount lower than the cost price.
The cost basis for an income line
When you add an income line, the cost can be linked in two ways:
A. Link to an existing cost — for example a Change Order Sub you have already created.
B. Create a new cost directly from the Change Order Client. The following types can be added:
Expected Addition
Change Order Sub
Carry-over to Setup and Operation
For the first two, the cost is created at the same time as the income line, directly in the dialog.
Carry-over to Setup and Operation works differently: instead of creating an isolated cost line, the Setup and Operation budget is increased with a revised budget corresponding to the cost. From the same dialog, this budget adjustment can be distributed across months, so the final forecast is adjusted over the project's remaining duration.
Statuses
The status shows where in the process the change stands: Notice, Claim, Offer, Partially approved, Approved, Rejected, Disputed or Withdrawn. It does not control the forecast — the amount in the Income field does. Read more in What do the statuses on a Change Order Client mean?
How to create a Change Order Client
Click «+ Change Order Client» in the top right above the table.
Fill in the number and name of the change.
Fill in the revision number and date.
Choose a group or create a new one. A group is a collective label you can later sort registrations by, e.g. «With income» or «Without income» to separate changes that generate income from changes that do not.
Set the surcharge per income line. You can set a default surcharge and adjust it manually as needed.
Set the status.
Optional: link to a Change Order Sub if the change is based on costs received from a subcontractor.
Fill in the date sent and date answered.
Enter a description.
Add cost lines with account or production code (prod. code) and cost.
Click Save.
Schedule consequence
You can enable schedule consequence and enter the number of working days of extended construction time, with an accompanying note.
