What is on it
Change order number and the original contract it attaches to, so the two documents are tied together. The date the change was agreed, which is not the same as the date of the original contract. Four itemized change lines, each with its own description and its own price change. A total, plus the original contract figure and the new contract total, so the customer sees where the work now stands instead of just the delta.
Then a reason for the change, which is the part that wins the argument later: customer request, unforeseen condition, code requirement or design change, with a box for photos attached. Schedule impact, because extra work costs days as often as it costs dollars. And signature, printed name and date blocks for both parties, on the same sheet as the scope and the price.
Why itemized lines instead of one box
Most free change order templates have a single description box and a single total. That is the one thing they get wrong.
Several states require the price change for each deviation from the plans or specifications, not one figure for the whole change order. Pennsylvania's Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act is written that way, and it makes deviating without a compliant written change order a prohibited act. If you are curious how far that goes, the breakdown is in change order requirements for Pennsylvania contractors.
This form is built to that stricter standard on purpose. A form that satisfies the toughest version of the rule satisfies the loose ones automatically, so it works whatever state you are in. If you are outside Pennsylvania, it is worth ten minutes to look up your own state's home improvement statute, because most of them have one.
Using it without annoying the customer
The paperwork is the easy half. The hard half is the ten seconds after somebody asks for something extra, and most of us have nothing ready to say. There is a word for word version of that conversation, plus how to handle the three situations scope creep actually shows up in, in change orders and how to charge for scope creep.
Short version: it is not extra work, it is additional work. It was not on the quote and it was not priced. Quote it, get it signed, then do it.
What is not in here
This is one form out of seventeen. The change order is the one people need most often, so it is the one that is free. The other sixteen are in the Contractor Forms Bundle, and they are listed by name below so you can see exactly what you would be getting rather than guessing.
- Invoice, auto-calculating line items, tax and totals
- Estimate / Quote, scope, exclusions and an expiry date
- Service Agreement, the contract you sign before the work starts
- Work Order, what the crew takes to site
- Lien Waiver, conditional and unconditional
- Receipt, proof of payment for deposits and progress draws
- Payment Tracker, what is owed, what cleared, what is late
- Daily Job Log, hours, weather, who was on site
- Punch List, the closeout items, with sign off
- Material Log, what you bought against what you billed
- Job Completion, the customer signs that the work is done
- Warranty Certificate, what you cover and for how long
- Feedback Request, the review ask, after you have left
- Communication Log, the record of what was said and when
- Subcontractor Agreement, terms for anyone you bring on
- Letterhead, matching header for anything else you send
All seventeen carry the same branded header with fill-in placeholders for your company name, logo, address, phone, email, licence number and website, so they look like one set rather than seventeen downloads from seventeen places.