Field note

What Is a Construction Change Order Audit?

A change-order audit on a completed project compares what happened in the work with what reached the commercial and financial record.

In this note, “audit” means that reconciliation. It does not mean an accounting audit or an attestation.

The change-order log is not the whole file

The log shows what somebody entered into the change process. It does not necessarily show every extra-work item, every field direction, every pricing revision, or every item that never reached the log.

Trace the item the whole way

Follow material change activity through occurrence, documentation, pricing, submission, revision, approval or rejection, incorporation into the contract, billing, and payment. The records differ by contractor and by job.

Compare records that were kept for different reasons

The review is useful when it sets field records, correspondence, the commercial log, pay applications, invoices, job-cost, and closeout files next to each other. Those sources were not kept for the same purpose.

What you should be able to see

You should be able to tell a resolved item from an item that is still commercially open, from a documentation gap, and from a matter that belongs with another professional. A list of documents is not the result. An account of the project is.

Start with one project. Send the job, the approximate completion date, what looks unresolved, and where the records are.