The bulk of my work is residential. Lately, I'm becoming a bit irrated dealing with change orders. The customer requests additional work, I meet with them, draw up the C/O, present the C/O to the customer, and then starts the "Well, how much if we only do this, this, and this ?"

Now, at the point I've already spent time meeting with the customer and creating the C/O only to redraw it.

Do you add time to the original C/O when created ? Do you add the original time plus add'l time to redraw it ? In the end I've spent +/- 3 hours of time only to sometimes have the customer say nevermind.

I did some work recently for a customer who purchased a new house. The customer went bare bones on the electrical and hired me to install mostly add'l recessed lighting. My customer told me the builder added $100.00 to each change the buyer requested. They called it a Special Request Fee.

I'm starting to see why.....

It hasn't been a problem for me, but if it were I'd add something to my contract like "Any CO has a $100 administrative fee".

Dave

A $100 sounds cheap, when my house was built the builder had a $500 C/O fee.

I got myself automated for punching out fast change orders on residential jobs.
It takes me about 5-10 minutes top to create and print a CO for the customer to sign, right at the jobsite. I make huge profit on changes. Why pass up on money? Charge large and you will start to really enjoy the process.