Change orders priced from your own labor units, for your estimator to check.

An RFI answer moves a feeder, a bulletin reissues four sheets with clouded revisions, or the GC sends a proposal request. Your estimator or PM works out what was added and what was deleted, takes off the material, applies labor units, prices it, adds the markups the subcontract allows, and writes the request with its scope, exclusions and time.

In the proof of concept, AI works from the same documents your team had and drafts each change order: the adds and deletes sheet by sheet, a material list, labor hours from your own units, and the markups your contract permits. Nothing goes to the GC.

First, work out what kind of paper it is. On AIA documents, an RFI answer on G716 authorizes no added cost or time by itself. An Architect's Supplemental Instructions on G710 says the work is done without change in contract sum or time, and proceeding counts as accepting that; under A201-2017, Section 7.4, a contractor who sees cost in a minor change must give notice and hold off, or it waives the adjustment. A proposal request on G709 asks for a price and changes nothing yet. A construction change directive on G714 has to be carried out promptly while the price is still open. The draft sorts each document first, so an ASI with cost in it reaches your PM before the crew starts.

Deletions get the same care as adds. Under A201-2017, Section 7.3.8, a net decrease is credited at actual net cost, and when one change both adds and deletes related work, overhead and profit apply only to the net increase. Deleted material is worth what can actually go back: cut wire is generally a final sale, special-order gear is often non-cancelable, and standard stock can carry a restocking charge. The draft lists every deleted item and asks whether it was bought, cut or released, for your estimator to answer.

Labor comes from your units, never from the AI. NECA's Manual of Labor Units, now in its 2025-2027 edition, gives units in three columns, normal, difficult and very difficult, and estimators factor them for conditions: half-inch EMT run 40 feet up in metal joists doesn't take the hours the same pipe takes in a stud wall. Shops that keep their own units price from their estimating database instead; Accubid ChangeOrder works from the same database as Accubid Classic, and McCormick prices changes from the same database and assemblies as the original bid. The draft uses the column and factors your estimator used, and an item your units don't cover is flagged, never filled in.

Rates and markups follow the contract you signed. Owners write their own pricing rules into project manuals. One university's change order guidelines, for example, price labor at straight time with the overtime premium on its own line, list each fringe separately, allow material only at actual cost after discounts and rebates, count hand tools and home-office estimating as overhead inside the markup, and set a smaller markup on work a contractor's subs perform than on its own. The draft follows the schedule in your subcontract and its flow-down clauses, with each markup on its own line.

What your reviewer will watch: the column and factors on every labor line, deletions credited, the date on each wire and gear quote, markups that match the contract, and time asked for where a change touches long-lead gear. Cumulative impact, the productivity lost when many changes land on one job, is a separate claim with its own body of research, some of it funded by ELECTRI International, the foundation NECA started in 1989. It stays with your PM and counsel.

After a yes from your reviewer, the same job runs for about 30 days on changes as they arrive.

Every draft waits for your estimator or PM, and only a person on your team sends a price to the GC.

You see the live job's fixed price before signing. Any job after it gets its own price, and monthly support starts once it runs.