First-pass change-order drafting

The job

The project manager at a US general contractor doing about $5–10M a year — often the owner wearing a PM hat, or one person who also writes RFIs, stamps submittals, walks pay apps, and answers the superintendent at 6 p.m. There is no project engineer whose only job is the change-order log. Triggers arrive as a marked-up sheet, an RFI reply that quietly changed the Work, a sub’s quote, an owner email, or a photo of something nobody drew. If the first pass is a vague “extra work — TBD,” the architect punts, the crew builds on a handshake, or a fluent draft with invented line items and days of delay gets treated as the price.

This job is use an agent, not build a model. The PM already has a desk: email, the issued drawings and specs, RFI answers, sub/vendor pricing, field notes or photos, and a spreadsheet log (Excel, or whatever PCO / change log they already keep). The agent sits in the assemble-and-draft step only. It does not set the price. It does not extend the schedule. It does not sign. It does not become Notice of a Claim.

Without an agent the work is still the same: open the trigger documents, write the scope narrative, attach the pricing, state the time impact (or say none), log it, send the proposal — and later walk the executed G701 when the parties agree.

What a change order is. Official AIA Contract Documents (Verrastro & Baum): A201–2017 defines a Change Order as “A written instrument prepared by the Architect and signed by the Owner, Contractor, and Architect stating their agreement upon all of the following: (1) the change in the Work; (2) the amount of the adjustment, if any, in the Contract Sum; and (3) the extent of the adjustment, if any, in the Contract Time.” The operative word is agreement. Once signed, the terms are settled and become part of the contract. The form is G701–2017, Change Order. Official G701 purpose: implementing changes in the Work agreed to by Owner, Contractor, and Architect; execution indicates agreement on all terms of the change, including Contract Sum (or Guaranteed Maximum Price) and Contract Time. Description of the change should be detailed, or reference exhibits, drawings, specs, and supporting data.

Proposal vs executed instrument. On a $5–10M GC desk the first draft is usually a Proposed Change Order (PCO) / Change Order Request (COR) — the contractor’s package describing scope, price, and time so the architect can review and the owner can decide. Official AIA: the architect typically prepares the executed G701 after the parties agree, often referencing the contractor’s proposal. Official G709–2018, Proposal Request is the architect’s ask for a price quote; it is not a change order and not a direction to proceed. Official G709 FAQs: the Owner may accept or decline after the quote. This job covers the contractor’s first-pass package (and a draft of G701 fields / exhibits when the contract puts that draft on the PM’s desk). It does not make the agent the Architect under A201.

CCD vs Change Order vs Proposal — the distinction that matters. Official AIA CCD vs change order:

Situation	Instrument
Everyone agrees on scope, cost, and time	G701 Change Order
Work must proceed before cost or time is finalized	G714 Construction Change Directive
Architect wants a quote before anyone commits	G709 Proposal Request (not a mod)

Official G714: used where Owner and Contractor have not agreed on proposed changes in Contract Sum or Contract Time; directs changes that, if not done promptly, might delay the project; upon receipt the Contractor must promptly proceed. Official G714 instructions: if the proposed method of adjustment is not acceptable, adjustment follows A201 § 7.3.4. Official AIA: once parties later agree, they typically execute a G701. A CCD is the exception path, not the routine. Additive, deductive, and zero-cost change orders all exist; a change may adjust sum, time, both, or neither (scope/clarify only).

This job is not an RFI, not a submittal, and not a claim notice.

• Not an RFI. Official G716–2004: neither the request nor the response authorizes work that increases cost or time. Official AIA change-order fundamentals: an RFI is a common initiator of the change process, not the executed change. Sister job: first-pass RFI drafting. If the RFI reply (or your recommendation) would change Work, sum, or time, you leave the RFI stream and start this seat — or the claim path the contract names.
• Not a minor-change / ASI. Official G710–2017: additional instructions or interpretations, or minor changes; should not be used to change Contract Sum or Contract Time. Minor changes under A201 § 7.4. Official A201–2017 summary of the § 7.4 revision: if the Contractor believes a directed minor change will affect sum or time, the Contractor shall notify the Architect and shall not proceed; proceeding without that notice waives the adjustment. If sum or time is involved, official G710: use G709, G714, or G701 instead.
• Not a submittal. Shop drawings, product data, and samples are a different seat — first-pass submittal review. A substitution that rewrites the Contract Documents needs the change / CCD / substitution procedure, not a stamp that pretends the catalog cut was always specified.
• Not Notice of a Claim. Official A201–2017 summary: claims arising before the end of the corrections period are subject to a 21-day notice period and an initial decision. Notices may go by electronic means, but Notice of Claims may not — certified or registered mail, or courier with proof of delivery, to the designated representative (§ 1.6.2). An agent-drafted PCO is not that notice. Concealed or unknown conditions are a different clock: official A201 § 3.7.4 is prompt notice, and in no event later than 14 days after first observance, before conditions are disturbed.

How the process usually runs (AIA). Official fundamentals and CCD article sketch the same loop: (1) identify the need (owner request, design clarification, differing condition, code, RFI reply, etc.); (2) document the proposed change (G709, ASI, RFI, contractor COR, etc.); (3) contractor evaluates cost and schedule with supporting docs; (4) architect reviews reasonableness and advises the owner; (5) when agreed, execute G701. Official AIA: the description should be clear enough for a third party to understand scope, cost impact, and time impact; list attachments with dates. Common triggers listed by AIA: owner design revision, ASI, proposal request, RFI, unforeseen conditions, regulatory changes. Informal verbal / email direction without a G701 or G714 is the constructive-change pattern AIA warns about — disputes later about what was authorized.

Why a $5–10M GC still does this. A late or sloppy PCO is unpaid extra work, a schedule fight at closeout, or a pay-app number that never matched the last G701. Building on a trailer handshake is how you lose the record. There is no PE drafting every narrative. There is one PM, a stack of sub quotes, an RFI PDF, and a marked sheet. That is why the first-pass draft after real attachments is the job — and why the human still owns every dollar, every day, and every signature.

Use

This is a use workflow. You do not train a model. You do not ask it to invent a missing line item, a markup percentage, a critical-path delay, or a change-order number the log does not have. You give it the trigger files and the pricing you already have, you get a draft package, you price and sign only what you would defend.

1. Name the instrument you actually need. Is this a contractor PCO / COR in response to a G709 or an RFI reply? A draft G701 exhibit after agreement? A chronology that supports a CCD already in hand? Or are you still in information-only land (stay on RFI)? Official G709 is not authorization to proceed. Official G716 replies are not authorization for extra cost or time. Pick the seat before you prompt.
2. Gather only the documents that support this change. Issued drawings/specs (plus addenda) that define current contract scope; the trigger (owner email, G709, ASI, RFI + answer, field note/photo); sub/vendor quotes with date and scope; your labor/burden rules from the contract or Division 01; prior related PCOs if this is a revision. Do not feed “the whole job folder” and hope.
3. Separate facts the files show from numbers only a human may set. Scope narrative and exhibit list can be drafted from uploads. Unit prices, quantities, OH&P, bond, tax, and days of Contract Time are the PM’s call — pulled from quotes and the schedule you own, not from model memory. If a quote is missing a trade, leave a blank or “pricing pending — do not total,” do not invent the line.
4. Feed the agent those files plus your template. Your PCO / COR Word or PDF form, or the G701 field list your contract uses, plus a change log row shape (number, date, trigger refs, sum delta, time delta, status). Prompt shape: draft one Proposed Change Order (or G701 field package) for this change only; quote sheet numbers, RFI/PR numbers, and quote dates from the upload; write a scope description that a third party could follow; list attachments with dates; put price and time in clearly labeled fields sourced only from uploaded quotes / PM-supplied figures; if a figure is not in the upload, write unknown — PM to complete instead of inventing; do not treat this draft as executed; do not call an RFI reply authorization to proceed; do not invent critical-path logic or days of delay; flag whether this looks like additive / deductive / zero-cost / time-only based on the files; add a footer: “Draft only — PM owns scope, price, time, and signature.”
5. Human edit before the architect or owner sees it. Open every cited sheet, RFI, and quote. Strike invented detail numbers and phantom SKUs. Recalculate the math yourself (original sum, prior net COs, this change, new sum — the G701 ledger shape). Decide Contract Time yourself against the schedule you actually run; blank or “0 days / TBD pending schedule review” is honest; “+14 calendar days” with no schedule logic is not. Confirm you are not double-billing work already in the Contract Documents (the architect’s review duty AIA describes). Confirm OH&P and general conditions are not stacked on top of a quote that already included them, if your contract forbids that.
6. Send the proposal — or wait. Name, date, PCO number from your log. The package is not a change order until the right parties execute the instrument the contract names (typically G701 with Owner, Architect, and Contractor). Official AIA: architect often signs first on G701, then contractor, then owner — or electronic PDF by agreement. Do not let the model email the owner a raw draft. Do not tell the super “we’re authorized” on a PCO that is still a proposal.
7. Log the way you already do. Update the Excel (or existing) log: number, date out, trigger references (RFI / PR / ASI / owner request), proposed sum, proposed time, status (draft / submitted / under review / executed G701 # / rejected / superseded by CCD). When a G701 comes back signed, record the executed number and the new Contract Sum / Substantial Completion date. Email or upload only the edited package. Do not stand up a new vendor for this job.

Expected shape of the gain: less time turning a stack of notes, quotes, and marked sheets into a readable first draft the architect can review. That is not “the model priced the wall.” There is no published, independent hours-saved or accuracy number for a $5–10M GC first-pass change-order draft that this page will invent. Time a week of your PCOs (draft + your edit vs writing cold) before you change anything you pay for.

Build

A general-purpose model that can read PDFs and photos can draft a scope narrative and a structured PCO / G701 field package from trigger documents plus quotes. Whether the work was already in the Contract Documents, whether the quote matches the scope, whether the delay is critical-path, and whether this should be a G701, a G714, a claim, or nothing, need a person. Do not treat the draft as executed, and do not build from invented prices or days.

A workable v1: a prompt template that returns one PCO / COR package — number/date placeholders, trigger references (quoted from upload), scope description, attachment list with dates, price table rows sourced only from uploaded quotes or PM-supplied cells, Contract Time field defaulting to PM to complete, flags (proposal only / possible CCD path / already in Contract Documents? / wrong instrument / pricing incomplete), and a “do not execute / do not proceed on this draft alone” footer. Keep the transcript with the PCO file. Require “not in the uploaded files” instead of filling a gap.

Do not build a custom classifier this quarter. Do not fine-tune. Do not connect a model to “auto-approve” cost codes in the accounting system. The issued set, this trigger, and these quotes are the only corpus that matters.

Deploy

1. Pick five recently closed changes you still stand behind — one clean additive from a G709, one deductive / VE, one that started as an RFI reply, one zero-cost / time-only or clarify, one that went CCD-then-G701 or was rejected.
2. Run the agent on the same trigger docs + quotes + sheets (no later negotiation emails that reveal the final number unless you are testing edit, not prophecy). Time upload, draft, and your edit.
3. Diff the draft against what you actually submitted. Record invented sheet or RFI numbers, invented line items or markups, invented days of delay, drafts that treated a G716 reply as authorization, drafts that priced work already required by the Contract Documents, and math errors in the sum ledger.
4. Decide using a rule set in advance: no draft leaves the trailer unedited; every cited sheet / RFI / quote date must exist in the upload; price and time fields the model filled without a source fail the pilot; if the model invents a five-figure line on the clean package, it is not ready.

Use your project manual and your real quotes, not a vendor demo. Keep the workflow only if the submitted PCO is still something you would put your name on.

Manage

What “good” looks like

• A named human edits every draft and owns every dollar, every day of Contract Time, and every signature / send.
• Raw model text is never emailed to the architect, owner, or sub as “our change order.”
• The upload includes the trigger documents and quotes actually used — not a memory of “typical GC markup.”
• Proposal vs CCD vs executed G701 stays distinct in the log. Official G709 is not proceed. Official G714 is proceed-before-agreement. Official G701 is agreement.
• An RFI answer is not a change order. Sister job stays RFI. Submittals stay in submittal.
• Notice of a Claim stays certified mail / courier under A201 § 1.6.2 when that is the path.
• If you already have a change-order / PCO app, the agent drafts into that. This page does not sell a new one.

Who owns the seat

The PM / owner-PM owns the contractor’s proposal, the price, the time impact, and the Contractor signature on G701 (and the decision to notify under § 7.4 instead of proceeding on an ASI). On a $5–10M GC that is one person and the laptop they already use. The superintendent owns the field fact (what changed in the dirt). The estimator may own unit rates when asked. The architect prepares / reviews under A201 Article 7 and typically prepares the executed G701. The owner signs for money and time. An agent does not become any of those seats.

When to skip the agent (what not to automate)

• You do not yet know whether this is information, a minor change, a proposal, a CCD, or a claim. Decide the instrument first.
• You did not attach the quotes, the trigger letter, or the sheets. Do not ask a model to remember the set or invent prices.
• Critical-path schedule analysis you have not opened. Do not let a model mint “+21 days.”
• Life-safety, structural, or code changes you cannot verify without the listed standard and the design professional. Wrong seat for a solo draft.
• Formal Notice of a Claim, stop-work, or anything under Article 15 clocks. Format a chronology from the files if you want; do not let a model “send the claim.” Official A201: Claim notice is not electronic.
• A CCD already directing work: document costs contemporaneously as the contract requires; do not pretend a draft PCO replaced the directive.
• Settlement of a dispute, liquidated damages, or backcharge war. Human and counsel.
• The log is already a five-minute habit and writing is not the bottleneck. Leave it.

How to stand it up this quarter

Use the model you already have access to. Drop in last month’s G709 (or RFI reply) plus the sub quotes plus the clouded sheets plus your PCO headings. Edit, click every citation, recalculate, send or kill. Repeat on a live change. Keep the workflow only if the package is still something you would put your name on. Do not buy a change-management product to complete this job.

Citations

Tools are citations, not new brand pages. Do not invent vendor homepages. This page does not create a Procore, Autodesk, Primavera, Foundation, or other change-order / project-controls vendor listing.

• AIA G701–2017 — official Change Order form. Agreed Work, Contract Sum/GMP, Contract Time; Owner, Architect, Contractor signatures; detailed description or exhibits.
• AIA change-order fundamentals (Verrastro & Baum) — A201 definition of Change Order as agreement on Work, sum, and time; process often initiated by proposal request, ASI, CCD, RFI, or contractor request; architect reviews contractor proposal for reasonableness before owner approval; architect typically prepares G701.
• AIA CCD vs change order — decision table; additive / deductive / zero-cost; triggers; five-step process; constructive change from informal direction; CCD can later become G701.
• AIA G714–2017 / instructions — directive before sum/time agreed; contractor proceeds; adjustment methods; fallback A201 § 7.3.4.
• AIA G709–2018 / FAQs / instructions — request for price quotations; not a change order; not a direction to proceed; does not modify the contract.
• AIA G710–2017 — ASI / minor changes; not sum or time; A201 § 7.4; if sum/time involved use G709 / G714 / G701.
• AIA G716–2004 — RFI; neither request nor response authorizes extra cost or time. Sister job: first-pass RFI drafting.
• AIA A201–2017 — keystone general conditions; Article 7 Changes; § 7.4 minor-change notice/waiver; § 1.6.2 Claim notice not electronic; § 3.7.4 concealed conditions 14-day clock; official preview PDF. Architect during construction: B101 + A201. G-series catalog: contract administration forms.
• ConsensusDocs 202 / 203 — parallel-family Change Order and Interim Directive. Citation only; not a reason to switch families or stand up a new tool.
• Excel, email, PDF — log, receive, read. If they already have a change-order / PCO app, the agent drafts into that. No new vendor page on this site. Sister job on packages that are not changes: first-pass submittal review.

Watch-outs

• Invented line items, markups, and days of delay. Models write fluent “add 3/4" GWB at Corridor 120 — $18,400; +14 calendar days” lines that are not in any quote or schedule you uploaded. Same failure mode as legal citation hallucination: Dahl, Magesh, Suzgun & Ho, Large Legal Fictions, 16 J. Legal Analysis 64 (2024) (arXiv:2401.01301, doi:10.1093/jla/laae003) — public LLMs, asked verifiable questions about federal cases, hallucinated often and often could not tell. Those percentages are legal-case questions, not change-order accuracy; do not import them as a construction performance rate. Do import the habit: every dollar and every day in the draft is unverified until you open the quote and the schedule. Blank / “PM to complete” is honest; a confident fake price is not.
• Invented sheet, RFI, and PR citations. Fluent “per RFI 47 response and Detail 5/A-501” when RFI 47 is not in the upload. Click every reference.
• Proposal theater / proceed on a draft. Official G709 is not a direction to proceed. Official G716: reply is not authorization for extra cost or time. Official G701 is the signed agreement. Do not let a draft tell the field “approved — track on next pay app” before the contract instrument exists (or a valid CCD).
• CCD vs G701 confusion. If work must start before money is agreed, that is the G714 path (Owner/Architect directive), not a soft PCO. If everyone already agrees, use G701. Do not invent a hybrid.
• Pricing work already in the Contract Documents. Official AIA fundamentals: architect should confirm the contractor is not claiming work already required, and not stacking general conditions already inside OH&P. A model that “helpfully” totals everything in the narrative will not catch that.
• Wrong instrument. RFI, submittal, substitution, ASI/minor change, and Claim notice are other seats. A201 § 7.4 waiver if you proceed on a “minor” change you believe costs money without notice.
• Unsigned AI to the owner or architect. Fluent, late, and wrong is worse than a short human PCO. Do not let the model send.
• Do not replace the PM. The agent drafts the package from attachments. The PM still owns scope truth, price, schedule impact, the log, and the signature.

Verdict

Yes — a $5–10M US GC should run this job this quarter if change packages already start as notes, RFI answers, quotes, and marked PDFs; the bottleneck is turning that stack into a readable first draft; and a person will still own every dollar, every day, and every signature. Use an agent to draft a Proposed Change Order / AIA G701 package from field notes, pricing, and drawings; the PM owns scope, price, time, and signature. Skip this quarter if you expected the model to invent prices or delay days, to authorize work from an RFI reply, to replace a CCD or Claim notice, or to email raw drafts to the owner; or if you were about to buy a change-management product you do not already have. Do not publish this page as a vendor listing.