> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.getatelier.design/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Change orders

> Scope that grows after the client has signed — documented, priced and agreed, without rewriting the original proposal.

The client wants the second bedroom done too. The joinery has to be
rebuilt because the survey was wrong. The sofa is discontinued and the
replacement costs more.

None of that belongs in the proposal the client already signed. It
belongs in a **change order**: a separate, priced, agreed document that
says what changed and what it costs.

<Info>
  The original proposal is the record of what was agreed *then*. A change
  order is the record of what was agreed *since*. Keeping them separate is
  what lets you answer "when did this become part of the job?" a year
  later.
</Info>

## The list

**Finance → Change Orders.** Each row: number, title, project, client,
status, created and total.

## Writing one

### What changed

| Field                      | Notes                                                                                 |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Project**                | Which job this affects.                                                               |
| **Client**                 | Auto-filled from the project.                                                         |
| **Title**                  | Required. Name the change, not the document — *Additional bedroom — scope expansion*. |
| **Description of changes** | The scope change, **the reason**, and any relevant context.                           |

The reason is the part people skip and the part that matters. *Additional
bedroom added at client's request, 12 June* and *joinery rebuilt following
survey discrepancy* are different conversations six months later, and only
one of them is your cost to carry.

### What it costs

Fee lines, each with a **type** — **Service** or **Goods** — then
description, quantity, unit, unit price, markup % and tax %.

The split matters for the same reason it does on an invoice: design time
and purchased goods are priced and taxed differently, and a client reading
the document can see which is which.

### When it is paid

**Payment trigger**: **On acceptance** or **On date**.

<Tip>
  Note what is missing: there is no *on phase completion* here, unlike a
  proposal. A change order is a discrete addition, not a staged programme of
  work — if the change is big enough to need its own phased schedule, it is
  really a second proposal.
</Tip>

**Terms** is optional and free text, for anything specific to this change
— a revised lead time, a condition, a deadline for the client to decide.

## When to raise one

* **Scope grows** — a room, a piece of joinery, a service that was not in
  the original proposal.
* **Scope changes shape** — same budget line, different work, different
  cost to you.
* **Costs move materially** — a discontinued piece, a price rise, a
  freight cost nobody expected.
* **A sent document needs correcting** — an issued invoice or an accepted
  proposal cannot be edited. A change order is how you supersede it.

That last one is worth holding onto. Atelier will not let you quietly
rewrite a document the client is holding — not by hand, and not through
the assistant. The change order *is* the mechanism for changing your
mind, and it leaves a trail.

## Sending it

<Info>
  **Mark as sent** changes the change order's status — it does not email
  anything. Copy the client link and send it yourself.
</Info>

## Two ways a change order gets accepted

Same pattern as a proposal: the client can accept it themselves on the
public link — typing their name, which Atelier records alongside their IP
address and the timestamp — or you can mark it accepted from inside
Atelier for an agreement reached elsewhere, with no equivalent record of
who agreed.

## After it is agreed

Either path creates a **DRAFT invoice for the full amount, automatically**.
It appears in **Finance → Invoices**, ready to check and send — you do
not build it by hand.

<Warning>
  Once a change order leaves `DRAFT`, the assistant cannot touch it. A
  change order the client has seen is the record of what they agreed to — a
  further change needs its own change order.
</Warning>