Change orders that are priced, approved and billed on time

A construction change order, called an avenant in Quebec French, is the agreement that adds or changes work during the contract, along with its price. In OKTO PSA for construction, the extra is priced, approved, then added to the next invoice. A sub-project can count as a change order, and invoices are grouped by change order so the client sees exactly what they are paying for.

Change order, extra, avenant: what are we talking about?

On a job site, all three words mean the same thing. The client asks for work that wasn’t in the contract, or an unforeseen condition forces a different approach. You agree on what changes and on the price, then you put it in writing. That document is the change order. Contractors working for French-speaking owners in Quebec will see it called an “avenant” or an “ordre de changement”.

A change order can also take work out. If the client decides to keep the old doors instead of having them repainted, the amount goes down, and it gets written up the same way.

The problem is almost never the work itself. It’s the paper trail. An extra asked for out loud on site on a Tuesday, done on Wednesday and invoiced a month later is the extra the client disputes. The longer the gap between the request and the invoice, the harder that conversation gets.

Why the written change order matters: articles 2107 and 2109 of the Civil Code

The Civil Code of Québec treats the price of a contract for work differently depending on how it was set. What happens when an extra comes up depends on that.

In practice, on a fixed-price contract, the price covers the work described in the contract. Work the client adds along the way is settled separately. Without a change order, you will have a hard time showing that the work wasn’t already part of the lump sum. On an estimate, it’s up to you to justify the increase, and a dated change order describing what couldn’t be foreseen is the simplest way to do it.

The Civil Code also requires the contractor, before the contract is made, to inform the client about the nature of the work and the materials and time it will take (article 2102). A well-written change order carries that duty to inform through the rest of the job.

A change order in OKTO PSA, step by step

In OKTO PSA, contracts and their change orders live in the project. Here is how an extra moves through it.

1. You add the change order to the project’s contract and describe the work that changes.
2. You price it with lines, quantities and prices, the same way you would a quote.
3. The change order is approved. From then on, it’s ready to bill.
4. On the next invoice, the approved extra is added automatically. Nobody has to remember to bill it.
5. Invoices are grouped by change order. The client sees what belongs to the original contract and what belongs to each change order.

Work done on site keeps its own record too. The field work order is filled out on site and signed by the client, either there or in their portal.

When a sub-project is the change order

Some extras are big enough to be a small job of their own: another floor, the building next door, a room the client adds partway through. For those, OKTO PSA creates a sub-project numbered +001, then +002, under the main project.

The sub-project can count as a change order. It has its own hours, its own report in CSV or PDF, and its own invoices, grouped separately. The original project stays clean: you can see whether it made money without the extra skewing the numbers. The phases and sub-projects page explains the numbering and the hours report.

What goes into a change order

The list below comes from job site practice, not from a statute. Each item answers ahead of time a question the client might ask.

• A precise description of the work added or removed, clear enough for a third party to follow.
• The reason for the change: client request, unforeseen condition, correction to the drawings.
• The price, or how it will be calculated if the work is done by the hour.
• The effect on the schedule, if any.
• The name of the person who approves it, and the date.

A change order is still one of your company’s documents. As on all its documents, OKTO PSA puts your RBQ licence and your NEQ in the header. Billed extras follow the same rules as everything else: GST and QST on separate lines, with your registration numbers.

Change orders, invoices and holdbacks

An extra doesn’t change how the rest of the job is billed. If you bill on progress, the items on the schedule of values keep their dated, justified percentage, and the approved extra is added to the next invoice. If the contract calls for a holdback, OKTO PSA keeps the percentage held, the release date and conditions, and the balance to release, which the client can also see in the client portal.

The progress billing and holdbacks page shows those screens. The holdbacks guide explains what the law provides, for private work and for public contracts. To watch a change order go from approval to invoice, you can go through the interactive demo without a long sign-up.

This page explains general rules and is not legal advice. For a specific contract, talk to a lawyer.

Sources: Civil Code of Québec, articles 2102 and 2107 to 2109, LégisQuébec, Building Act, section 57.1, LégisQuébec, checked on October 27, 2026.