How Change Orders Affect Payment Terms
When a change order is approved, Bolster does not create new payment term records or modify segment percentages. Instead, payment terms are dynamic — they always calculate their amounts based on the current quote total.
Approving a change order updates the quote total, and every payment term tied to that quote automatically reflects the new numbers.
What actually happens:
- The change order updates your job items
- Your total contract value changes
- Your payment amounts adjust automatically
👉 Your payment structure stays the same — only the numbers change.
What’s Really Going On (Simple Version)
Think of it like this:
Your payment schedule is always tied to the total job price.
So when the job price goes up or down from a change order:
- Payments go up or down with it
- No need to edit anything
Example
Let’s say your original job is $100,000:
- Deposit: $25,000
- Mid-project: $50,000
- Final: $25,000
Now you approve a $20,000 change order.
New total = $120,000
Your payments automatically update to:
- Deposit: $30,000
- Mid-project: $60,000
- Final: $30,000
👉 Same structure, just updated amounts.
What Happens When You Add Work
If a change order adds new work:
- Those items are added to the job
- They get included in the total price
- Future payments reflect the added work
If you're billing based on completed work:
- New items simply get billed when they’re done
- Nothing already billed is changed
What Happens When You Remove Work
If work is reduced or removed:
- Those items are removed from the total
- Future payments decrease accordingly
- Already billed work stays as-is
Important Rule: Sent Invoices Don’t Change
This is the most important thing to understand:
👉 Once you send a payment request to a client, it cannot be changed.
- If an invoice is already sent → it stays exactly the same
- Change orders will NOT adjust it
Instead:
- Any new value gets applied to future payments
Real Scenario
Let’s say:
- You already sent a $10,000 deposit invoice
- Then you approve a $10,000 change order
What happens?
- The $10,000 deposit stays unchanged
- The extra $10,000 gets added to remaining payments
👉 Nothing already sent to the client is ever touched.
What If Everything Has Already Been Invoiced?
If you’ve already sent all your invoices and then approve a change order:
👉 Bolster creates a new payment request for the additional work
So:
- You don’t modify old invoices
- You simply bill the new work separately
Stage or Phase-Based Jobs (Slight Difference)
If your payments are tied to stages (like framing, finishing, etc.):
- Adding work to a stage increases that stage’s value
- You can still bill that extra work
- It may show up as a new invoice for that same stage
What Contractors Should Remember
- You never edit payment terms manually after a change order
- Payments always follow the total job value
- Sent invoices are locked — they don’t change
- New work is billed in future or new invoices
- Everything stays clean and consistent automatically