August 28, 2026·7 min read

Change Order Process for Landscape Architecture Firms

A practical guide to the change order process in landscape architecture—how to price, document, and get paid for scope changes without damaging client relationships.

Most landscape architecture firms lose more money to uncompensated scope changes than they do to any other single cause. The fix isn't better clients—it's a tighter change order process that starts at contract execution, not when the contractor calls with a problem.

Why Change Orders Fail Before They're Even Written

The root cause of most change order disputes isn't the change itself. It's that nobody defined scope precisely enough in the original contract to make the boundary obvious when something falls outside it.

Vague contract language like "construction administration as required" or "coordination with consultants" is an open invitation for scope creep. When you later try to issue a change order for something the client thought was included, you're fighting a perception problem you created at signing. Go back to your last three contracts and count how many deliverables are described with the word "assist." That word alone has probably cost your firm tens of thousands of dollars.

The fix is specificity at contract time: number of site visits, number of submittal review rounds, number of RFI responses per month, number of design revision cycles. When you define scope numerically, the moment something exceeds that number is unambiguous. The change order conversation becomes "we've completed the four site visits included in our contract; this is visit five" rather than "we feel like we've done more than expected."

What Belongs in a Change Order vs. What Doesn't

Not every additional task warrants a formal change order. Chasing one for $200 of drafting time costs more in goodwill than it recovers. The threshold most firms use is somewhere between $500 and $1,500 depending on project size, but the more useful filter is whether the additional work was caused by something outside your control.

Trigger	Change Order Warranted?
Client-directed design revision after SD approval	Yes
Contractor RFI that requires new design work	Yes
City redline requiring plan revision	Yes (if beyond one revision cycle)
Utility conflict discovered during CA	Yes
Internal error requiring correction	No
Additional site visit due to your scheduling error	No
Responding to a second round of RFIs on same issue	Judgment call

The "caused by something outside your control" test keeps you from issuing change orders that damage trust. Clients accept change orders for things that happened to the project. They resent them for things that feel like your overhead.

Pricing a Change Order: The Actual Math

Change orders should be priced on the same basis as your original fee—either time-and-materials against your billing rates or as a lump sum based on estimated hours. Never discount change order work. The instinct to be "reasonable" on a change order usually means you're subsidizing the client's decision to change scope.

Here's a worked example for a planting plan revision triggered by a contractor substitution request:

Senior designer review of substitution request: 1.5 hrs × $145/hr = $217.50
Revised planting plan and schedule: 4.0 hrs × $125/hr = $500.00
Project manager coordination and CO preparation: 1.0 hr × $165/hr = $165.00
Subtotal labor: $882.50
Markup on reimbursables (printing, courier): $45.00
Total Change Order: $927.50

Round to $950 or $900 if you want a clean number. Don't round down to $800 to seem accommodating—that's $100 you earned.

If your contract includes a multiplier on subconsultant fees (typically 1.10–1.15), apply it to any subconsultant costs included in the change order. Most clients expect it; most contracts allow it.

The Documentation That Protects You

A change order is only as strong as the paper trail behind it. If a client disputes a change order six months later—or if you end up in mediation—the question is always: what did you tell them, when, and what did they say back?

Your change order file for any project should contain, at minimum:

The original written notice that a change was occurring (email is fine, but it has to be explicit)
A description of the triggering event with date
The signed change order form itself
Any relevant RFIs, meeting minutes, or client emails that authorize the work

The notice piece is where firms consistently fail. You cannot send a change order three weeks after completing the work and expect smooth approval. The client has already mentally accounted for the work as included. Send a brief written notice the day you identify the scope change: "This falls outside our contracted scope. We'll proceed and follow up with a formal change order for your approval." That sentence, sent by email, is worth more than any contract clause.

Getting Change Orders Approved Without Damaging the Relationship

The approval conversation is where most project managers get uncomfortable, and that discomfort is expensive. Hesitating to issue a change order, discounting it preemptively, or apologizing for it signals that you're not confident it's legitimate. If it's legitimate, present it like it is.

A few practices that actually work:

Send the change order within 48 hours of identifying the trigger. Delays make it harder to approve, not easier.
Include a one-paragraph narrative explaining what changed and why it's outside scope. Don't make the client do the interpretive work.
Set a response deadline in the change order itself—10 business days is standard. Without a deadline, approvals drag indefinitely.

The client relationship angle is real but often overstated. Most clients who are reasonable about the project are reasonable about legitimate change orders. The ones who push back hard are usually the same ones who pushed back on your original fee. A pattern of disputed change orders is diagnostic information about a client relationship, not just a billing problem.

Common Mistakes Firms Make on Change Orders

Waiting until the end of the project to issue accumulated change orders. Sending a $12,000 change order package at substantial completion—when the client thought the project was done—is a guaranteed fight. Issue them as they occur.

Issuing change orders for work that was already completed and paid. If you absorbed a scope addition in a prior invoice without flagging it, issuing a change order for it later is nearly impossible to collect. Track scope additions in real time.

Using vague descriptions on the change order form. "Additional design services" is not a description. "Revised grading plan at Entry Drive per Owner's request dated 6/14/26 to accommodate relocated utility easement" is a description.

Failing to get written authorization before proceeding. Verbal approval from a client does not protect you. "They told us to go ahead" is not enforceable. Get an email confirmation at minimum, a signed change order before major scope additions.

Underpricing change orders to avoid conflict. A $4,000 scope addition priced at $1,800 because you "wanted to be fair" costs you $2,200 and trains the client that your rates are negotiable.

Not tracking which change orders are pending vs. approved. If you don't know which of your open change orders are still awaiting signatures, you can't follow up, and you can't accurately project project revenue.

How Phasewise Handles This

Phasewise includes a change order log built into the project dashboard, so pending and approved change orders are visible against the original contract value without digging through email threads or a separate spreadsheet. The budget tracking updates in real time when a change order is approved, which means your project financials reflect actual contracted scope rather than the original fee—a distinction that matters a lot when you're assessing project health mid-CA. If your firm is currently managing change orders in a shared Google Sheet or in the notes field of your accounting software, the tracking alone is worth the switch.