Project Change Management

One way to manage changes in project is to use Pending Change Order module in ViewPoint as your change log. An item can be generated due to Site Instruction, RFI response, Change Order, Change Directive, or any other format of correspondence that changes the original contract document.

Change Order Information

Consultant Issued Change Notices:

A consultant issued change notice is typically issued by the Prime Consultant to request pricing from a General Contractor for the change of a project's scope of work . This can either be a credit or an extra.

Terminology examples of this are: PCN (Proposed Change Notice), CCN (Contemplated Change Notice)

Changes from Other Sources:

A change can also be a response of RFI, a Site Instruction, or Coordination on Site Conditions, further to anything that has a cost impact (schedule can have a cost impact as well). If the project is deviating from contract documents (drawings and specifications), this should be documented and tracked, preferably, Change Order Quotation (COQ). At Synergy Projects the pricing is provided to the Prime Consultant as a Change Order Quotation. If no cost is involved, then a $0 Change Order Quotation can be logged.

Change Order Quotation:

To put together a change order quotation, a General Contractor will reach out to all Subcontractors that are affected by the change for pricing. Once the required Subcontractor pricing is received, the Subcontractor pricing is combined. Any direct costs such as supervision, are also added to the combined pricing. On top of this a project specific overhead and profit (Fee) is added to the pricing.

The methods to populate the total cost for COQ largely depends on Contract Type, most commonly, LS vs CM. The Fee section then will be depends on the "DEAL". Generally speaking

• LS projects : Each change order to have its own cost code, for tracking cost vs budget purposes. For LS projects, assuming the project is billed to the client by Divisions or pre-agreed billing structures, then each COQ should have its own Cost Item, one can name the items with "CO xx - Description" or similar. In this way each change order will show clearly as to % of completion.
• CM projects : Each change order to use parent cost code for tracking cost cleanly. (If you know the CM deal will convert, populate COQs as it is a LS projects) Assuming the project is billed to the client by Divisions or pre-agreed billing structures, you would want to tie each item in the COQ to the parent Cost Item, so the cost will be pulled to the progress claim when Accounting populate the bill. Unless client or deal dictate otherwise.
• Fee : use "Fee for Change Orders", currently it is 19099.02 (dictated by Jared as it is somehow related to Wayne Gretzky)

In Viewpoint, you can choose to price COQ by LS or Unit Price. this is done by pick from the drop down at the COQ header. Unit Price give you more choices on how to populate the cost - such as by length, area, by week, by tonnage. Whereas LS is for a set number - this is commonly used for quotes that you received.

Generate a Change Order

Project Fee and Overhead Set up

For Project Change Order Fee % set up, the field is under PM Project module, under PM Info tab. However, one needs to always refer back to what was the deal, as if your project have carried contingencies from client to offset future change orders, then the fee has already applied on the contingency, then should not be applied on the COQ again. For this example the Fee and OH should be 0%. If you have questions about what number to use, always talk with your manager first.

set up project fee and overhead

Populate Pending Change Orders

Pending Change Orders (PCO) is generated and tracked under PM Programs -> PM Pending Change Order Module. Once opened you should see this. A couple fields that would requires attention

1. PCO Types - you can hit F4 to see what's available. Talk with your manager if in question.
2. PCO (column) - this is the PCO number, I purposefully use 4 digits number so the last 4 digits of Cost Code can match this number.
3. Some of the other items will be auto populated by Viewpoint.

Then if you scroll to the right (depends on your viewpoint setting) you will see this.

1. Pricing Method -> you can pick between Unit Price and Lump Sum. Based on your selection, the "Estimate/Purchase Detail" Tab for PCO item will show differently.

Under PCO items, cost information is put in under "Estimate/Purchase Detail" Tab - see below for example. I recommend leaving some of the fields empty as Synergy does not generate PO items in Viewpoint, using the vendor field could generate unexpected PO revision and is hard to delete.

Once your PCO is ready to send, you can populate some other information under INFO Tab, and Distribution Tab.

Once all set up is completed, then you can generate a PCO document for sending out. Depends on your project, but most projects will require subcontractor quote to be attached as backup.

Pending Change Order Approval

Once approval received from client, there is a bit work to do to get the change order into budget by Approving Pending Change Order. Once PCO is approved, it will become Approved Change Orders (ACO). If your change order has fee associated, be sure to add the fee line as a separate PCO item. Make sure you set up Contract Item for each line, then you are good to go. To make sure the approved amount all goes to the Budget, you will also need to perform an Interface after approving. See below for example.