Turn approved change orders into actual invoices

A client asking for extra work is not the same as accepting its price and terms. Record the requested change, the agreed fee or rate, the approver, and the billing milestone. Follow the contract's approval requirements rather than assuming an informal message is always sufficient.

The delivery team also needs to know whether work may begin before approval. Establish who can authorize that risk internally. Finance cannot reliably recover unpriced work after the project if the agency never documented what the client agreed to buy.

Add the approved fee and expected delivery cost to the project forecast. Use a distinct reference so the team can compare the original scope with each amendment. Keep rejected and pending requests outside committed revenue while retaining them for follow-up.

For an illustrative project, an approved $4,000 addition requiring $2,500 of extra delivery cost adds $1,500 of expected contribution before other costs. If the budget adds the $4,000 fee but leaves staffing unchanged, the project forecast overstates the benefit of the change.

At each billing review, compare the approved change list with invoices and upcoming milestones. Identify approved work already delivered but not billed, invoices issued before the contractual milestone, and changes billed for a different amount. Assign each exception to the account owner who can resolve it.

Keep billing readiness separate from accounting revenue recognition. An approved amendment may affect the revenue analysis before or after an invoice is issued, depending on the contract and accounting policy. Give the accountant the actual terms and delivery evidence instead of deciding the treatment from invoice status alone.

Confirm that the invoice identifies the change order clearly and reaches the right purchasing contact. A valid charge can still be delayed because a client purchase order was not updated. Capture those requirements at approval, not after the invoice becomes overdue.

At project closure, account for every approved change through an invoice, documented cancellation, or approved adjustment. Use repeated exceptions to repair the handoff between account management and finance. The next scope should not depend on someone remembering an email from six weeks earlier.