Handling Added Work with a Scope Change

Availability: all plans

When a technician finds extra work that the customer has not approved, the work order records it as a scope change before anyone does the work. You describe only what changed and its added price, the customer decides, and only an approved change is added to the work order. The original approved work stays exactly as it was. While a scope change is open, the work order cannot be completed.

Before you start

You need permission to manage change orders, and the work order must be in progress, on the working screen.
A pricebook category must exist. The scope change form needs one to price the added work. If the list is empty, ask an operations manager to add one in Pricing.
Have the customer with you, in person. Approval is recorded as verbal, in-person authorization by the customer.

Steps

On the working screen, select Scope changed. The page opens with the heading Pause before doing added work.
Fill in the form:
- Name, for example the part or task being added.
- Customer-facing description, which the customer reads, so say what was found and why it is needed.
- Pricebook category, chosen from Choose a category.
- Line type, Quantity and Final unit price. Enter the price as a positive amount. The line type decides whether it adds or, for a discount, takes away.
- Under Internal note, optionally add the finding or reason for your own records.
Select Review with customer. The change is saved and presented at once, and the page shows its change order number, the added line and the Added total, with the status Waiting for customer.
Go through the added work and total with the customer.
If the customer agrees, tick I heard the customer approve this added work and total and select Customer approves. The approval is recorded and the added scope is put on the work order. You return to the working screen.
If the customer says no, optionally type a Decline reason (optional) and select Customer declines. You continue with the original approved work.

Other states you may see

Draft: shown when a change was saved but could not be presented. Select Present to customer to send it for a decision, or Withdraw draft to drop it.
Customer approved: shown if approval was recorded but adding the scope did not finish. Select Add approved scope and resume work.

Tips

Keep one change per page. You cannot start a second scope change until the current one is resolved.
Use a scope change for work that goes beyond the approved total. Small adjustments to a line on the work order are made in Work Items, where a Change reason is recorded in the work order history.
Get the customer's answer before you do the work, not after.
The authorization record captured before work began is a separate step; see the linked articles.

If something goes wrong

If the page says Scope-change status is unavailable, refresh it before adding work, so an existing customer decision is not overwritten.
If Review with customer is greyed out, a pricebook category is missing or the status could not be checked.
On the working screen, the banner Added work is waiting means a scope change must be resolved before completing, and Scope-change status could not be verified means you should select Check scope changes.
If you pressed Customer approves without ticking the confirmation, the page asks you to confirm that the customer approved the added work and total.

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