The super catches you at the panel at 7:15. He needs four more circuits in 210 today. He'll write it up later.
You do it, because the alternative is a conversation you do not want to have with the GC.
Electrician verbal change order documentation is the written record you create yourself, the same day, when no signed change order is coming. It is not a signature you chase. It is a dated, specific account of who directed the work, when, what changed, and which hours went into it.Almost every article on this subject gives one instruction: never start work on a verbal. That is correct and it is useless. It tells you what you should have done, not what to do at 2:40 this afternoon.
Here is the part that gets missed. The charge is usually fair. The explanation is what's missing.
General information, not legal advice. Your subcontract and your state control. Have your attorney read anything you plan to rely on.Two Separate Fights: Were You Authorized, and Are the Hours Real
Every extra-work dispute is two arguments wearing one coat. The first is whether you were told to do the work. The second is whether the hours you billed are believable.
You can win the first and still lose the second. "Yes, we asked for the circuits, but 34.5 hours is padded" is how the second one sounds, and it is the harder argument, because a lump of hours carries nothing the customer can check — only a number to believe or disbelieve.
Authorization is settled by names, times, and a same-day email. Hours are settled by a contemporaneous field record — who was on it, when, and what they did.
Documentation that handles only one of them leaves the other on the table. Everything below covers both.
What to Capture Before You Leave the Site
Five things. Ten minutes total, all of it doable on a phone before the truck pulls out of the lot.
| What to capture | Why it decides the argument | Where to put it |
|---|
| Who directed it — full name and title | "The super told me" is not a person. "Dave Reyes, project superintendent" is. | Change order log, confirming email |
| When — date and clock time | A time stamp puts the direction before the work, which is the whole sequence you need. | Change order log, confirming email |
| What changed and why it is out of scope | Name the drawing, spec section, or contract line that does not show it. That takes the fight from opinion to paper. | Change order log, daily field report |
| Hours by person, tied to that scope only | This is the number that gets challenged. It has to exist separately from base contract hours on the day it happened. | T&M tag, labor backup sheet, time record |
| Photos of the condition | An open wall, a corroded disconnect, an undersized feeder. Two minutes now, and the condition is gone forever once you close it up. | Phone camera roll, attached to the daily report |
Blank forms for all of this are free at the T&M billing backup kit — a change order log, a daily field report, a labor backup sheet, and a T&M work authorization. No signup, and they are ordinary CSV and printable files you can keep on a clipboard in the truck.
The Confirming Email That Takes Ninety Seconds
Send it the same day, to the person who gave you the direction, and copy their office. Same-day beats perfect wording every time.
The reason is simple. A note written that afternoon is a record. The same facts recalled three months later are testimony, and testimony is what gets argued about.
Here is language you can copy. Change the names and delete what does not apply.
Subject: Confirming today's direction — Suite 210, added branch circuits>
Dave,>
Confirming our conversation at the second-floor east wing this morning at 7:15 a.m. You directed us to add and terminate four 20A branch circuits in 210 that are not shown on E-2 dated 06/12/2026.>
We proceeded on your direction so the grid could close today. Crew and hours on this scope through 1:00 p.m. today:>
Foreman — 6.0 hrs
Journeyman — 6.0 hrs
Journeyman — 3.5 hrs>
Today will close at roughly 8.8 hrs for the foreman and the lead journeyman, and 6.3 for the second journeyman. These hours are being tracked separately from base contract labor and will come through with a labor backup sheet showing the work performed each day.>
If any part of this does not match your understanding, tell us today and we will stop and price it before we go further.>
Thanks,
Rick Alvarez, Alvarez Electric
Four things are doing work in that email. It names the person and the time. It names the drawing that does not show the scope. It gives the hours while they are still fresh. And it invites correction, which is what keeps it from reading as an accusation.
That last part does more work than it looks like. If writing it down feels like calling the GC a liar, that is the reason it gets skipped. Ending with "tell us if this is wrong" removes that entirely — you are confirming, not cornering.
Who Can Actually Authorize the Change
The person running your day-to-day work can usually authorize the change, even when the contract names someone else as the authorized representative. The person who negotiated your subcontract and directs your crew is a different animal from a random assistant PM.
That idea has a name — apparent authority. Courts in some jurisdictions have found that a general contractor is bound by the direction of the person it put in charge of the work, regardless of what the signature block says.
Construction attorneys at Bradley wrote up one example in 2023, Patriot Construction v. VK Electrical Services, where a subcontractor recovered for extra work with no signed change order. As summarized there, the written-change-order requirement was treated as waived by the parties' conduct, and the GC's project manager had apparent authority because he negotiated the subcontract and ran the day-to-day work.
Take the encouragement and note the cost. That subcontractor got paid through litigation — years, legal fees, and a relationship that is not coming back.
Two minutes of prevention beats the doctrine. Open your subcontract, find the article that names the owner's or GC's authorized representative, and write that name down. Then send your confirming email to both that person and the one who gave you the direction.
Your Notice Clock Is Shorter Than the Doctrine
Waiver and apparent authority will not save a claim you failed to notice on time. Most subcontracts put a written-notice window on extra work, and blowing it can waive the claim on its own.
Find yours before the next change, not after. It takes about five minutes.
| Where to look | What you are looking for | What it commonly says |
|---|
| Your subcontract, "Changes" article | Written-notice window for changed or extra work | Notice in writing within a stated number of days of the direction or the discovered condition — often a very short window |
| Your subcontract, "Claims" article | Deadline to submit the priced cost and time impact | A separate, usually longer deadline for the full claim after the initial notice |
| Flow-down from the prime contract | AIA A201-2017 §15.1.3.1 | A claim must be initiated by written notice within 21 days after the event or after first recognition of the condition |
| Prime contract, Article 7 (AIA A201) | Construction Change Directive | The owner can order changed work before price and time are agreed; you proceed and the cost is settled afterward |
Write the number of days on the inside cover of the job folder. When the super gives you a verbal, the clock starts that morning, not when the invoice goes out.
Keeping the Change Hours Separate from Base Contract Hours
Give the change its own line the crew clocks to on the day it happens, not a note you add back in the office at the end of the month.
This is the mechanical reason change order hours disappear. They get absorbed into the base contract job, and by the time anyone goes looking, the only way to pull them out is memory.
Three ways to do it, cheapest first. On paper, a separate T&M tag per change, one tag per day, signed by the super where you can get it. In a spreadsheet, a distinct job or CO number in its own column so you can filter to it later. In software, a separate job for the change that people clock into directly.
FieldTimesheet handles that third one by letting you set the change up as its own job, with a "what did you work on?" prompt at clock-out so the note lands on the hours instead of in someone's memory — but it has no change order module, no photo attachments and no signature capture, so the signed tag stays on paper either way. There is more on running hours against an approved change at tracking change order time.
The method matters less than the timing. A separate record made the same day is worth more than a perfect one assembled in November.
What a Field Note Has to Say to Still Work Six Months Later
A field note still works six months later when it names the location the way the drawings do, names the work in trade terms, and names the person who directed it. It is what converts "the super told me to do it" into an invoice line a customer can read and agree with.
| What the record says | What it actually proves | How the conversation goes |
|---|
| 8.77 hrs | Somebody was on the clock | You get asked to justify it from memory, and you lose |
| Extra work — 210 | Some extra work happened somewhere | The argument moves straight to how much and who said so |
| Thu 7:02a–3:48p — pulled and terminated added circuits 12–15, second-floor east wing, per D. Reyes 7:15a walk | Date, span, scope, location, and who directed it | It reads as a record of the day, and there is very little left to dispute |
Skip adjectives entirely.
The real obstacle is not the format. It is getting an electrician who has been on his feet for nine hours to write anything at all before he clocks out.
Two things fix that. Ask one question, not a form — "what did you work on?" — and let the answer be one line. Then show the crew the billing packet their notes produced, so they can see the note is what stops a customer chiseling the company on work they actually performed. There is a longer breakdown at what to write on a timesheet.
A Worked Example, Start to Invoice Line
Example arithmetic with made-up numbers. Run it with your own rates.
This is the same directive as the confirming email above, carried through to the invoice line: four added 20A circuits directed Thursday morning, worked by a foreman and two journeymen Thursday and into Friday.
| Line | Hours | Bill rate | Amount |
|---|
| Foreman — Thu 7:02a–3:48p, Fri 7:00a–10:15a: rough-in and terminate added circuits 12–15, 2nd floor east | 12.0 | $112.00 | $1,344.00 |
| Journeyman — Thu 7:02a–3:48p, Fri 7:00a–10:15a: EMT and homeruns to LP-2, added circuits | 12.0 | $95.00 | $1,140.00 |
| Journeyman — Thu 9:30a–3:48p, Fri 7:00a–11:10a: device boxes, terminations, panel directory update | 10.5 | $95.00 | $997.50 |
| Labor subtotal | 34.5 | $3,481.50 |
| Material at cost, supplier invoice attached | $612.00 |
| Material markup, 15% per the signed T&M authorization | $91.80 |
| Total for CO-002 | $4,185.30 |
Notice what a customer can do with that. They can point at any line and ask about it, and the answer is already printed next to the number.
That is the difference between a bill and an explanation. The labor half of it — date, who, what was done, hours, bill rate, amount — is exactly what a billing packet prints; there is a full one at the sample billing packet if you want a format to copy. The material lines come off your supplier invoices and go on the invoice itself.
Now the small stuff, same rules. Example arithmetic, not a claim about your jobs: four two-hour verbal favors in a month at a $95 journeyman bill rate is 8 hrs × $95 = $760 a month, or $9,120 over a year. Log the small ones with the same three lines as the big ones.
When the Customer Agrees the Work Happened but Fights the Hours
Authorization gets all the attention, but a customer who has already conceded the work happened is arguing about something documentation can still settle: the hours. Nobody disputes the circuits went in. They dispute 34.5 hours.
Do not argue the total. Break it into days and people, and let them read it.
A customer who cannot reconstruct a charge assumes padding — not out of bad faith, but because a single number gives them nothing to check. Six lines with times, names, and scope give them something to agree with.
If it is already at the collections stage, the arithmetic on what the argument itself costs is at the invoice dispute calculator. Discounting work you actually performed is usually the more expensive option.
You Already Did the Work and Wrote Nothing Down
If you are reading this after the fact, here is the recovery path.
Reconstruct from records that carry their own dates. Supply house invoices and will-call pickups, text threads with the super, gate and badge logs, the GC's own daily reports, photos on crew phones with the date stamp intact, and any time records you do have.
Then write it up and label it as reconstructed. Say plainly which parts are dated records and which are recollection.
Do not backdate anything. A reconstructed record that admits it is reconstructed stays credible. A backdated one that gets caught destroys every other document you submit, including the good ones.Send it with a short cover note asking for confirmation, and check your notice clock the same hour. Then set the forms up so the next verbal gets handled on the day it happens.
The Whole Procedure in One Place
- The verbal comes in. Write down the person's full name, their title, and the clock time before you touch anything.
- Photograph the condition, especially anything you are about to cover up.
- Open a separate line — a T&M tag, a CO number, or its own job — and have the crew's hours land on it, not on the base contract.
- Log it the same day in a change order log: what was asked, who asked, and the drawing or spec line showing it was not included.
- Send the confirming email that afternoon, to the person who directed it and to their office, inviting correction.
- Check your subcontract's written-notice window and give formal notice inside it.
- At clock-out, get one line from each person on what they actually did — location the way the drawings name it, work in trade terms.
- Bill it as a packet: date, who, what was done, hours, rate, amount. Not a lump sum.
- If a signature ever becomes available, get it — but the record above is what makes the line collectible in the meantime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a verbal change order legally binding?
A verbal change order can be enforceable, but whether it is depends on your subcontract and your state. Many contracts require written change orders, but courts have enforced payment for extra work performed on verbal direction where the parties' conduct or the direction of an authorized representative waived the writing requirement. Treat that as a fallback, not a plan, and get your own attorney's read on your contract.
Can I get paid for extra work if nobody ever signed a change order?
You can often still get paid, provided you can show you were directed to do the work and can prove what it took. The two doctrines that come up most are constructive change — where the owner's conduct effectively ordered changed work — and waiver of the written-change-order clause by course of dealing. Both live or die on contemporaneous records, which is why the same-day email and the field note matter more than the missing signature.
What proof do I need when the change order was only verbal?
Five items: the name and title of the person who directed it, the date and time, the drawing or spec reference showing the work was out of scope, hours by person tied only to that scope, and photos of the condition. A same-day confirming email that contains the first four is the single strongest document you can create on your own.
Does the superintendent or project manager have authority to authorize extra work?
A superintendent or project manager who directs your crew day to day often does carry that authority, because courts can treat the person the GC put in charge as having apparent authority. That said, your subcontract names an authorized representative, and the safest move is to send your confirming email to both. It costs nothing and closes the gap.
How do I confirm a verbal change order in writing without sounding like I'm accusing anyone?
Write it as a confirmation, not a demand, and end by inviting correction: "if any part of this does not match your understanding, tell us today." Stick to facts — who, when, what, hours — and leave out any characterization of the conversation. That reads as a sub keeping good records, which is exactly what it is.
How long do I have to give notice of a change?
Check your subcontract's Changes and Claims articles, because that is the only answer that governs you. For reference, AIA A201-2017 §15.1.3.1 requires a claim to be initiated by written notice within 21 days of the event or first recognition of the condition, and many subcontracts flow down a shorter window. Missing it can waive the claim no matter how strong the rest of your documentation is.
How do I separate change order hours from base contract hours on the same day?
Give the change its own line the crew clocks to on the day, whether that is a separate T&M tag, a distinct CO number in your spreadsheet, or a separate job in whatever system you use. Splitting hours later from memory is the step where change order labor disappears. The other half is the note on those hours, so the line reads as work performed rather than a number.
What if the customer accepts that the work happened but says the hours are too high?
Stop defending the total and show the days. Break the labor into date, person, time span, and what that person did, and let them read down the column. A charge nobody can reconstruct reads as padding; a charge with six checkable lines reads as a record, and the conversation usually ends there.