In commercial construction, nothing throws off a project forecast like surprise Change Orders. In a recent survey of 200 General Contractors, 64.5% said Change Orders significantly impact forecasting accuracy. And yet, GCs are regularly forced to make critical financial decisions based on outdated, incomplete, or inconsistent data. That’s because the current way of managing Change Order Requests (CORs) is antiquated at best, and fundamentally broken at worst.
Most GCs rely on a patchwork of static PDF logs, manual email threads, and side spreadsheets to track their COR exposure and update their financial software. Logs are outdated the moment they’re sent. Emails get buried. And each Specialty Contractor has their own unique format—if they submit a log at all. Once a month (or more), project teams scramble to compile a full picture of change exposure, requesting updated logs from every sub. What comes back is a mixed bag: some logs show up late, some are missing backup, and some don’t show up at all.
This lack of real-time visibility doesn’t just create headaches for PMs. It blocks executives from making informed decisions, delays Owner approvals, and leaves your team exposed to surprise costs at the worst possible time. When you can’t see what’s coming, you can’t manage the risk. But leading GCs are changing the game.
Here are five ways Clearstory gives GCs full COR visibility across every trade—and how that unlocks rock-solid forecasting, better stakeholder collaboration, and fewer surprises:
1) Every COR, Logged and Time-Stamped the Moment It Lands
In most workflows, a COR hits your inbox and immediately disappears into a black hole of email threads, PDFs, and side spreadsheets. Not with Clearstory. Every COR submitted by a trade partner is automatically logged in a cloud-based, real-time Change Order Log the second they send it—time-stamped with all supporting documentation, photos, T&M Tags, and notes included.
This means you no longer have to chase down logs or ask, “Did we ever get that Change Order Request?” You can see exactly when it was submitted, what’s attached, who’s viewed it, and what its current status is—pending, approved, rejected, or revised. The moment your sub sends it, it’s tracked.
And because everything lives in a single, shared environment, you don’t waste hours manually reconciling email trails or deciphering attachments before forecasting. You know what’s in your court, what’s still under review, and what’s waiting on your Specialty Contractors—all without lifting the phone or refreshing your inbox.
2) Instant Visibility Into Pending Cost Exposure Before It Hits Your Forecast
Forget waiting until the end of the month to realize a pile of CORs was sitting in someone’s inbox. Clearstory gives PMs and execs a live view of what’s been submitted—even if it's not priced or approved yet. That means you can flag high-risk items early, track scope creep in real time, and account for pending exposure before your forecast is due. No more getting blindsided at executive review. Many GCs using Clearstory reduce exposure to surprise costs by 100%.
3) A Smarter Pricing Workflow with Real-Time COR Visibility
Let’s be real: pricing exercises are messy when you don’t have clean inputs. Most GCs are still juggling email threads, spreadsheets, and lagging responses from trade partners. That makes it nearly impossible to keep an accurate read on change order exposure, let alone turn pricing around quickly.
Clearstory’s Change Notifications flip the script by giving you a dedicated workflow to issue pricing requests, set response deadlines, and track progress all in one place. No more mystery CORs showing up weeks late. No more blind spots when execs ask “how much exposure are we sitting on?”
With Clearstory’s Change Notifications, you can:
- Send scoped pricing requests to one or multiple trades at once
- Get CORs or “No Cost Impact” responses back in a structured format
- Instantly see which trades have submitted pricing and which still owe you
- Keep a live, filterable log of all pricing exposure down to the dollar
- Export data to your system of record with complete backup in tow
The result? Faster decisions, fewer surprises, and a pricing workflow that’s built for the pace of construction, not stuck in the past.
4) Full Transparency, Fewer Surprises: Real-Time COR Review Tools
Nothing derails an owner conversation faster than scrambling for COR answers. When you’re tracking Change Orders across spreadsheets, PDFs, and emails, building a clean audit trail is a full-time job, and even then, it’s easy to miss something.
Clearstory gives you an always-current view of every Change Order’s status, backup, and revision history. So whether you’re prepping for a weekly meeting or fielding an on-the-spot question from your execs or owners, you’re never caught flat-footed.
Key tools that make COR reviews bulletproof:
- Audit Trail: Every change, comment, and status update is logged so there’s no more guesswork on who did what, when.
- Version History: Need to reference a previous COR version? It’s all stored, searchable, and accessible with one click.
- Revise & Review: Make markups, request edits, and reassign CORs for updates—without bouncing between tools.
- Live Status Dashboard: Know exactly which CORs are pending, approved, rejected, or under review and share with your owner in real time.
5) Clear Line of Sight Between Field-Authorized T&M Work and COR Creation
Most GCs don’t see T&M work until the COR hits their inbox—often weeks after the work is done. With Clearstory, you get immediate visibility the moment any Trade Partner creates a T&M Tag. Every field-directed Tag is digitally documented, priced, and tracked in the system—so when it gets rolled into a COR, you’re not playing catch-up. You’ll know exactly what work is being claimed and when it happened, so there’s no disconnect between field, office, and Owner.
Visibility into Change Order exposure shouldn’t be a once-a-month scramble. It should be real-time, shared, and actionable. Clearstory gives GCs the tools to track cost exposure as it happens—so they can forecast accurately, align with owners, and make smarter decisions to flip the script on risk and turn it into reward.
“Having a consistent process for all of our project teams that provides visibility and reduces turnaround time is a great indicator of ROI,” says Clayco executive vice president Mike Pierle. “With Clearstory, we can finally look at all of the facts related to change management on a project and make the pivots and adjustments necessary to support our teams and deliver results.”
Ready to see it in action? Let us show you what full COR visibility can look like on your next project.
