"Every contractor knows what a project hangover feels like," says Chris Integlia, Chief Operating Officer at Pariseault Builders. “It’s that moment at the end of a job when stacks of T&M tickets and unresolved change orders arrive all at once, the work is already in place, the budget is spent, and everyone is left arguing over costs that should have been documented and approved months earlier.”

With a focus on healthcare and academic construction, Pariseault regularly takes on projects from five to twenty-five million dollars with up to twenty-five active subcontractors on a given job.

At that scale, the stakes of getting change order and T&M documentation right are high on every project. For Integlia and his team, finding a way to eliminate project hangovers for good became the driving force behind how they manage change orders and T&M work today.

Like most general contractors, Pariseault's change order and T&M alignment relied on the workflows the industry had always used. Paper tickets arrived in waves long after work was completed, with inconsistent content and no clear approval trail.

Alignment between project managers and subcontractors could even happen verbally, which often felt sufficient in the moment.

"Everyone in those conversations felt comfortable, that they were all speaking the same language," says Integlia. "But at the end of the day, we really didn't have a process. We were just getting lucky."

At closeout, the lack of documentation and alignment brought on project hangover in full. "You're trying to close out a contract, trying to get your final lien waiver, and in come all the tickets," says Integlia. "The work's put in place, it's too late. That's when everything showed up."

The result was almost always the same: both sides agreeing to split the difference on costs that should have been documented and approved months earlier.All of that changed when Pariseault brought Clearstory onto their projects.

Developed by former contractors to rescue projects still grappling with manual Change Order processes and paper-driven workflows, Clearstory's core product is a shareable, cloud-based Change Order Log that creates instant transparency between stakeholders and features simple but powerful workflows to capture field-directed extra work, conduct pricing exercises, manage allowances, and streamline Change Order review in real-time.

For Integlia, the value of Clearstory comes down to one word: transparency. Every ticket shows who reviewed it, who approved it, and when. Every change order request has a clear, documented trail from submission to approval. Misalignments that used to fester for months now get resolved in the moment.

Better Stakeholder Relationships

"The work at hand might be a $2,000 slip," says Integlia. "With Clearstory you can have that conversation and align right away. You don't end up waiting until you have a $200,000 problem."

And once subs see that Clearstory documents who saw every ticket and Change Order and when, they buy in immediately. "Subcontractors like Clearstory because it's easy to implement and it gives them that transparent, consistent approval workflow that shows everyone in the process agreed to the work," says Integlia. Every trade partner has felt the frustration of completed work going unpaid because someone claims they never saw the ticket, he adds. "Clearstory solves that problem."

Pariseault also uses Clearstory's allowances feature to manage self-perform work and subcontractor do-not-exceed commitments in real time. When Pariseault creates a contractual commitment to a subcontractor, they set up a corresponding allowance in Clearstory. As T&M tickets come in and get approved, they draw down against that allowance, giving both the PM and the subcontractor a live view of how quickly they are approaching the budget ceiling.

Real-Time Transparency Into Change Orders and Allowances

"Clearstory allows us and the subcontractor to know how fast we're creeping up on the do-not-exceed amount," says Integlia. "And more importantly, it empowers the sub. When they do work that's approved and it exceeds the do-not-exceed amount, they have a legitimate claim to be paid for a change order request."

Sophisticated owners and facilities managers who do repeat construction work have also responded strongly to the level of documentation Clearstory provides.

"When they can see that costs are controlled, when they see consistent documentation that keeps them in the loop and shows them their money is being spent wisely, they become better partners," says Integlia.

Early in his experience with Clearstory, Integlia was reminded of a painful lesson the industry had taught him the hard way. A lack of real-time documentation had once landed Pariseault in a legal dispute that took three years to resolve and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"When I was sitting in court, I had to believe there was a better way," says Integlia. "When I saw Clearstory, I said, that's it. That's the transparency we need to completely avoid this."

His recommendation to other operations leaders is direct. "If another ops leader asked me why I like Clearstory, I would just tell them transparency," says Integlia. "We do good work. Our subs do good work. We deserve to get paid for the good work we do, so do our subs. But we need to document it and communicate it clearly in real time. With Clearstory, you're doing all the same work, you're just doing it digitally. And now there is no argument anymore. It is what it is, and it's in front of everybody in real time."