Electrical

Change orders for electricians: documented, approved, billed

Updated October 3, 2026 · Alvin

Most billing disputes in electrical work start as a verbal "while you're here." Documented change orders turn the tech's on-site note into a written scope and price the homeowner approves with one tap — before the work happens. Alvin takes the tech's photo and description, sends the approval request, and adds the approved change to the invoice.

Where the money leaks out

The scene is universal: the tech is on site for a panel upgrade, the homeowner asks "while you're here, can you add two outlets in the garage and look at the porch light?" The tech says sure, does the work, and mentions it on the invoice. The homeowner balks — "I didn't agree to that price" — and the shop eats the labor or burns an hour arguing about it. Multiply by a few jobs a month and it's a real number walking out the door.

Nobody is being dishonest. The tech did the work in good faith, the homeowner heard a different number than the tech meant, and there's no record of either. Verbal extras are a handshake deal with no handshake — and the invoice is where the misunderstanding surfaces, at the worst possible moment.

The one-minute workflow

1. The tech texts it in. Photo of the area, one-line description of the added work, price from your standard list. From the truck, in under a minute. No forms, no app to learn, no end-of-day paperwork.
2. Alvin builds the change order. Scope, price, job reference — assembled into a clean approval request the moment the tech's text lands. The office sees it too, in case the price needs a second look.
3. The homeowner approves with one tap. A short message: what the added work is, what it costs, tap to approve. The approval is timestamped and attached to the job record. This is the whole system — a yes, in writing, before the work.
4. The tech does the work. Approved means go. The tech already knows the price was agreed, so there's no awkward "this'll cost extra" conversation at the panel.
5. It lands on the invoice. Each approved change order becomes a line item — scope, price, timestamped approval. The final bill matches what the homeowner already said yes to. No surprises, no disputes.

Why techs actually use it

Change-order systems fail when they're built for the office instead of the truck. A tech standing in a garage will not open a laptop, fill out a form, and wait for the office to call the homeowner. They'll just do the work and hope. The text-a-photo workflow works because it's faster than the hope-and-pray alternative — and because it protects the tech too. When the price is approved in writing, nobody can tell the tech they quoted it wrong.

The price list matters as much as the workflow. If the tech has to invent a price on site, the system stalls. Keep a standard list of common extras — additional outlet, dedicated circuit, fixture swap, troubleshooting hour — so the tech picks a price instead of making one up. Alvin pulls from that list; anything off-list routes to the office for a number before the approval goes out.

What Alvin handles vs. what stays with the shop

The line is simple: Alvin documents and collects the yes; the shop sets the prices and does the work. Alvin never invents a price and never starts work without approval — the two rules the whole system rests on.

The rules that keep it clean

• Approval before work, no exceptions. The one rule. Work starts after the tap, not before. Everything else is commentary.
• Prices come from the list. Standard extras have standard prices. Off-list work waits for an office number — the tech never improvises pricing in front of the customer.
• Small stuff stays small. Not everything needs a change order — a five-minute favor is goodwill, not billable work. Set the threshold (say, anything over fifteen minutes or a set dollar amount) and document above it.
• Every approval is timestamped. Scope, price, time of approval, all on the job record. "I never agreed to that" dies the moment you can show the tap.
• Unapproved extras surface daily. If a tech logged work without approval, the office sees it the same day — while it's still fixable, not at invoice time.

Documented extras are also the easiest money to collect — which pairs naturally with invoice follow-up that chases every balance politely, so approved work actually turns into paid work.

What it costs to keep doing it on a handshake

For example, a shop where each tech does a couple of undocumented extras a week — an outlet here, a fixture there, a "quick look" that takes an hour. Most of it never makes the invoice; the part that does starts arguments. Over a year, that's a meaningful share of revenue given away or fought over, plus the tech-hours spent on work nobody will ever pay for. A one-minute text and a one-tap approval recovers it — not by charging more, but by writing down what was already agreed.