FIELD NOTE · COMMITMENT
When a change order outruns the commitment
A change order that comes in over the commitment you tagged for it — flagged the moment it outruns what you anticipated.
- What it reads
- The verified ledger line you tagged as anticipated, and the change order you tagged as the one that materializes it.
- What triggers it
- The change order's claimed amount comes in over the anticipated amount by more than your configured headroom — seeded at zero, so any over-run at all is raised by default.
- What it needs from you
- The tag. An untagged change order contributes nothing to this — ever, silently, forever.
The exhibits
This is the same scope DOC-1 p.16 Exhibit B excluded — "hoistway pressurization and smoke relief by others." The owner's rep who read that exclusion at contract time, watched it get anticipated in the approval letter, and then watched a change order land under a different number, has the whole chain in front of her. The rep who read none of it just sees an invoice.
The anticipated line
A verified ledger line anticipates the cost of hoistway pressurization coordination.
DOC-2, page 2, pending line 2: "Hoistway pressurization coordination" — anticipated, verified as a ledger line, and not part of the original award.
The change order, tagged
CO #038 is tagged as the change order that materializes the anticipated line above.
CO #038, "Hoistway pressurization and smoke relief — added ductwork and controls," tagged by the owner's rep as the change order that materializes the anticipated line above. That tag is a human act — nothing here is inferred.
The result
The claimed amount comes in over what the tagged line anticipated.
The claimed amount exceeds the anticipated amount by more than the configured headroom — seeded at zero, so any over-run at all raises it. Nothing here says which figure is correct.
Difference: $30,100Illustrative figure 31.26% over the anticipated amount — context, not proof. Amounts may legitimately differ.
The ladder stops here. Nothing above it says which number is right.
The check, in full
One tag, one comparison: what you anticipated, against what came in.
- You tag a change order as the change that materializes a verified, anticipated ledger line. That tag is a human act — nothing here is inferred.
- From then on, the tagged change order's claimed amount is compared against that ledger line's anticipated amount.
- It raises when the claimed amount exceeds the anticipated amount by more than your configured headroom — seeded at zero, so by default any over-run at all is raised.
- It never re-decides the tag. If the tag was wrong, you change the tag — the check does not go looking for a different match.
What does NOT trigger it
- An untagged change order — ever, silently, forever.
- An unverified ledger line.
- A change order that comes in at or under the anticipated amount.
This is a deterministic check — the same inputs produce the same result every time. No model decides it.
What this does not do
- It does not decide
- It puts the anticipated figure and the claimed figure side by side. It does not say which one is right, and it will not.
- The blind spot
- An untagged change order contributes nothing to this — ever, silently, forever. That is not a limitation we are hiding — it is the design. Your judgement about what links to what is the input; the machine is the part that never forgets to check. You tag it, it watches it.
- The precondition
- It only ever compares a tag against a verified ledger line. An unverified line is not compared, and it never will be.
- No score
- There is no confidence percentage anywhere in this, because a number shaped like evidence is not evidence.
Your call
Over-anticipated is not the same as wrong. It is the same as worth asking about.
What the rep does next
The owner's rep asks the GC what changed between the anticipated hoistway pressurization scope and CO #038's added ductwork and controls, before approving the change order.