Extra Work Authorization: How Subcontractors Get Paid

Extra work authorization is written approval from the person who has the authority to direct work outside your original scope, given before you perform it. For a subcontractor it is the difference between billing extra work and absorbing it. Get the approval in writing, from the right person, tied to a price or a not-to-exceed amount, and keep the field records that back it up.

This guide is about construction extras, not immigration work permits (the Employment Authorization Document). If you landed here looking for an EAD, USCIS is the place to go. If you run crews, bid work and chase change orders, read on.

TL;DR

• Never start extra work on a verbal “go ahead.” Get a signed change order, a written directive, or a signed T&M ticket first.
• Check your subcontract for who can authorize changes, the notice deadline and the required form. Those clauses decide whether you get paid.
• A good authorization names the scope, the location, the price method (lump sum, T&M, or not-to-exceed), any time impact and the signer.
• Field documentation (hours, crew, materials, photos, daily sign-off) is what turns an authorization into an approved invoice.
• Track authorizations in one place so the field, the office and the payroll all see the same number.

Table of Contents

• What extra work authorization means on a job
• Why a verbal okay is not enough
• Read the clauses before the work starts
• What a solid authorization contains
• From request to approved extra: a five-step flow
• Field habits that protect the authorization
• Common mistakes that leave extras unpaid
• Keeping records that stand up at year end
• Perspective
• Put authorization into one workflow
• FAQ
• Sources

What extra work authorization means on a job

Extra work is anything you are asked to do, or find you must do, that is not in your contract scope: added rooms, relocated rough-ins, rework after a design revision, unforeseen conditions, or acceleration. Authorization is the proof that the party who pays you agreed to it, or at least directed it.

On most commercial projects the paper trail takes one of a few forms. The AIA’s own guidance on its A201 General Conditions explains that changes in the work may be made through a change order, a construction change directive, or a written order for a minor change. Your subcontract usually flows those mechanisms down to you, often with shorter deadlines than the prime contract has.

The directive is the one that rescues schedules. As the AIA describes it, a construction change directive is a written order that directs a change before the parties have agreed on cost, time, or both. You can proceed, but you still need to price and document the work carefully so the final change order is quick to agree.

Why a verbal okay is not enough

Every foreman has heard it: “Just do it, we’ll take care of you.” Sometimes that works out. Often it ends with a superintendent who has moved on, a project manager who never heard of it and a general contractor pointing to a clause that says changes must be in writing.

Courts have not been uniform here. Law firm summaries note that written-change requirements can sometimes be waived by conduct, and in one case a court held the subcontractor was still entitled to payment because the changes were directed, authorized, and performed. That is a fallback argument made after a dispute, in litigation, with a cost and an uncertain result. It is not a plan. Your plan is to have the signature before the work.

The practical rule: treat your contract’s change clause as the real rule of the job, whatever anyone says on site.

Read the clauses before the work starts

Open your subcontract and find these items once, then put them on a one-page cheat sheet for each project:

1. Who can authorize. Often only a named project manager or officer, not the superintendent standing next to you.
2. Required form. Some contracts accept an email, others require a specific change order or directive form.
3. Notice deadline. Many contracts require written notice of a claimed change within a set number of days of learning of it. Miss it and the right to extra pay can be argued away.
4. Pricing method. Lump sum, unit price, T&M with markup caps, or not-to-exceed.
5. Backup required. Hours by trade, rates, material invoices, equipment logs, photos, daily signed tickets.
6. Payment flow. When approved extras can be billed and whether they go on the next pay application.

Rules vary by state and by contract, and some states add their own statutory requirements for change work. When the amount is large or the clause is unclear, ask a construction attorney in the state where the project sits.

What a solid authorization contains

Whether it is a formal change order or an email from a project manager, push for these elements:

• Project, date and reference number, so it can be matched to your billing later.
• A specific description of the work, with location, floor or area and a drawing or RFI reference if one exists.
• The price basis. A lump sum, a T&M authorization with rates and markup, or a not-to-exceed figure.
• Time impact. Even “no change to the schedule” is worth stating.
• The signer’s name and role, matching the person your contract says can approve.
• A reference to the trigger, such as an owner request, a design revision, an unforeseen condition or a code requirement.

If the other side wants you to start now and price later, ask for a directive or at least an email that says “proceed on a T&M basis, not to exceed $X, pending change order.” That one line protects both parties.

From request to approved extra: a five-step flow

1. Flag it the moment it happens

The foreman or lead notes the condition or request, takes photos and tells the office the same day. Delay is the main reason notice deadlines get missed.

2. Send written notice

The project manager sends notice per the contract: who, what, where, and that the work is outside scope and will be priced. Keep the notice short and factual.

3. Get the authorization

Request the change order, directive or written go-ahead. If the work cannot wait, get the written proceed instruction and the pricing method before the crew starts.

4. Document the work daily

This is where most money is lost. Each day the crew works on the extra, record hours by worker, equipment, materials and a short description, and have an authorized representative sign. Our guide to field extra work tickets and a 5-minute sign-off checklist walks through it, and the T&M ticket process with a three-way match shows how to tie the ticket, the timecard and the invoice together.

5. Price, submit and track to payment

Build the change order from the signed tickets, add the markup your contract allows, and submit it with the backup. Then follow it until it hits a pay application. An approved change order that never gets billed is as costly as one that was never approved.

Field habits that protect the authorization

The office can only price what the field recorded. A few habits make the difference:

• Separate cost codes for extra work. If extra hours land on the base contract code, they are invisible at billing time. Time on an authorized extra should carry the change order or ticket number.
• Sign-off on the day, not the week. A signature the same day is hard to dispute. A signature three weeks later invites questions about every line.
• Crew names and classifications on the ticket. If you work on prevailing wage jobs, classification affects the billing rate. See how to track prevailing wage time cards efficiently and how to map field time to certified payroll.
• Approved time, locked. When foremen approve timecards on the phone before payroll closes, the hours that reach your change order match the hours you paid. That is the idea behind mobile foreman timecard approvals.
• Watch overtime. Extra work that pushes a crew past 40 hours changes your cost, and your pricing should reflect it. Our piece on field-first overtime tracking covers how to see it coming.

Common mistakes that leave extras unpaid

Taking direction from the wrong person. A superintendent can ask for the work, but if your contract says only the project manager can authorize, you need that person’s approval too.

Pricing after the fact from memory. Reconstructed hours are easy to challenge. Daily tickets are not.

Bundling extras into the pay application without an approved change. This creates arguments about the base contract and slows the whole invoice.

Missing the notice window. Put the notice deadline on the same cheat sheet as the change authority.

Forgetting indirect impacts. Resequencing, remobilization and lost productivity are real costs. If they exist, state them in the authorization or reserve them in writing.

Losing records between field and office. Tickets in a truck, hours in a spreadsheet and approvals in text messages mean someone retypes everything. Every retype is a chance to lose a line item.

Keeping records that stand up at year end

Authorizations and tickets are part of the financial record of the job, not just a billing tool. Your accountant, your lender and sometimes an auditor will ask how an extra was approved and paid. If you want a sense of how tightly subcontractor records get reviewed in other systems, UK trades face a similar discipline with CIS statements for subcontractors, a scheme specific to the United Kingdom. The lesson travels: matching documents at the time of the work is far easier than reconciling them months later.

Perspective

Most unpaid extra work does not start with a bad client. It starts with a gap between the field and the office. The foreman knows the work was directed. The project manager knows the contract. Neither has the same piece of paper at the same moment.

We built Won2Build around that gap. Our suite is made for subcontractors, with one login across Time Budge, CO Hub, Bid Track and Takeoff, so the hours a crew records can connect to the change order that covers them, without double entry. Real-time sync between field and office means the person pricing the extra sees what happened on site, not a summary written days later.

Our view is simple: authorization should be easy enough that nobody skips it on a busy day. If it takes ten minutes of paperwork at the tailgate, it will be skipped. If it takes a few taps and a signature, it gets done, and you get paid for the work you did.

Jen Reese

Put authorization into one workflow

CO Hub is our change order and T&M ticket tool for subcontractors. It keeps extra work requests, field tickets and change order status in one place, available from the field on mobile, with a bilingual interface for mixed crews. It is listed at $59 per month per company on our pricing page, which also lists a $2 per month fee per active field worker. Read more on the CO Hub product page, or see how it sits alongside the rest of the Won2Build Hub.

Because the apps share one sign-on, the same project data can also feed labor tracking in Time Budge and your bid history in Bid Track. A flat per-company price with unlimited team members means adding a foreman does not change your subscription structure.

FAQ

Does extra work authorization have to be in writing?

Most commercial subcontracts require it, and you should treat it as required even if a court might later excuse a missing document. Courts have sometimes allowed payment where the work was directed and performed, but that is a dispute outcome, not a safe practice. Written authorization before the work is the cleanest protection.

Who can authorize extra work on a commercial project?

Only the person your subcontract names. That is often a project manager or an officer of the general contractor, and sometimes the owner’s representative or architect, depending on the contract structure. A superintendent’s verbal request alone may not bind the company, so confirm authority in the contract and get the approval in writing.

What if I have to start before the price is agreed?

Ask for a written directive or a written proceed instruction on a T&M basis with a not-to-exceed amount. On AIA-based contracts, a construction change directive exists for exactly this situation. Then document every day of work with signed tickets so the final price is easy to settle.

What should a T&M ticket include?

The date, project, change order or ticket number, a description of the work and location, each worker’s name and hours, equipment and materials used, and the signature of an authorized representative. Daily signature is the key. Tickets signed at the end of the job are far easier to dispute.

Is this the same as an Employment Authorization Document?

No. An EAD is an immigration document that proves a person may work in the United States. Extra work authorization is a construction contract approval for work outside scope. The two share only a word.

Sources

• What Is a Construction Change Order? AIA Forms & Process
• Written Change Order Requirements in Construction Contracts May be Waived
• Avoid Year End CIS Disputes: What Subcontractors Must Verify on Statements

Recommended

• How to Create Subcontractor Time Cards That Hold Up
• Subcontractor Playbook to Get Paid for Unsigned Change Orders
• Field Time to Payroll: A Subcontractor’s Workflow
• Field Extra Work Tickets for Subcontractors: 5-Minute Sign-Off Checklist