Changes and Cash Flow Improvement

Construction is a cash-intensive business and change orders are often one of the root causes of poor cash flow.

D. Brown Management

March 13, 2019 2 minute read

A 30-day improvement to change management workflow can generate over $400K in additional cash flow for a $50M contractor.

Change Management: Changes, how much cash flow improvement?

Construction projects average 10% in changes.
Attention to details on pricing can significantly improve change profitability by accounting for many of the hidden impacts that changes cause.

Nearly all projects face difficult cash flow, even before adding in changes.
Getting changes onto the billings ASAP is critical. Remember that an improvement of just one billing cycle on average is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash flow.

HOW? Look at every detail of the workflow.

Could we have identified this any earlier?
Could we have priced it and made a proposal any quicker?
Could we have leveraged our customer relationships to get it processed any faster?
How many of the T&M changes could we have quantified ahead of time to accelerate the process?
Could our backup information be any clearer so that processing moves faster?
Could our contractual terms have been improved to help?

Changes and Cash Flow Improvement

Change orders are a fact of life in construction. Improve profitability, cash flow and customer satisfaction by effectively managing changes. Build a foundation for success with 12 steps to improve pricing and 11 negotiating strategies for the whole project team....

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Change Order Profit Improvement

A 10% improvement in change order pricing for a $50M per year contractor will add $500K to their bottom line. This is not about simply marking up the change more, but rather, including the many costs that are typically missed or undervalued.

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A Broader Definition of a Change on a Construction Project

The first step for contractors improving their management of changes on a project is simply earlier identification. This starts with a better definition of what a change really is, and then setting standards within your company around that definition.

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Change Orders and Average Cost Impact to the Project (Industry Survey)

Changes are a part of the construction process with many underlying causes. While we have all heard the average of 10% changes on construction projects, it is interesting to look at an industry study for validation.

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