In commercial construction, there’s what the contract says—and then there’s what really happens. Scope shifts. Owners make changes. Unforeseen conditions have popped up. It’s no wonder change orders can account for up to 30% of a specialty contractor’s annual revenue. Yet the process for tracking and approving them often feels like it’s stuck in the dark ages.
To better understand how these challenges are playing out across the trades, Clearstory surveyed more than 100 specialty contractors nationwide—firms ranging from $10 million to over $100 million in annual revenue, representing sectors such as drywall, ACT, mechanical, electrical and roofing. The results revealed a system under strain. Despite smartphones being nearly universal in the field, 97% of contractors still rely on paper tickets to track field-directed work on a time and material (T&M) basis.
Some firms reported losing as much as 36% of T&M tickets before they ever reached pricing, while many teams spend upwards of ten hours a week chasing signatures and follow-ups on T&M tickets and outstanding change order requests (CORs). Taken together, the findings show an industry grappling with outdated processes that slow payment cycles, create preventable disputes, and erode margins at the moment contractors can at least afford it.
What emerges from the data is not just a story about inefficient, manual workflow but a systemic challenge that affects financial stability, project delivery, and long-term partnerships. More than 70% of respondents said delays or errors in change order handling directly impacted their cash flow, two-thirds reported project delays tied to change orders, and 62% said strained negotiations had damaged their relationships with general contractors.
Two Versions of the Truth
One of the core challenges is that contractors and their general contractor partners are rarely working from the same set of records. Specialty contractors often maintain their own change order logs, typically in Excel or as exports from financial software, while general contractors track theirs in an ERP system or a project financial platform. Without synchronization, these records inevitably diverge.
A specialty contractor’s log may show a COR as pending, while the GC’s system lists it as approved or even rejected. This disconnect is far from trivial. The survey found that more than two-thirds of subcontractors said their change order logs were at least occasionally out of alignment with their general contractor’s records. That misalignment feeds directly into forecasting, where nearly 60% of specialty contractors said they were actively monitoring logs to keep projections accurate, yet fewer than nine percent claimed to have complete visibility into pending revenue.
For trades where a third of annual revenue can be tied to change orders, a lack of visibility creates unnecessary risk.
For trades where a third of annual revenue can be tied to change orders, a lack of visibility creates unnecessary risk. When firms are forecasting revenue they cannot reliably collect, cash shortfalls and disputes are almost inevitable.
Paper, Revisions and Lost Dollars
Compounding the misalignment is the industry’s continued reliance on paper-based processes. At first glance, a handwritten tag may seem harmless, but the consequences ripple through the revenue chain.
Paper T&M tickets are easily misplaced, misread, or delayed. For some contractors surveyed, up to 36% of tickets never make it from the field to the office, representing real billable work that never finds its way into a priced change order. Even when tickets arrive, incomplete descriptions or missing photos mean rejection is common. The data shows that as many as 38% of submissions are rejected for missing documentation, and half are rejected when submitted late.
These failures extend timelines as well. More than half of contractors reported that it takes between 8 and 14 days to convert a signed ticket into a priced change order, while nearly a third said the process takes fifteen to 30 days. These delays are not administrative inconveniences; they are financial liabilities. When the process of turning field work into revenue is slowed by weeks, contractors are left financing labor and material costs out of pocket, straining liquidity and heightening risk.
The revision process adds another layer of complexity. Seventy percent of contractors said most change orders go through three to four rounds of revision before they are approved. Each round introduces another cycle of review, comment, and resubmission, adding weeks of delay and increasing the chance of dispute. In Clearstory’s companion survey of general contractors, more than ninety percent reported that processing delays on Change Orders can stretch project closeout by one to 12 months, with nearly half estimating four to six months. The evidence shows that revision churn is not an occasional frustration but a painful reality across the industry.
When the administrative process of securing fair payment undermines the professional relationships on which future work depends, the costs compound.
For wall and ceiling contractors, the impact is particularly acute. Projects often involve rapid sequencing and tight coordination with other trades, making delays in approval especially disruptive. When approvals lag while field work proceeds, contractors face the double risk of strained schedules and uncertain cash flow. In many cases, firms are effectively financing portions of projects themselves, waiting months for payment that should have been authorized within weeks.
Cash Flow and the Human Factor
The financial consequences are clear. More than three-quarters of contractors said that approval delays affect cash flow at least occasionally, and more than 70% said poor processing practices directly harmed their liquidity. Contractors are forecasting revenue that they may not see for months, or in some cases, may never see at all. The study found that even modest ticket loss rates of five to ten percent equate to tens of thousands—or even millions—of dollars in annual revenue foregone. For a mid-sized contractor with $50 million in annual revenue, a five percent loss represents $2.5 million that never reaches the ledger.
But the story is not only about balance sheets. The human impact of broken processes is equally significant. Thirty-nine percent of contractors said that Change Order and T&M ticket workflows were a frequent source of stress for their teams, and nearly 30% reported losing employees who cited administrative headaches as a factor in their decision to leave.
Field teams, frustrated by paperwork that never seems to move, become less motivated to capture the detailed documentation required. Office staff, overwhelmed by chasing signatures and reconciling logs, become reactive rather than strategic. General contractor partners, often surprised by the timing or content of a Change Order, see trust erode. In fact, nearly half of specialty contractors acknowledged that delays or inconsistencies in their own submissions had harmed relationships with general contractors.
This erosion of trust has implications beyond a single project. In an industry where repeat business is critical, strained relationships translate directly into lost opportunities. When the administrative process of securing fair payment undermines the professional relationships on which future work depends, the costs compound.
A Way Forward
The message from the field is clear: the old way is not working. Yet the data also points toward a path forward. Contractors who are rethinking the process are making three notable shifts. First, they are capturing and documenting work in real time, using digital tickets with photos, scope notes and electronic signatures to eliminate the risk of lost or incomplete paperwork.
Second, they are embracing shared, cloud-based change order logs that keep subcontractors and general contractors aligned on status, revisions, and approvals. By maintaining a single source of truth, these logs prevent surprises and accelerate approvals.
Third, they are submitting standardized, complete packages that reduce the rejection rates tied to missing documentation and pricing disputes. These steps do not eliminate the need for ERPs or project management systems, but they do close the workflow gaps those systems were never designed to handle. By aligning the field, the office, and the general contractor in real time, they replace friction with clarity. The result is faster approvals, fewer disputes, stronger relationships, and healthier cash flow.
For wall and ceiling contractors, the stakes could not be higher. Change orders and T&M work remain a critical share of revenue, yet they are managed with tools and processes that cannot keep pace. The research is unequivocal: paper tickets, revision churn, and siloed logs are draining profitability, undermining relationships, and burning out teams. The firms that succeed in the coming years will be those that move beyond legacy practices and embrace systems that deliver transparency, standardization, and real-time collaboration.
The industry is at a turning point. The choice is between continuing to absorb the financial and human costs of outdated workflows or rethinking the change order process in ways that protect margin, accelerate payment and strengthen partnerships. For many wall and ceiling contractors, the path forward begins with something deceptively simple: ensuring that everyone is finally looking at the same COR log.
Cameron Page, Founder and CEO of Clearstory. With a decade of project management experience, Cameron recognized the pressing need for improved, real-time change order collaboration in construction. This ignited the innovative idea behind Clearstory. Equipped with a Construction Management degree from Cal Poly SLO and LEED AP certification, Cameron’s expertise and unwavering passion drive Clearstory’s mission to revolutionize construction management.
