How do I handle change orders?

[bkpr913]

I have been setting up separate job numbers for each change order to a project, but this seems to be getting out of hand. The employees only know the main job number (entered on time sheets, purchase orders, etc.) so I have no way of knowing which change order the item (time, expense, purchase) should be charged to.

Question: Should I be using sales orders for each job, one for each change order/purchase order against the main job? This helps in the invoicing end, but I would have to keep changing the amount of revenue and expenses for the job as change orders are added, right?

Any suggestions as to how anyone out there keeps track of job costs would be very much appreciated!

[bluegal]

Peachtree for Windows is sadly lacking in the job cost module (even the old DOS version had a change order report). I tend to want all of the costs in one job file because there's no way we could separate the main and change order costs as we go along either.

I just keep changing the revenue amounts and units for each phase to equal the new contract amount, and keep a log in a spreadsheet of the original units and revenue amounts and each change order added. I would guess that creating Sales Orders for each job is going to make your database that much larger... Maybe someone else has found a better method?

[bkpr913]

This seems like double work to me, but I haven't figured out a way to have all the invoicing info available (customer P.O., number of items, prices, rates, shipping address, etc.) from the job file. So I've entered the job again as a sales order(s) so that it pops up when I invoice the customer. I haven't dealt with the "job" and "sales order" modules long enough to see what works best, thus the inquiry of all you other Peachtree users.

It seems dangerous to keep changing the revenue and units amounts for each job as a change order comes in; unless, like you, you keep the changes in a spreadsheet, you'd likely lose track of which ones were included. There HAS to be a better way . . . .?????