Docs

Change orders

Add extra work to a card council already approved, and vote only on what it adds.

Council only

Updated

What it is

A change order is extra work, at extra cost, on a card that's already under way: a contractor opens a wall and finds more to fix, or the scope grows. Council approved the original work, so it should only vote on what the change adds.

In Pleno a change order turns the card into a project. The card's own work and its council approval stay as they are, the extra work becomes a new item in the project, and council votes on that item through the usual project vote: a budget increase for the difference, or an add-to-project vote when it fits in what's left.

What you can do

  1. Open the card and choose Add as change order… from its menu.
  2. Enter what the extra work is, what it costs, and a note if you like. The note becomes the new item's description.
  3. Before anything is saved, the dialog says what will happen: that the card becomes a project and keeps the amount its council vote approved, and what council will vote on, such as "a budget increase from $18,500 to $22,600 ($4,100 more)".
  4. Choose Add and open the vote. In one step, the card becomes a project (if it isn't one already), the extra work is added as a new item in Planning, and the vote opens. Voters get the vote email, which links straight to the vote.

When the vote passes, the new item is approved as part of the project, and the project's approved total goes up by the difference.

How the card's approval carries over

A project's approved total is only ever an amount council voted.

  • A card vote is for the card's quoted cost when the vote is requested, the amount in the vote email. The cost is locked until the vote is decided, so a passed vote approves exactly that amount. Editing the cost afterwards doesn't change what was approved.
  • When that card becomes a project, from Add as change order or from Turn into project, the amount becomes the project's approved total. The card's quoted cost becomes the project's own costs, which count as approved work, so council isn't asked to approve the original work again.
  • A card put to a vote with no quoted cost has a vote with no amount.
  • For a vote that passed before Pleno kept this amount (October 2026), Pleno worked out the card's quoted cost on the day the vote passed from the card's history. If the card had no cost then, or its history can't say, the vote has no amount.
  • A card with no passed vote, a card whose last vote was rejected, or one whose vote has no amount has nothing to carry over. It becomes a project that isn't approved yet, and the change order opens a vote on the whole project: its own costs and every item, as for any new project. The dialog says so before you add it.
  • The project's Items tab says when its approved total came from the card's own council approval.

Who can do it

Admins (president, VP, delegated PM): the same people who request project votes. Not during the 90-day read-only overlap after a term ends, and not during a Pleno support session.

Limits and things to know

  • Open cards only: Planning, In progress or On hold. A draft has to be reviewed first, a Done card has to move back to In progress, and an archived card can't take a change order.
  • Not on a project's item: add the change order to its project instead.
  • One open vote at a time: if a vote is already open on the card, wait until it's decided, or cancel it, first.
  • Amounts are stored as you enter them. Pleno doesn't add tax: enter the amount council should approve, and mention GST in the note if that helps.
  • Contingency is only part of a project's first vote, so a change order on an approved card asks for exactly the new item's cost. If approved work has already cost more than was approved, the budget increase covers that too, as any budget increase does.
  • If the vote can't open, for example because another item in the project has no cost yet, nothing is added and Pleno says why. If something changed at the same moment, the new item is taken back; a card that was turned into a project stays one. If another admin opened a vote on the project at that moment and it already covers the new item, the change order is added and covered by that vote, and Pleno says so.
  • Votes are cast in Pleno. A reply to an email is never counted as a vote.
  • The installed mobile app doesn't have Add as change order; use a browser.