The JOC Advantage: Consistent Pricing for Every Change Order

Why “Change Orders” Often Mean Rising Costs

Do an image search for “change orders” and you’ll see a surprising number of luxury boats. There’s a reason for the joke: In traditional construction delivery, change orders often inflate project costs dramatically. When new work appears after a project begins, contractors typically add line items at higher rates — and owners have little control over the pricing.

Job Order Contracting (JOC) takes a fundamentally different approach that keeps costs consistent and transparent, even when scope changes happen.

What is Job Order Contracting?

Before we get into how change orders are handled with JOC, it’s important to understand two key aspects of the innovative project delivery system.

1. Preset Pricing via a Unit Price Book (UPB)

At the core of every JOC program is a Unit Price Book, or UPB, a catalog of detailed construction tasks with preset, competitively-bid pricing. A Unit Price Book is contractually binding, and contractors use it to all price work – both the initial scope and any additions.

2. Collaboration at every step

Job Order Contracting is a team sport following a structured framework.

• A Joint Scope Meeting brings owners, general contractors, subcontractors and other stakeholders together on-site to verify the scope and agree on how to reach the owner’s desired outcomes.
• In Gordian’s JOC model, a Gordian representative reviews every Price Proposal to ensure only necessary, accurate line items are included.
• This review process typically saves project owners an average of 6% in hard costs, while ensuring scope accuracy.
• Regular communication continues through the life of the project, strengthening collaboration and preventing misunderstandings.

With preset pricing and structured collaboration, JOC is uniquely equipped to handle scope changes without friction.

What Happens When the Scope of a JOC Project Changes?

When the unknown arises during a JOC project, the collaborative aspects of the process come to the fore. The same team that gathered for the initial Joint Scope Meeting reconvenes, scopes and prices the new work using the same UPB, and the owner pays exactly what they would have paid if the work had been included from day one — no markups, no negotiation.

Here’s a rundown of the process:

1. A new on‑site Joint Scope Meeting is held for the added work.
2. Contractors price the added tasks using the original Unit Price Book.
3. Gordian reviews the Price Proposal for accuracy and necessity.
4. The owner receives and approves an updated proposal.
5. A Supplemental Job Order (JOC’s version of a change order) is issued.

True to the nature of Job Order Contracting, pricing is consistent, transparent and driven by the original contract terms.

What Happens When the Scope of a JOC Project Gets Reduced?

Scope reductions are rare — and they won’t buy anyone a boat — but they do happen. Here’s how JOC handles them:

• If the owner has not yet paid the invoice, they receive credits against the final amount due.
• If the invoice has already been paid, the owner may request a refund or apply the credit to a future Job Order.

Either way, the process remains transparent and fair.

Gordian has been implementing and overseeing Job Order Contracting programs for decades. Check out the best practices we’ve developed along the way.

Scope Changes Made Easy

Between transparent preset pricing and intentional collaboration, Job Order Contracting makes changing a project’s scope painless. When the unexpected inevitably occurs, project owners know that changes will be documented, costs will stay under control and progress will continue without an unexpected price escalation.