Subcontract Change Orders handle increases and decreases to a subcontract (Purchase Order). They're created as child records linked to a parent Change Request. For broader subcontract setup and billing, see Subcontract Management.
Like the rest of the change order tools, the Subcontract Change Request screen is available in English and French, following each user's NetSuite language preference. See Change Order Management for more on language support.
For a Purchase Order to appear in the subcontract change order workflow, it must have:
If a PO isn't showing up, these three are the first things to check.
The vendor list on a new Subcontract Change Request follows the same idea: a vendor appears in the Select Vendor dropdown only when it has at least one Purchase Order marked as a BlueCollar Subcontract and tagged to the project. If the vendor you expect is missing from that list, check its PO first.
The grid shows each line's rate, original and current units/amounts, the change you're proposing, and the resulting New Current Units / New Current Value. Long item names and descriptions truncate neatly with an ellipsis, with the full text shown in a tooltip on hover — so wordy scope descriptions stay readable without stretching the grid.
You can add a new line directly from the Subcontract Change Request — the same way the contract change order works:
The item picker offers both For Purchase and For Resale items, so resale-flagged materials on a subcontract can be adjusted like any other line. The Add New Line window itself can be dragged by its header and resized, with the item list resizing to match — helpful when you're browsing a long catalog.
Alternative — add the line on the Purchase Order: you can also add the line directly on the PO if you prefer. Click the Related Subcontract link to open the Purchase Order, click Edit, add the line (Line # incremented from the last number, Rate set to the change amount, and Original Units, Original Amount, Quantity, and Amount set to $0), Save, then return to the Subcontract Change Request to adjust it.
When you Save lines on the Subcontract tab, any change request budget items that do not yet exist for the lines' cost code and account combinations are created for you, and the message "Change Request Budget Items created successfully." confirms it. There is no prompt asking whether to add them, and Save no longer waits for the cost code and account combinations to finish loading, so saving a long change request is quicker.
Lines with a $0 amount are fully supported — including new PO lines with both quantity and amount of zero — and a Subcontract Change Request containing $0 lines approves cleanly. This is useful when you need a no-cost scope change or a placeholder line documented on the subcontract. As a safeguard, any line with zero quantity but a non-zero proposed change is highlighted in red, and saving brings up a warning listing those lines so you can confirm they're intentional before proceeding.
Once the changes are entered and reviewed, click Approve to update the Purchase Order's line quantities and amounts. You are asked to confirm first: "Approve Subcontract Change Request: Are you sure you want to approve the subcontract change request?"
If any line uses a Cost Code / Cost Type combination that is not yet on the project's budget, what happens next depends on the project's Unlock Budget setting in the BlueCollar Project Advanced Preferences (see Project Budget Overview):
This keeps subcontract costs from landing on cost codes the budget does not know about, and on projects with Unlock Budget turned on it saves a separate trip to the budget screen.
An approved Subcontract Change Request can be unapproved. Unapproving reverses the Purchase Order updates — line quantities and amounts roll back, and any PO lines the change request added are removed entirely rather than left behind as zeroed lines — and the record returns to Pending Approval. That means you can back out a subcontract change that was approved too early and get the Purchase Order back to exactly its prior state. See Unapproving an Approved Change Order for how this works for contract change orders too.
A subcontract change order for a landscaping subcontractor:
| Line | Description | Cost Code | Type | Original | Proposed Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #10 | Mobilization | 01510-01 Removal | Lump Sum | $8,000 | +$2,500 |
| #11 | Clearing | 01510-01 Removal | Unit Rate ($7.50/LF) | $15,750 (2,100 LF) | +$1,875 (250 LF) |
Total proposed increase: $4,375.00