Changes and subcontractors

When scope, schedule, or budget drifts beyond tolerance, PM drafts a change order with amount delta, hours delta, date delta. The CO routes for internal approval (Practice Lead → Services Leader over threshold), then to the client via a client approval. On client approval, Project baseline updates: Contract value, budget hours, budget cost, and/or end date shift.

Subcontractors log time entries under their PO; those entries auto-accumulate against not to exceed hours and not to exceed amount with early-warning alerts. Subcontractor submits subcontractor invoices, which are matched against the PO and approved hours. On Matched → Approved, the invoice enters the AP payment queue via the GL integration.

PM creates resource requests for each Role needed, with required skills, dates, and allocation %. Requests go to the Resource Manager, who searches available Consultants matching Role + Skills + utilization target, proposes candidates, and on confirmation creates resource assignments (Status: Soft → Confirmed → Active). Assignments snapshot the effective bill rate. Where internal capacity is short, a subcontractor PO is issued (routed for approval per firm’s delegation-of-authority matrix) and the sub is added as a resource assignment with Subcontractor set.

A supplier invoice should identify the approved subcontractor PO and its project. Compare the claimed hours and amount with approved time and the not-to-exceed commitment. Keep a mismatch in a reviewable state instead of passing it directly to Accounts. The supplier can submit evidence within its own scope, but cannot approve the commitment or another supplier’s charge.

Scope changes can affect the commercial baseline and staffing at the same time. Record those effects in change orders and route the request under the configured threshold. The internal signer is the Practice Lead or Services Leader / COO required by policy, followed by the named client where client acceptance is required. Apply the baseline change once after the full decision chain has completed.

An interrupted retry must return the original update. It must not add the amount or hours delta again. Preserve the previous baseline and decision identifiers so a reviewer can explain the difference between the original engagement, the accepted change and the current purchase-order commitment.

• Open Change Orders — Track proposed commercial changes and the decisions still required before the baseline changes.