The Builder Whose Change Orders Went to Die

Kevin approved the work. His invoices didn't get the memo.

Client: Kevin
Industry: Custom Home Building
Annual Revenue: $4.1 million
Service: Fractional Controller + Change Order Systems + Buildertrend Integration

The Problem

Kevin built beautiful custom homes in the $800K-$1.2M range. His clients were thrilled. His project managers were organized. His Buildertrend was immaculate.

His QuickBooks? That was a different story.

Jobs that should have been home runs kept coming in thin. Not disasters—just... underwhelming. Kevin assumed it was material price increases eating his margins. He figured it would work itself out.

It didn't.

When we audited his active projects, we found the culprit: change orders were going to Buildertrend to die.

PMs were approving changes in the field—cabinet upgrades, electrical additions, "while you're here can you also..." requests—but those approvals weren't making it to invoices. The work got done. The billing didn't.

Kevin had $67,200 in approved-but-never-invoiced change orders scattered across five active projects.

That's not a rounding error. That's a luxury truck.

What We Fixed

Implemented Weekly Change Order Reconciliation

Every Friday, we run a report comparing approved change orders in Buildertrend against invoiced amounts in QuickBooks. If something's approved but not billed, it gets flagged before the weekend. Not discovered at project closeout. Not written off as "we probably already billed that."

Actually Synced Buildertrend to QuickBooks

Kevin thought his systems were connected. They were not. We built a proper integration so field approvals flow directly into the invoicing queue. When a PM clicks "approve," the back office knows about it before lunch.

Built an Unbilled Work Dashboard

Kevin now has a single screen showing all approved-but-unbilled work across every active project. If revenue is sitting in Buildertrend waiting to become an invoice, it shows up here. No digging. No surprises.

The Financial Impact

We recovered $67,200 in the first 90 days—change orders that were already approved, already completed, just never billed. Kevin had earned that money. He'd just forgotten to collect it.

The system now prevents future leakage. Change order billing lag dropped from an average of 31 days to under 5 days. On Kevin's volume, that improvement captures roughly $18,000/year that would have otherwise slipped through the cracks.

Kevin also used his newly accurate job cost data to analyze his allowance pricing. Turns out, he'd been eating cabinet and appliance upgrade costs for years—covering overages instead of billing them.

A tighter allowance structure added approximately $24,000 in annual gross profit on selections. No client complaints. Most didn't even notice.

The ROI

First-Year Financial Results:

• Recovered unbilled change orders: $67,200

• Allowance structure correction: ~$24,000

• Ongoing leakage prevention: ~$18,000

Total measurable impact: ~$109,200

Investment: $3,500/month × 12 months = $42,000

Result: 2.6× ROI in year one.

The Takeaway

Kevin didn't have a sales problem. He had a "remembering to send invoices" problem.

Change orders are easy to approve in the field. They're also easy to forget by the time you're back at your desk. A simple weekly check turned a silent profit killer into recovered revenue—and a system that keeps it from happening again.

Kevin's still building beautiful homes. Now he's getting paid for all of them.

How Much Revenue Is Hiding in Your Project Management System?

If you're a custom home builder using Buildertrend, CoConstruct, or another PM platform, there's a good chance you have approved work that never made it to an invoice.

Schedule a free 30-minute Profit Leak Assessment →

We'll help you find out—and show you how to plug the leak permanently.

Salisbury Bookkeeping helps home builders connect their field operations to their financial systems. Our construction-specific approach ensures every approved change order becomes an invoice—automatically.