does cost of change order include GC's overhead and profit?
603,604 of ballast ce exam indicate that contract sum change due to allowence to actuall construction cost change only include material and labor .
A201 3.8.2 says Contractor’s costs for unloading and handling at the site, labor, installation costs, overhead, profit, and other expenses contemplated for stated allowance amounts shall be included in the Contract Sum but not in the allowances.
my understanding from a201 is that contract sum change would include GC's overhead and profit .
see below , answer is B (is C correct too?)
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Rubi,
Admittedly I'm a little confused by the answer myself so I'll let others chime in on whether or not overhead and profit should be included (which I gotta tell you, I sure as hell thought that answer was "yes - it should be included" but according the what you are saying the correct answer is here, it is not). I wanted to offer to you though that the AIA Contract portion you have provided is for allowances, not Change Orders. Different thing. you are referring to the wrong part of the AIA Contract. Allowances are not Change Orders. Allowances are a set amount of money that one includes in a bid for an item whose quantity and/or design is to be included in the job but is not finalized in the drawings. One example could be door hardware.
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David Kaplan the allowence part of A201 i refered is actually for the question before the change order one , but again one of the answer saying change to contract sum is material+labor+profit which seem to fit into 3.8.2.2 . but the answer is wrong .
I am not sure this is just an error or I misunderstood the contract. ( below a is the correct answer)
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604 and 603 are a little different.
For question 604, the GC already took the labor, overhead and profit into account when sending the bid, because he know there was a desk to install, whether cheap or expensive. So the cost of the desk itself wont affect GC's labor, overhead and profit.
I will let others to answer for question 603, but I tend to say C is correct.
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For 603, how are you able to answer if you don’t know what the original construct sum was? The only way A could be correct is if you disregarded the language in the A201 about allowances. If labor is included in the allowance then you’d also have to include the $300 to install on site which would make the answer B. Something is off here...
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Not completely sure about this, however after reading through the question #603 two times step-by-step ~ (likely not what would happen in the actual exam scenario) I believe the answer would be (D).
Here is what I came up with:
- The Allowance = $5000, (this is an allowance by definition "each contractor instructed to include") it is assume to be a component of the total cost of the project w/o/ question.
- The invoice from Meridian Millwork Company = $7767.25 as provided (does not include contractors overhead and profit rate of 15%). So, this will need to be applied at the end.
- The question goes on to state that two workers worked to install the custom desk three hours at a rate of $50.00 / hour = (2 workers) x (($50 / hr)/3 hrs) = $300.00
- Finally the total = $7767.25 + $300.00 = $8067.25 + (15% overhead & profit) = $9277.33 - $5000 = $4277.34 ~ (answer D).
Ballast sometimes as you are aware does have questions that are more detailed (intentionally designed to help). This question actually could show up on the CE exam. IF it did and I didn't have time to give it enough thought I'd either flag it, or guess and move on. Hope this helps.
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Hello everyone,
Just leaving this comment here so anyone referring to this in future has a proper source to look at for the correct response. (just spent 1 hour confused in this section, so substantiated my understanding by some research)When I read both the questions, I did select the answers highlighted.
For change orders, refer to section 7.3.8 of A201 on how to prepare for amount. Even though it is for CCD, we can apply for change order as well since a CCD after approval from all becomes a change order and is mostly used in absence of one.If that is still not satiating, then here is a link from AIA explaining why we choose Net decrease vs add overhead and profit during increase in amount.
https://www.aiacontracts.org/articles/6535513-contractors-overhead-and-profit-on-deduct
For the allowance question my thought process was, the contractor has already included his labor + profit in the base bid per A201 3.8.2 section. He is receiving a finished product from a manufacturer which costs 7767.25. The allowance for this finished furniture product was set at $5000. So the difference in estimate and actual would be recorded as change order.
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Divyang, the AIA link you posted is really helpful. Thank you! Another link I found helpful for this thread is:
https://learn.aiacontracts.com/articles/6529593-construction-contracting-basics-allowances/
Regarding the Allowance question, A201 §3.8.2.2 clearly states contractor's profit/overhead is included in the contract sum NOT the allowance. However, §3.8.2.3 also states if the actual costs are different from the allowance, the change order should include BOTH the difference between the actual cost & the allowance AND changes in contractor's cost. This says to me contractor's cost also gets added to the change order, but only if there is a change.
IN THIS CASE, I'm in agreement with Divyang. The contractor knew he had to install 1 to-be-designed reception desk when he bidded the project. He still only has 1 reception desk to install now -- yes it is a more expensive desk, but it's still a normal reception desk based on the itemized list with no unexpected features and the GC's cost to install it shouldn't change.
If, for example, the allowance is exceeded because instead of 1 reception desk the owner decided to have 2 smaller reception desks, and they will take longer to install than what GC had anticipated, or if the price difference is because the owner decided to add a ton of lead to the reception desk, making it impossible for GC to move unless they rent special equipment, then the additional labor + profit should be added to the change order. (This is purely based on logic and the language of the contract. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong).
AIA A201 expert:
§ 3.8.2 Unless otherwise provided in the Contract Documents,
- allowances shall cover the cost to the Contractor of materials and equipment delivered at the site and all required taxes, less applicable trade discounts;
- Contractor’s costs for unloading and handling at the site, labor, installation costs, overhead, profit, and other expenses contemplated for stated allowance amounts shall be included in the Contract Sum but not in the allowances; and
- whenever costs are more than or less than allowances, the Contract Sum shall be adjusted accordingly by Change Order. The amount of the Change Order shall reflect (1) the difference between actual costs and the allowances under Section 3.8.2.1 and (2) changes in Contractor’s costs under Section 3.8.2.2.
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