A bulletin is how the architect issues a formal design revision after the contract documents are set. It usually includes revised drawing sheets (clouded and tagged with a delta and revision number), updated specification sections, and a narrative describing what changed. Bulletins are numbered in sequence, and they’re often paired with a request for the contractor to submit pricing, sometimes on AIA G709 (proposal request).
Bulletins often come out of owner program changes, code review comments, coordination problems, value engineering or answers to RFIs that need more than a sketch. The contractor and subs review each revised sheet, identify what changed in scope, and price the difference as a potential change order. If the owner accepts the price, it becomes a change order.
Why it matters
Bulletins can touch dozens of sheets and many trades at once. If the team doesn’t catch every change, scope gets built without being priced, or old sheets stay in the field and the wrong thing gets built. Pricing a big bulletin also takes real time from subs, and the schedule impact needs to be included along with the cost.
Common mistakes
- Pricing only the clouded changes when un-clouded changes are also on the sheet.
- Leaving superseded sheets in the field set.
- Sending a bulletin to subs without a clear pricing deadline.
- Pricing cost but not schedule impact.
- Building bulletin work before the change is approved, without a directive.
How os.construction handles it
We’re building bulletins that open a change event, link the revised sheets, and roll each sub’s pricing into a potential change order on the same record. It’s in development.