4 Ways Clearstory Makes Pricing Exercises Faster and Easier

The New Reality of Construction Pricing

Construction projects today are more fast-paced and iterative than ever. Thanks to 3D design tools and digital collaboration, project teams can make real-time changes to maximize the value of the asset while it's still being built. While this is a huge win for owners, it puts an immense burden on General Contractors (GCs) and Specialty Contractors who are responsible for assessing the cost impact of every change.

Every time a change occurs, the GC must:

1. Review updated design documents and assess which trades are impacted.
2. Clarify any questions with the architect.
3. Distribute the change to 20+ Trade Partners.
4. Wait for responses from each trade, often following up multiple times.
5. Review each Change Order Request (COR) for validity, align with Subcontractors, and package pricing up for the owner.
6. Present pricing to the owner, address follow-up questions, and potentially send CORs back down the chain for revisions.

This process can happen hundreds of times on a single project, creating massive amounts of manual work, delays in visibility, and potential schedule risks. If owners don’t receive pricing quickly, they can’t make proactive decisions that maximize project value while there’s still time to implement changes. Slow pricing exercises also create cash flow issues for Trade Partners, push approvals to the end of the project, and cause compounding schedule delays as trades stack up on-site.

To keep projects on track, pricing must be surfaced quickly and accurately. That’s where Clearstory comes in, eliminating manual workflows and bottlenecks by standardizing the process and ensuring every pricing request is logged, tracked, and accounted for, without the inefficiencies. Here are four key ways Clearstory makes pricing exercises faster and easier:

1) Automated Change Notifications 

Instead of manually emailing trade partners, Clearstory allows GCs to send Change Notifications in just a few clicks.

• Select drawings and related documents from your project management system.
• Choose which trades are impacted.
• Set a due date for responses.
• Add any additional details about the change.
• Instantly distribute the notification to all relevant Trade Partners.

With Clearstory, every Change Notification is logged in real time, creating full transparency between all stakeholders into what’s been sent and ensuring no one is left out of the loop.

2) Real-Time Tracking of Responses

Tracking responses manually—digging through emails, spreadsheets, and PDFs—is time-consuming and inefficient. With Clearstory’s Change Notification Response Matrix, GCs get a visual dashboard that shows:

• Who has opened the Change Notification email.
• Who has downloaded any attached files.
• Who has responded with a COR.
• Who has responded with no cost impact.
• Who is still outstanding.

With the Change Notification Response Matrix, you get a bird’s-eye view of every pricing exercise, eliminating the guesswork and back-and-forth emails.

3) Streamlined Change Order Review Process

Once a subcontractor submits a Change Order Request, Clearstory makes accessing it and reviewing it effortless.

• Every response is hyperlinked in the Change Notification and the cloud-based Change Order Log.
• Click to instantly view the PDF without searching through emails or folders.
• Use Clearstory’s built-in PDF redline and markup tools to circle issues, add comments, and tag Subcontractors.
• Mark the COR as revised and resubmit, ensuring clear communication.

This process allows GCs to work rapidly through responses and avoid costly delays. By replacing fragmented spreadsheets and email chains with a single, cloud-based source of truth, Clearstory eliminates confusion, speeds approvals, and ensures nothing gets lost in the shuffle.

4) Seamless Owner Change Order Alignment

After reviewing Trade Partner responses, GCs need to package and submit pricing upstream to the owner—another point where the process becomes painfully manual. First, they must export each Change Order Request (COR) cover sheet from their system of record, then manually stitch together backup documentation from emails, PDFs, and spreadsheets.

Once compiled, the COR package needs to be saved to a folder, attached to an email, and sent to the owner. If revisions are requested—which they almost always are—the GC must go back, make edits, recompile the entire package, and resend it, repeating the cycle. With every back-and-forth, the cycle delays approvals and increases the risk of errors. With Clearstory, it all happens in seconds:

• Bulk select the CORs you want to send.
• Click one button to generate a fully formatted PDF package (no more manually stitching together cover sheets and backups).
• Submit directly into the Clearstory cloud-based Change Order Log, where owners can review and markup CORs digitally.

This removes the tedious manual work that typically bogs down the process and ensures that pricing moves upstream faster.

By using Clearstory’s automated Change Notifications, tracking responses in real time, streamlining the review process, and eliminating manual workflows, Clearstory reduces pricing cycle times from weeks or months to just days.

• Faster approvals keep projects on schedule.
• Improved cash flow provides financial stability to Trade Partners.
• Better visibility enables proactive decision-making for Owners.
• Stronger relationships benefit GCs, Subcontractors, and Owners.

With Clearstory’s real-time tracking and insights, GCs can identify slow-responding trades, set enforceable deadlines, and ensure pricing cycles don’t become the reason for costly project delays.

Keep Your Project on Track with Clearstory

By eliminating manual work and improving visibility, Clearstory makes pricing exercises faster, easier, and more transparent. The result? Faster decisions, better project outcomes, and fewer end-of-project headaches.

In a competitive market, GCs who can quickly assess, package, and submit pricing changes don’t just keep projects on track—they also build trust with owners and improve their chances of winning future work.

Want to see how it works? Schedule a demo with the Clearstory team today!