Clauses · FAR · Administration and definitions
FAR 52.243-1 Changes-Fixed-Price
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
There is no flow-down mandate anywhere in the clause or in FAR Part 43 — Part 43 as read on 2026-08-05 contains no sentence directing a prime to insert any Changes clause in a subcontract. Primes flow it down as pure back-to-back mirroring: when the Government issues a change order under the prime contract, the prime needs a matching unilateral right against the sub, or it absorbs the scope and schedule shift alone. Read the flowed-down version closely, because it is almost never the FAR text: BAE's USGovA flow-down replaces paragraph (a) outright with 'BAE SYSTEMS Procurement Representative may ... direct changes ... (iv) reasonable adjustments in quantities or delivery schedules or both ... Contractor shall comply immediately with such direction' — a unilateral right to change QUANTITY that the Government itself does not hold under the FAR clause.
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition AUG 1987 (Basic; Alternates I, II, III, IV and V all APR 1984) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Nothing to send now
It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.
A written assertion of the right to an equitable adjustment within 30 days of receiving the written change order, and a separate charge number from the day it lands so the changed-work labor, material and disruption cost is segregated and provable
FAR 52.243-1(c)
When it is used
FAR 43.205(a)(1): insert in solicitations and contracts when a fixed-price contract for SUPPLIES is contemplated. No dollar threshold in 43.205(a) and no small-business exception. The requirement type picks the alternate, not whether the clause applies: services without supplies = Alt I (43.205(a)(2)); services with supplies = Alt II (43.205(a)(3)); architect-engineer or other professional services = Alt III (43.205(a)(4)); transportation services = Alt IV (43.205(a)(5)); research and development = Alt V. Commercial acquisitions do not use this clause at all — FAR Part 12 supplies its own changes regime at 52.212-4(c), which is BILATERAL ('Changes in the terms and conditions of this contract may be made only by written agreement of the parties'). Note that 52.212-4(c) is not on the 12.302(b) no-tailoring list, so a prime can and does try to tailor it away.
Read closely
(e) makes a failure to agree on the adjustment a dispute and excuses nobody from proceeding, so the changed work is performed on receipt of the order. Nothing in the clause pays for work directed orally or by conduct, and under (d) the buyer decides what happens to property the change makes obsolete or excess. Flowed-down versions often are not the regulation's text — one prime's template gives itself a unilateral right to change quantities that the Government does not hold.
Alternates
Alt I · APR 1984
FAR 43.205(a)(2) — if the requirement is for services and no supplies are to be furnished.
Alt I substitutes paragraph (a) for a services-only requirement — description of services, time of performance, place of performance — so it moves what may be changed, not what a change entitles you to or the paper that preserves it.
Alt II · APR 1984
FAR 43.205(a)(3) — if the requirement is for services and supplies are to be furnished.
Alt II substitutes paragraph (a) with the services and supplies categories combined; it lengthens the list of changeable things while the 30-day assertion and the segregated cost record stay the basic clause's.
Alt III · APR 1984
FAR 43.205(a)(4) — if the requirement is for architect-engineer or other professional services.
Alt III does two things where the other alternates do one: it substitutes paragraph (a) for an architect-engineer or other professional services requirement, and it adds a paragraph (f) barring self-help, which puts a piece of paper somebody else has to issue in front of the work.
The 3 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.243-1, FAR 43.205(a), FAR Part 43 (whole part, checked for subcontract language), FAR 52.212-4(c) and FAR 12.302(b); acquisition.gov FAR Overhaul model-deviation announcement of 2025-06-12 and GSA class deviation RFO-2025-43 (verified 2026-08-05)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.