A subcontractor's sheet that looks nothing like yours
To cover a busy period, or sites a long way from your base, you use a handful of subcontract engineers. They do good work, but each sends records their own way. One uses their own certificate template. One sends a photo of a handwritten sheet. One sends nothing until you chase. Your office rewrites their records into your format before anything goes to the customer.
Meanwhile, a subcontractor's insurance expired last month, and nobody noticed until a customer's facilities manager asked for a copy.
Why subcontractor records are uneven
Subcontractors run their own businesses and have their own ways of working. Unless you give them a simple tool, you get whatever they use.
- Subcontractors do not have access to your job system.
- Records arrive in their format, sometimes on their own letterhead.
- Site information, such as panel details and last findings, is sent by email, if at all.
- Insurance, qualification and certification documents are collected once and not tracked.
- Payment to subcontractors is based on their invoices, which may not match what your records show.
What competence and documents you require of subcontractors is for your business and the schemes you work under to decide. We build the tools to collect and track them.
What uneven records cost
Rewriting records takes office time and delays certificates to customers. Customers who receive inconsistent documents lose confidence. Expired documents can put you in an awkward position with customers who expect your subcontractors to be covered. And paying subcontractors becomes a reconciliation exercise.
One form, one standard, and a document check
We build a subcontractor route into your systems that gives them what they need and gets back what you need.
- Subcontractors get a login to a limited version of your engineer app on their own phones, showing only the visits assigned to them.
- Each visit includes the site pack: system details, access notes and last visit's findings.
- They complete the same visit form your own engineers use, so records come back in your format, with defects and photos in the right place.
- Certificates are generated from their records in your layout, for your review before sending to the customer.
- Each subcontractor has a document record: insurance, qualifications and any certifications you require, with expiry dates. Reminders go to them before expiry, and visits cannot be assigned if a required document has lapsed.
- Completed visits produce a statement for each subcontractor, which they can check against their invoice.
| Area | Today | With the subcontractor route |
|---|---|---|
| Visit information | Emailed, if remembered | Site pack on their phone |
| Visit record | Their own format | Your form, your format |
| Certificates | Rewritten in the office | Generated from their record |
| Documents | Collected once | Tracked with expiry reminders |
| Payment | Invoice versus memory | Statement from completed visits |
A cover week with the subcontractor route
During a busy fortnight, you assign twenty visits to two subcontractors. Each sees their visits and site packs on their phone. Records come back in your format, defects feed your quote queue, and certificates are generated for your review. One subcontractor's insurance is due to expire; they received a reminder a month earlier and uploaded the renewed document, so nothing blocks their visits. At the end of the fortnight each receives a statement, and their invoices match.
Keeping the standard without micromanaging
Subcontractors are independent businesses, and most do not want to be managed like employees. The form does not tell them how to do the work. It asks for the information your certificates and customers need, in the order your records need it, and nothing more. Where a subcontractor records something unusual, such as a variation or a system change, it is flagged for your technical lead to look at before the certificate is issued, just as it would be for your own engineers.
What changes
Customers receive consistent records regardless of who attended. The office stops rewriting. Documents stay current without a chasing campaign. Subcontractors get paid without disputes. And you can use subcontractors more flexibly, knowing the records will come back right.
Is this how your subcontractors work?
- Subcontractor records arrive in different formats.
- Your office rewrites subcontractor records before sending them.
- Subcontractor documents are not tracked against expiry.
- Subcontractors do not see site information before visits.
- Paying subcontractors needs reconciliation.