Three subcontractors, three kinds of report
When your patch grows beyond your own engineers, or a new contract lands in an area you do not cover, you bring in subcontract engineers. They are often experienced people running their own small businesses. They know the work. What they do not know is your report layout, your client's asset list or the way your office files things.
So jobs go out by email with a spreadsheet attached. Reports come back as a scanned sheet, a photo of a notebook, their own PDF with their own logo, or a list of readings in the body of an email. Your administrator retypes all of it into your format before it can go to the client. Their invoice arrives separately, sometimes for visits you cannot yet see a report for.
Why subcontracted work creates double handling
- Subcontractors have no access to your site asset lists or report templates.
- Job instructions travel by email and get lost in their inboxes.
- Evidence comes back in whatever format is quickest for them.
- You cannot see progress until the paperwork arrives.
- Invoices are checked against memory rather than completed jobs.
- Their insurance and competence documents expire without anyone noticing.
None of this is the subcontractor being difficult. They are working for several firms, each with its own habits, and the path of least resistance is their own paperwork.
The cost of retyping someone else's work
Office time goes into converting reports. Client reports for subcontracted sites arrive later than for your own. Errors creep in during conversion. Invoices get paid for work that is incomplete, or queried for work that was done but not yet reported.
And your client does not care who did the visit. They see your name on the report, so the quality of subcontracted paperwork is your reputation.
A portal that gives subcontractors your tools
- Each subcontractor gets a login to a portal, limited to the jobs you assign them.
- Jobs arrive as packs: site address, access notes, contact details, the asset list, the tasks due and any RAMS or induction requirements.
- They complete the visit on the same mobile form your own engineers use, so the report is in your format from the start.
- Samples they take go into your sample register with your IDs.
- Completed jobs are reviewed by your office before the report reaches the client.
- Their invoices are submitted in the portal against completed jobs, so you only approve what has been done and reviewed.
- Their insurance, competence cards and other documents are uploaded with expiry dates, and jobs cannot be assigned if something required has lapsed.
| Stage | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Job issued | Email with attachment | Job pack in portal |
| Visit recorded | Their own sheet | Your form, your asset list |
| Report to client | Retyped by office | Generated after review |
| Invoice | Emailed, checked by memory | Matched to reviewed jobs |
| Documents | Folder, checked occasionally | Expiry tracked, assignment blocked if lapsed |
What your office does instead
Your administrator reviews subcontracted reports rather than rewriting them. Planning sees subcontractor jobs alongside your own engineers' work, with status. Accounts approve invoices that are already matched to completed jobs. The client receives reports that look the same whoever did the visit.
Good subcontractors tend to like it too: they get clear instructions, one place for all your jobs, and invoices that are not held up by missing paperwork.
Picture a new contract in a region your own team does not reach. You assign twenty sites to a subcontractor through the portal. Each job pack already contains the asset lists imported during onboarding. As visits are completed, reports arrive in your queue in your format, and the client portal shows them once reviewed. At month end the subcontractor's invoice lists only the reviewed jobs, and accounts approve it in one pass.
Signs subcontracting is costing you
- Subcontractor reports come back in formats you have to convert.
- Job instructions are sent by email with spreadsheets attached.
- You find out a subcontracted visit is done when the invoice arrives.
- Subcontractor insurance or competence documents are checked irregularly.
- Clients have noticed differences between your reports and subcontracted ones.