A prospect is a subcontractor you're considering but haven't hired yet. They live on the Prospects screen in the sidebar, above Contractors. You can collect their paperwork, read their safety documents and check their license and insurance before deciding. They aren't graded, alerted or counted like your contractors until you approve them.
-
Add them as a prospect
Go to Prospects in the sidebar and click Add Prospect. Fill in the name and, if you want to send them a link straight away, their email. Prospects are added only from this screen; Contractors → Add Contractor adds someone you've already hired.
Importing a spreadsheet of subs you're vetting? Click Import on the Prospects screen: everyone in that file is added as a prospect.
-
Check you don't already have them
If someone already on file looks like the same business — the same name written differently (“A.B.C. Roofing LLC” and “ABC Roofing”), or an email at the same company domain — you'll see them listed with a link before anything is saved. Click Add anyway if it really is a different business. A sub you declined before says so.
-
Send them one link
Open the prospect's page and click Request Documents. Their email asks only for what you check before awarding work — the documents ticked Ask prospects too in Settings → Compliance → Required documents (by default their license, certificate of insurance and safety documents) — and says you're considering them for work.
Set a Respond by date if you have a deadline. It's in the email, on their upload page and in the reminder. Nobody is declined automatically when it passes.
When their upload completes everything you ask prospects for, whoever sent the request gets a ready to review email.
-
Read the Prequalification panel
A prospect's page opens with a Prequalification panel: how many of your required documents are on file, their EMR and TRIR if you've received their safety documents, their licenses, and whether their insurance meets your requirements. Each links to the tab with the detail.
-
Decide
Choose one of three:
- Approve — they become an active contractor.
- Approve with conditions — the same, with a note saying what still has to happen, such as “no roofing work until the 300A is received”. The note is required. Pick the document it's waiting on and their page shows when it arrives and the condition is met.
- Decline — they stay a prospect, with your note. Nothing is sent to them; telling them is up to you. You can still approve them later, or click Reconsider to put them back in your prospects, undecided. Adding a declined sub again under the same name points you to their record.
Company basics
Their trades, where they work and how long they've been in business are optional fields on Edit Details. A prospect can fill in any you've left blank on their upload page, and they show at the top of the Prequalification panel.
The Prospects screen
It works like the contractor list. Each prospect's stage is one of Not requested, Requested, In progress (some of their packet is in), Ready to review, Overdue (past the date you asked for) or Decided, and the tabs along the top filter on them. Needs you is the ones waiting on you rather than on the sub — its count is the number beside Prospects in the sidebar. Tick My prospects for the ones whose request you sent. Each row shows what's still needed and the date you asked for, with its next step: Send request, Remind or Review.
Once you've added a prospect, the dashboard gets a Prospects card with the same counts and the ones ready to review.
What changes when you approve
From that moment they're one of your contractors: their compliance status appears, expiry alerts start, and they count in your dashboard and the Action Queue. Their page keeps the record of who approved them, when, and any conditions.
Leave When approving, send the onboarding request ticked and they're emailed straight away for everything else you require of hired contractors — your subcontract, their W-9, the endorsements — even if you emailed them in the last two days. Anything still missing after that shows in your Action Queue like any other contractor's.
Note