Require documents from every contractor

Required documents are the paperwork every contractor has to have on file before they count as compliant — a W-9, a trade license, a signed subcontract, an EMR letter. Once they're switched on, a contractor missing one is marked Non-Compliant, listed in the Action Queue, and asked for it by name on their upload link.

Nothing here needs a second upload. Each document is answered by what's already on the contractor's page: a W-9 on the W-9 tab, a certificate on the Insurance tab, a license on the Licenses tab, and anything else by an upload on the Documents tab tagged with the document it is.

1. 1

   Open Settings → Compliance

   Settings → the Compliance tab, and scroll to Documents → Required documents.

2. 2

   Start from a preset

   Pick your trade under Start from a preset and click Apply preset. It fills in the list below with the documents that trade usually asks for.

   Applying a preset replaces the list you have. After that the list is yours — later changes to a preset never alter it.

3. 3

   Adjust the list

   Tick or untick documents until the list is what you'd actually refuse to work without. Under each one it says where it's looked for.

4. 4

   Add your own documents

   Paperwork the list doesn't name — a site safety orientation, say — goes under Your own document types → Add a document type. Give it a name, one of the Documents tab's categories (Insurance, Licensing, Financial, Contracts, Safety or Other) and a sentence saying what the contractor should send. Uploads of it are filed under that category. Attach a blank form if you have one: contractors can download it from their upload link.

   Tick Expires for anything that has to be renewed; the contractor is then asked for an expiration date when they upload it. A type you add is required straight away.

5. 5

   Turn enforcement on and save

   Tick Enforce document requirements and Save. Every contractor is judged against the list straight away.

Where each document is looked for

To tag an upload, choose the document under Required document it satisfies when you upload it — or edit an upload that's already there. On the contractor's Documents tab, the Required documents list shows what's on file and has an Upload button beside anything missing.

Your own blank forms

Under the list, Your blank forms lets you attach your own form to any document you require — your prequalification questionnaire on the subcontract, say. Contractors see Download the form beside it on their upload link, fill it in and upload it back. Without one, they're offered our sample where there is one. Replace or Remove it any time.

Safety documents

The Safety group holds four documents: the EMR letter, the OSHA Form 300A, a written safety program and OSHA 10/30 training cards. The General contractors & roofing preset includes the first three.

On plans that include it, the EMR letter and the 300A are also read when they arrive, and the contractor's page shows their EMR, TRIR and DART. Below the list you can set a maximum EMR and maximum TRIR to flag anyone above them. See how EMR letters and OSHA 300As are read.

When a document doesn't apply

Plenty of small subcontractors have no EMR letter (no rating has been issued yet) and no OSHA 300A (employers with ten or fewer employees are mostly exempt from keeping one). Rather than leave them Non-Compliant, a required document can be answered Not applicable, with a reason.

• Which documents allow it: under each required document in Settings, tick or untick Accept “not applicable”. It's on for the EMR letter and the 300A to start with.
• The contractor can answer it on their upload link instead of uploading. Their answer counts straight away, the way an upload does, and shows as Not applicable? on their Documents tab until you click Confirm or Undo.
• You can answer it yourself from the same list: open Not applicable to this contractor? under the missing document.
• A license is your call, never the contractor's. For a contractor who doesn't need one — a material supplier who never works on site, say — tick Allow exemptions under the license in Settings, then open Not applicable to this contractor? on their Documents tab. Their upload link never offers it. It follows your coverage waiver settings: who may grant one, whether a reason is required and when it expires. It is listed under Waivers in force, and Undo withdraws it but keeps the record.
• “Fewer than 11 employees” asks for the number. If a 300A is on file that says otherwise, the contractor's page flags the difference.

On a job

Each project keeps its own list, copied from yours when it's created — the same way it keeps its own coverage minimums. Change it on the project's edit form. A contractor missing something only the job requires is reported against that job, and shows as Non-Compliant on their own page too, with Why? naming the job. Their upload link asks for it along with everything else — without saying which job it is for.

What contractors see

Their upload link lists everything they owe — your list and whatever the jobs they're on add to it — with your description and any blank form beside each item, and marks what's already on file. It never names a job. Documents that are only ever an upload get a slot of their own, so a contractor can send your safety plan and your subcontract in one go. Nobody is emailed extra reminders about required documents — they're asked when you send a request.

What happens next