Browse help topics

Require documents from every contractor

In this article: Choose the paperwork every contractor must have on file — start from a preset for your trade, add your own — and have it count towards compliance.

Applies to Starter plan or above

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, a safety plan. 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. Open Settings → Compliance

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

  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. 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. 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 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. Turn enforcement on and save

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

Note

Adding your own document types, and giving a project a list of its own, come with a plan that includes them. Where yours does not, Settings shows a padlock in their place — the library, the presets and everything else here work without them.

Where each document is looked for

DocumentCounts as on file when
W-9Any W-9 is on the W-9 tab. W-9s don't expire.
Certificate of insuranceA certificate on the Insurance tab hasn't expired.
EndorsementsOn the Pro plan, the endorsement is read off an insurance document. On any plan, an upload on the Documents tab tagged with it also counts.
State trade licenseA license is linked on the Licenses tab and hasn't expired.
Everything elseAn upload on the Documents tab is tagged with it — and, if the document expires, its date hasn't passed.

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.

Note

An upload counts the moment it arrives. There's no approval step, so open anything a contractor sends if you need to check what's in it.

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

Contractors missing a required document move to Non-Compliant and appear in the Action Queue under Short of Requirements, and in your weekly summary. Switch Enforce these requirements off and they're judged as before — your list is kept.

Related articles

Didn't find what you were looking for?

Send us the question — a person answers, usually the same working day.

Contact support