Subcontractor Onboarding Checklist (10 Required Documents)
Subcontractor onboarding is the process of collecting, verifying, and filing the documents every general contractor needs before a new sub sets foot on a job site. This checklist covers all 10 documents — not just the COI — with what to check on each, so you start every relationship with full compliance coverage from day one.
Why collect before work starts: a single unlicensed or uninsured sub can expose your GC license and create liability that outlasts the project. Most compliance failures aren't from bad contractors — they're from GCs who assumed credentials were in order and never confirmed it.
Before a new subcontractor starts work, collect a certificate of insurance naming you as additional insured, a signed W-9, a state contractor license checked live in the state board's database, and a countersigned subcontractor agreement. Add business entity documentation, a workers' comp exemption certificate if they claim one, a conditional lien waiver before the first payment, ACH authorization, background check consent where the prime contract requires it, and a signed safety acknowledgment.
In this guide
- Certificate of Insurance (COI)
- W-9 (Request for Taxpayer Identification Number)
- State Contractor License (verified live)
- Signed Subcontractor Agreement
- Business Entity Documentation
- Workers' Compensation Exemption Certificate (if applicable)
- Conditional Lien Waiver
- Direct Deposit / ACH Authorization Form
- Background Check Consent (conditional by project)
- Project Safety Acknowledgment
- Quick-reference: the full checklist
- How often to re-collect these documents
- Onboarding a whole roster, not one sub
Document 1 of 10
Certificate of Insurance (COI)
Request an ACORD 25 certificate listing General Liability, Workers' Compensation and Employers' Liability coverage, plus Commercial Auto if the sub drives to site. Standard minimums are $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate on GL and statutory limits on Workers' Comp — your contract may require more.
The certificate must come from the sub's insurer or agent, not a PDF the sub emailed you last year. The Additional Insured endorsement and the Certificate Holder box are different things on the form: see certificate holder vs. additional insured for why only one of them protects you in a claim.
Collect: A current ACORD 25 sent by the sub's agent, with GL, Workers' Comp and Employers' Liability listed
Verify: Your organization is named as Additional Insured, policy dates are current, and every limit meets your contract minimums. The COI audit checklist goes line by line
Common trap: Being listed only as Certificate Holder. It means you receive the certificate — it gives you no coverage
Document 2 of 10
W-9 (Request for Taxpayer Identification Number)
Collect IRS Form W-9 before the first payment — not at 1099 time. If you pay a sub more than $600 in a calendar year without a valid W-9 on file, you are required to withhold 24% backup withholding. The entity name on the W-9 must match the name on the contract and license.
Collect: A completed and signed W-9 before the first payment is issued
Verify: The TIN format matches the entity type: SSN (XXX-XX-XXXX) for sole proprietors, EIN (XX-XXXXXXX) for LLCs, S-corps and other entities. The IRS's free TIN Matching program for payers catches a wrong TIN before 1099 season rather than after the penalty notice
Common trap: An entity name that doesn't match the contract, the COI and the license — usually a sign the form was filled out for a different entity
Document 3 of 10
State Contractor License (verified live)
Do not accept a photocopy of the license as verification. Licenses can be suspended or revoked after the paper was printed. Look up the license directly in the state database and confirm active status and correct classification for the work being performed — see how to verify a contractor license for the step-by-step.
- Texas: TDLR at tdlr.texas.gov, plus TECL for electricians
- Florida: DBPR license search at myfloridalicense.com
- California: CSLB license check at cslb.ca.gov
- Washington: L&I contractor lookup at lni.wa.gov
- Oregon: CCB lookup at oregon.gov/ccb — Oregon uses "registration" for general contractors
- Illinois: IDFPR lookup for roofing; plumbing is licensed separately by IDPH
- Colorado: DORA lookup for electrical and plumbing — GC licensing is local, so check the city or county too
- Arizona: ROC contractor search — every trade is licensed at state level
- Connecticut: DCP lookup for home improvement registrations and trade licenses (electrical, plumbing, HVAC)
- Arkansas: Contractors Licensing Board search for commercial and residential contractors
- Virginia: DPOR license lookup — Class A, B and C contractor licenses
- Ohio: OCILB for commercial electrical, HVAC, hydronics, plumbing and refrigeration contractors
Our contractor license lookup searches those boards directly, so you are not opening a different board's site for every sub. A license in any other state is tracked the same way — you record the number and expiry, and it gets the same renewal alerts.
Collect: The license number, the license holder's name and the classification the sub holds
Verify: Status, classification and expiration date — all three — in the state board's own database
Common trap: Checking active status but not classification. A sub licensed for residential work cannot legally take a commercial scope in most states
How TrackMyVendor automates this
- One link, no login. The sub opens it on their phone, sees what you still need and what is already on file, and uploads in a couple of minutes — no account, no app, no portal.
- Every certificate is read for you — carrier, each coverage row's limits and its own expiration date — and measured against the minimums you set once, so a short GL aggregate shows as short.
- The W-9 is read too: legal name, TIN and tax classification come off the form, so nothing is retyped before 1099 season.
- Licenses are matched to the state board's records for the boards above and re-checked automatically every time the state publishes, so a suspension mid-project doesn't wait for your next manual check.
- Per-deadline alerts at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days go to your team and the sub, whose copy carries the upload link. Starter and above
Document 4 of 10
Signed Subcontractor Agreement
A fully executed agreement — both parties signed — covering scope of work, payment terms, indemnification, lien waiver requirements, insurance minimums and dispute resolution. AIA A401 and ConsensusDocs 750 are widely accepted standard forms if you don't have your own.
Collect: The countersigned agreement, referencing the specific project
Verify: Both parties have signed. An email saying "looks good" is not a signature, and an agreement that doesn't name the project leaves it unclear which job the indemnification covers
Common trap: Filing the copy you sent instead of the one that came back signed
Document 5 of 10
Business Entity Documentation
A Certificate of Good Standing (or equivalent) confirming the sub is operating as a valid legal entity in the state. For sole proprietors operating under a DBA, a copy of the DBA filing. This is the document most GCs skip — and the one that creates silent liability.
Collect: A recent Certificate of Good Standing, or the DBA filing for a sole proprietor
Verify: The legal name matches the W-9, the COI and the contract
Common trap: A dissolved or administratively revoked entity, which cannot legally enter contracts in most states
Document 6 of 10
Workers' Compensation Exemption Certificate (if applicable)
If a sub claims an exemption from Workers' Comp requirements, collect the state-issued exemption certificate. Rules vary sharply: Texas is the only state that does not require most private employers to carry Workers' Comp. Florida allows construction sole proprietors to file for exemption but limits the number of officers per entity.
Collect: The state-issued exemption certificate
Verify: It is current and issued to the same entity you are contracting with — check it the way you check a license
Common trap: Taking a verbal claim of exemption. An expired or mismatched certificate leaves the exposure with you
Document 7 of 10
Conditional Lien Waiver
Collect a signed conditional lien waiver before payment; exchange it for an unconditional waiver after payment clears. Some states prescribe the wording: in Texas, waivers must use the statutory forms in Property Code Chapter 53 to be enforceable, so a custom form may not be valid.
Collect: A signed conditional waiver before each payment
Verify: It is swapped for an unconditional waiver once the payment has cleared, on your state's statutory form where one exists
Common trap: Accepting an unconditional waiver before payment, or a custom form in a statutory-form state
Document 9 of 10
Background Check Consent (conditional by project)
On federal, municipal, school district or healthcare facility projects, collect a signed consent form from the sub's principals and, depending on your contract, their workers. Background check requirements flow down from the owner's prime contract — review it before deciding whether this document is required.
Collect: Signed consent from the sub's principals, and workers where the contract requires it
Verify: What the prime contract actually flows down to subs
Common trap: Assuming the requirement stops at your own staff
Document 10 of 10
Project Safety Acknowledgment
A signed acknowledgment that the sub has read and agrees to your project Safety Plan and Site Safety Rules. On OSHA-regulated sites, record that the sub's foreman has completed required safety training (OSHA 10 or OSHA 30). OSHA's multi-employer worksite doctrine can hold GCs responsible for hazards on a job site even if a sub created them — this document is your evidence of due diligence.
Vetting a sub before you hire them? Ask for their safety record too: the EMR letter from their insurer (their experience modification rate, where 1.00 is their trade's average) and their latest OSHA 300A summary, from which you work out TRIR. A firm with 10 or fewer employees may be exempt from OSHA injury logs, and one too small to be rated has no EMR — accept a note saying so rather than holding up the packet. Our free subcontractor prequalification form asks for both.
Collect: The signed acknowledgment, plus OSHA 10 / OSHA 30 cards for the sub's foreman
Verify: Training cards belong to the people actually running the crew on your site
Common trap: Getting the signature after the sub is already on site
How TrackMyVendor automates this
- Your own forms on the same link. Attach your blank agreement, ACH form or safety acknowledgment to a required document; the sub downloads it, fills it in and uploads it back on the same page. Starter and above
- Each required document is checked as it arrives, and a sub only shows as ready to review when the whole packet is in — nobody finds the missing page a week later. Starter and above
- The EMR letter and OSHA 300A are read for you — the mod rate, hours and case totals — TRIR and DART are worked out, and anything above your maximums is flagged. Starter and above
- Vet before you hire: add a sub as a prospect, send the link with a respond-by date, then approve, approve with conditions or decline. Everything else — lien waivers, entity filings, consent forms — is filed by category on the sub's record.
Reading a document is not a legal opinion on it. Whether a lien waiver or agreement is enforceable in your state is a question for your counsel; we keep the signed copy with the sub and tell you when one is missing.
See prequalification and onboardingQuick-reference: the full checklist
Tick each item off as you collect it. This is a working copy for one sub — nothing is saved, so it starts empty every time. Want it on paper for the job file? Get the PDF.
How often to re-collect these documents
Onboarding documents are not one-and-done. The paperwork you collected on day one has an expiration clock running on it from that day. Here are the re-collection cadences most GCs miss:
Onboarding a whole roster, not one sub
With five subs, a shared folder and this checklist work. With 25 or more, the checklist turns into a spreadsheet nobody keeps current: COIs expire mid-project, licenses lapse between checks, W-9s go missing before 1099 season. TrackMyVendor starts from the roster you already keep, so you don't retype anyone to get going.
Bring your existing subs in bulk
Upload the CSV or Excel file you track subs in today, up to 200 at a time, or a zip of up to 50 certificate PDFs, each one parsed. Duplicates are flagged, a matching state license is attached, and nothing is created until you confirm the preview.
Start from QuickBooks Online
Connect QuickBooks and your vendors come in as subs, linked by name to the ones you already track. Each linked vendor record carries a compliance status PDF that updates within minutes of a change. Sync now on Starter; QuickBooks auto-sync on Pro.
One link per new sub
Send each new sub one link that asks for the COI, W-9, license and your own forms at once. They upload from a phone with no login; if nothing comes back, a follow-up goes out on its own.
Stay compliant after day one
Every plan gets a Monday summary of what is expired or expiring. From Starter, each document gets its own alerts at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days, to your team and to the sub with a fresh upload link, so renewals come back without chasing.
Your first 25 subs are free, with the one-time upload link, COI and W-9 parsing, license checks and prospect vetting included. Bulk import, QuickBooks and per-deadline alerts start on Starter — 30-day trial, no credit card. Compare plans · How import works
Onboarding your next sub?
Do it by hand properly, or stop doing it by hand.
Free PDF
Print-ready compliance checklist
A one-page PDF covering insurance, business entity, tax, licenses, safety, background and contracts — to print or attach to a sub packet. Tell us where to send it — no account to create.
Stop collecting it by hand
Let the subs fill it in
Your first 25 subs are free. Each one gets a single link with no login; their COI and W-9 are read as they arrive and their license is checked against the state board. Bring the rest of your roster in from a spreadsheet or QuickBooks on Starter.
Start free — no credit card →Up and running in about 10 minutes.