Refreshing subcontractor prequalification before the file goes stale
Every prequalification file ages. A surety letter stating single and aggregate capacity goes stale quickly, financial statements roll over annually, the modification rate letter has to come from the carrier or the agent of record rather than from the sub, and injury summaries are wanted for prior years. Subs resend the same expired PDF because nobody told them which item went out of date. The chase suits automation because each request is specific and the evidence is checkable on arrival: a date on a letterhead and a period covered.
The estimate, the project system and the accounting system each hold a cost code structure, and the mapping between them lives in a spreadsheet maintained by one person.
A project generates a paper chain where each hop is a re-keying. A field condition becomes a time and materials tag, then a potential change order, then a priced request, then an executed change order, then a budget revision, then a line on the next payment application. Every hop is a place the amount can quietly diverge.
- Excel
- Outlook
- DocuSign
When this is the wrong thing to build
Pick something else if your subcontractor list is short and stable, or the generals you work for already hold the documents in a prequalification portal. Where awards are made on relationship rather than on a scored file, a tidy prequalification record changes nothing about who gets the work.
The constraint that shapes it
Lien deadlines are statutory, vary by state and by role, and run from a furnishing date rather than from an invoice date. More on how this sector works.
A list of things that are missing, worked until it is empty. Read what this shape is, or start from one of these.
- Chasing a compliance file to complete
- Chasing a referral fee through to a closing you cannot see
- Asking for the replenishment before the retainer runs to zero
- Chasing medical records until the set is complete
- Getting a deposition on the calendar of every party
- Chasing the warranty credit the distributor has not issued
- How do I collect surety letters from every bidding subcontractor?
- How recent does a bonding capacity letter have to be?
- Where does an experience modification rate letter have to come from?
- How do I renew subcontractor prequalification without emailing everyone twice?
Back to construction and contracting, or see how this is priced and scoped.