Every subcontractor on one record.From first invitation to final waiver.
Subcontractor management is the record a general contractor keeps of every subcontractor, from trade and eligibility through invitations, bids, awards and payments, so that who can be invited and who was awarded is never in question. Below: a bid coverage planner for your trades, the eligibility record item by item, a directory template to download, and what project teams get wrong.
- A directory with trade, jobs worked from subcontract records, and attributable ratings shown beside each contact
- Invitations built from the register and reviewed before they send; do-not-invite decisions carry a reason
- After award, draft subcontracts, schedules of values and lien waiver tracking through your Procore
The same record follows a subcontractor from eligibility to invitation, bid, stated timing and, after award, the draft subcontract prepared in Procore. Ratings inform the estimator. They never rank the bidder automatically.
Part of Ruh for general contractors · stage 05 of 12
The whole GC lifecycle →- 01ScopeBid package read, scope register written by trade
- 02TakeoffQuantities off the drawings, each traced to its sheet
- 03EstimatePriced on your price book, into your own workbook
- 04Bid levelingSub bids compared on scope, not on the total
- 05You are hereSubsEligibility, invitations and awards on one record
- 06BudgetOriginal, changes, committed and buyout variance
- 07ScheduleDurations from quantities, lookaheads each week
- 08ProcurementPurchase orders from award, materials to receipt
- 09SubmittalsSubmittals from the spec, on a review clock
- 10ChangesRFIs tracked, change events priced with evidence
- 11Pay appsSchedules of values, pay apps and audited waivers
- 12CloseoutCloseout obligations and handover, gaps named
How many invitations does three real bids take?
Put in the trades you are buying, the complete bids you want to carry, your response and completeness rates from the last few bids, and how many eligible subcontractors the directory holds. The planner shows where coverage is short before the invitations go out.
Trades you are buying
Response rate: the share of invited subs who send anything back. Completeness: the share of those bids that are complete enough to level. Read both from your last few bids in the trade; the directory keeps them.
| Trade | Bids to carry | Response % | Complete % | Eligible subs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
- 26 ElectricalShort by 1
10 invitations for 3 complete bids at 30% yield. 9 eligible in the directory, about 2 complete bids if all are invited.
- 23 HVACShort by 7
13 invitations for 3 complete bids at 24% yield. 6 eligible in the directory, about 1 complete bid if all are invited.
- 22 PlumbingShort by 1
9 invitations for 3 complete bids at 36% yield. 8 eligible in the directory, about 2 complete bids if all are invited.
- 09 DrywallCovered
8 invitations for 3 complete bids at 40% yield. 12 eligible in the directory, about 4 complete bids if all are invited.
- 03 ConcreteShort by 3
7 invitations for 2 complete bids at 30% yield. 4 eligible in the directory, about 1 complete bid if all are invited.
Prequalify more subcontractors in 26 Electrical, 23 HVAC, 22 Plumbing, 03 Concrete first, or accept fewer complete bids there and say so in the bid tab. Inviting the same short list harder does not change the yield.
Arithmetic on your own rates, nothing more. It cannot tell you which subs will bid this time. Ruh keeps the eligibility, the invitations, the responses and the no-bid reasons on one record, so the rates are read, not guessed.
What project teams get wrong about subcontractors.
The view of the Ruh estimating team, from subcontractor directories and bid records on general contractor jobs. An opinion, not a measured result.
- 01
Everyone in the directory gets the invitation.
Sending to forty subcontractors feels like coverage. It produces four bids and no record of why the other thirty-six passed. Coverage is planned from response rates, not from the length of the list.
- 02
An expired certificate is treated as paperwork.
A subcontractor with a lapsed insurance certificate cannot be awarded, whatever the bid says. Eligibility is checked before the invitation, not at the subcontract.
- 03
Eligibility, invitations and bids live in three places.
The prequalification form, the estimator's inbox and the bid tab each hold part of the story. One record per subcontractor with all three on it is the whole job of the directory.
- 04
No-bids are not recorded.
A subcontractor who declined, and why, is the most useful line on the record. Without it the next invitation list repeats the same misses.
- 05
The relationship belongs to one estimator.
When the person who knows the subcontractor leaves, the history leaves with them. Jobs worked, field feedback and bid history belong on the record, not in memory.
The eligibility record, item by item.
What a general contractor collects before a subcontractor can be invited or awarded, what to record from each document, how long it usually stays valid, and whether a gap blocks the invitation or only the award.
| Item | What to record | Typical validity | Blocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contractor license | State, license number, classification, expiry | One to two years, by state | Invitation |
| General liability | Carrier, limits per occurrence and aggregate, additional insured wording, expiry | Annual | Award |
| Workers compensation | Carrier, expiry, experience modification rate | Annual | Award |
| Auto and umbrella | Limits, expiry, whether the umbrella follows form | Annual | Award |
| Bonding capacity | Surety, single and aggregate limits, letter date | A letter dated within twelve months | Award, where a bond is required |
| Safety record | OSHA 300 logs for three years, EMR, citations | Annual | Invitation, on projects where the owner sets a threshold |
| Tax and entity | W-9, legal entity name, address matching the certificates | Until the entity changes | Award |
| Financials and references | Revenue range, largest contract completed, three GC references | Annual | Invitation, above your contract size threshold |
| Trade and coverage | MasterFormat divisions performed, self-performed versus subbed out, geography | Reviewed at each bid | Invitation |
| History with you | Jobs worked, field feedback, bid responses, no-bid reasons | Continuous | Nothing, and it decides who is invited first |
Validity periods are typical practice, not legal advice. Owner contracts often set their own thresholds; record the owner's requirement on the project rather than the company default.
The subcontractor directory, as an empty sheet.
One row per subcontractor with the columns the record needs: trade, contacts, every eligibility item with its expiry, bid history and a status with its reason. Three example rows show an eligible sub, a sub with pending documents and a sub not to invite.
- Trade by MasterFormat division, self-performed or not, geography and contract size range
- License, liability, workers compensation, bonding and W-9, each with an expiry date
- Invitations sent, bids returned, no-bids with reasons, and jobs worked with you
- Status: Eligible, Pending documents or Do not invite, always with the reason
No email, no gate. If you want the register written for you from a real set, the walkthrough is at the bottom of the page.
From a directory entry to a subcontract your PM can trust.
Three things have to hold for a subcontractor relationship to survive a job. The team knows who they actually worked with, every bid and every message is on the record, and the commitment that followed traces back to the bid that was carried.
| Company | Trade | Jobs worked | Rating | Invitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summit Drywall | Drywall | 3 jobs | 4.6 | Eligible |
| Atlas Interiors | Drywall | 1 job | 4.0 | Eligible |
| Northline Systems | Drywall | 2 jobs | 3.1 | Do not invite |
| Fieldline Const. | Drywall | new | none | No email |
Jobs worked come from subcontract and buyout records, not from how often a name appears. Ratings are averaged from attributable reviews and shown beside the contact. Nothing here ranks a bidder for you.
A directory built from what actually happened
The company directory keeps the contact information estimating and procurement need repeatedly, and it derives jobs worked from subcontract and buyout records rather than from how often a name was typed. Feedback is attributable to the project it came from, and a later rating never erases what was said earlier.
- Company, contact, trade, email, phone and notes, with search, trade filtering and inline editing
- Jobs worked derived from subcontract and buyout records; active projects sort ahead of completed ones
- Ratings aggregated by normalized company identity and shown as an average with the reviews behind it
- Do-not-invite decisions carry a reason, show a badge, block selection and can be restored by a person
- Procore vendor records import into the directory, and the picker shows which system an address came from
When a selected subcontractor states a working-day duration, it takes priority over the reference. The schedule keeps an explanation of what changed and where the new value came from, and your superintendent still checks whether it includes layout, inspections and finish.
Invitations and bids on the record, not in an inbox
Selected contacts become scope-carrying invitation drafts through the communication review, and each emailed reply becomes a versioned bid record. A reply with no readable total is still a receipt, so a subcontractor who answered is never mistaken for one who did not.
- Invitation drafts attach the register rows for the trade and wait for a person's approval before sending
- Replies are matched to their invitation and stored as sub-bid records with revisions; the latest supersedes, the earlier ones are kept
- Unpriced proposals stay visible in the follow-up queue instead of disappearing into a thread
- The selected subcontractor's stated working-day duration takes priority in the schedule over a reference duration
- Every change to a duration carries an explanation of what changed and where the new value came from
After award, the commitment is prepared through your Procore
When the estimator carries a bid, the buyout package can become a draft subcontract or purchase order in Procore. The operation rebuilds its proposal from current server data, checks the reviewer's role and write permission, and records the resulting external link. The schedule of values is prepared from the buyout scope so billing starts from lines a person reviewed.
- Draft subcontracts and purchase orders created in Procore from the buyout package, after a role and permission check
- Schedules of values prepared from the buyout scope and carried into Procore before the subcontractor bills
- The lien waiver audit reads submitted subcontractor invoices and attachments from Procore and tracks the paperwork on the Subcontracts page
- External IDs and statuses stay visible, so a local draft is never mistaken for an executed record
- Payments, payroll and reconciliation stay in your accounting system; Ruh does not post to the ledger
Directory in. Subcontract out. Every step a person approved.
Four steps, and the subcontractor's record grows at each one. Nothing about the relationship lives only in someone's email.
Keep the directory current
A coordinator owns names, trades, addresses and notes. Estimators correct them from real bid interactions. Exclusions carry a reason.
Invite from the register
Filter by trade, review history beside each name, and send scope-carrying invitations through the normal approval.
Capture bids and timing
Replies become versioned records. The carried sub's stated duration flows into the schedule with its explanation attached.
Prepare the commitment
Draft subcontract and schedule of values through your Procore, lien waivers tracked from the invoices that follow. Your PM approves each step.
One subcontractor. Everything the record keeps about them.
The relationship spans bidding, award and billing. Here is what gets kept so the next estimator knows what the last one learned.
Jobs worked and feedback
What gets recorded
Jobs derived from subcontract and buyout records, ratings averaged from attributable reviews, and the notes that say whether a concern was performance, commercial scope or administrative. A current rating never erases an earlier comment.
Exclusions
What gets recorded
Do-not-invite with a reason and a badge. Restoring a company makes selection possible again; it does not send an invitation.
Invitations
What gets recorded
Which trade package went to whom, with the register rows attached and the communication approval recorded.
Bids and timing
What gets recorded
Every reply as a versioned record with its stated inclusions, exclusions and alternates, plus the stated installation duration the schedule carried and what it replaced.
Commitments
What gets recorded
The draft subcontract or purchase order created in Procore, its external link, and the schedule of values prepared from the buyout scope.
What the directory tells you, and what it cannot.
A directory entry is operational data, not a promise. It tells you who you have worked with and what your team said afterwards. It does not tell you whether the crew is free next month or whether an old concern still applies. Ruh keeps the first kind of fact accurate and leaves the second kind visibly with your team.
What the record tells you
- Trade, contacts and whether an address is usable for an invitation
- Jobs actually worked, from subcontract and buyout records
- What your team said after each job, attributed to the project
- Which bids arrived, in which revision, with which exclusions
What it cannot tell you
- Whether the company is available or interested in this bid
- Whether a concern recorded two years ago still applies
- Whether a directory exclusion is mirrored in Procore, which you confirm from the surface you invite from
- Whether a stated duration includes layout, inspections and finish, which your superintendent asks
No subcontractor decision you cannot explain.
The fear in subcontractor management is not the paperwork. It is finding out at buyout that the sub you carried was excluded on the last job for a reason nobody wrote down.
History from records, not memory
Jobs worked come from subcontract and buyout records; feedback is attributable to a project. The directory reflects what happened, not who was loudest in the meeting.
Ratings inform, they do not rank
Averages are shown beside the contact with the reviews behind them. The system does not order bidders by rating or recommend one. Your estimator weighs trade fit, geography and interest.
Every send is approved
Invitations, follow-ups and subcontractor-facing messages are drafts until a person approves them. Delivery outcomes are kept separate from draft status.
Commitments trace to the carried bid
The draft subcontract, its schedule of values and the waivers that follow all point back to the bid your estimator carried and the reason recorded with it.
Our estimators spent more time retyping quantities than thinking about scope. Ruh reads our drawings like a senior estimator and hands back a priced estimate we want to review, not rebuild.
ADF GroupWhere Ruh stops and your systems begin
Subcontracts, purchase orders, schedules of values, prime contracts and the invoices behind lien waivers are prepared and read through your Procore connection. That connection needs credentials, project mapping and permissions configured, and external IDs and statuses stay visible so a local draft is never mistaken for an executed record.
Payments, payroll and reconciliation stay in your accounting system. Ruh does not post to the ledger, and a direct QuickBooks posting workflow is not something this page claims.
Try Ruh on a real bid. 100% money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied.*
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Questions general contractors ask.
Does it rank or recommend subcontractors?+
No. The directory shows jobs worked, attributable feedback and an average rating beside each contact, and the trade filter partitions excluded vendors. It does not order bidders by rating or recommend one. The commercial decision, including trade fit, geography and present interest, stays with your estimator.
Where do jobs worked and ratings come from?+
Jobs worked are derived from subcontract and buyout records, not from how many projects a name appears on. Ratings are aggregated by normalized company identity from reviews your team wrote about a specific project, and an earlier comment is never erased by a later rating.
How do exclusions work, and do they sync with Procore?+
A do-not-invite decision carries a reason, shows a badge, and blocks the contact from selection until a person restores them. Directory exclusions and Procore vendor exclusions are separate controls, so when you use both, confirm the intended vendor in the surface you are inviting from.
Does it send invitations or messages to our subs on its own?+
No. Invitation drafts carry the register rows for the trade and go through the communication review. Follow-ups and other subcontractor-facing messages are drafts until a person approves them, and actual delivery outcomes are kept separate from draft status.
How does a subcontractor's timing reach the schedule?+
When the carried bid states a working-day installation duration, it takes priority over the trade reference duration in the generated schedule. The change is recorded with an explanation of what it replaced, and your superintendent still confirms whether the stated duration covers layout, inspections and finish.
What happens after we carry a bid?+
The buyout package can become a draft subcontract or purchase order in Procore. The operation rebuilds its proposal from current server data, checks the reviewer's role and write permission, and records the external link. The schedule of values is prepared from the buyout scope, and the lien waiver audit tracks the paperwork on submitted invoices.
What stays in Procore and our accounting system?+
Procore remains responsible for its contract and commercial records; Ruh prepares drafts and reads statuses through the configured connection. Payments, payroll and reconciliation stay with your accounting process. Ruh does not post to the ledger.
Bring your subcontractor list and one package out to bid.
A 30 minute walkthrough on your real directory and a live trade package. We build the invitation list, capture the replies you have and show the record that follows the sub through award. Your estimator decides who to carry.
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