How to prequalify subcontractors: a one-page process for GCs

Prequalification tends to go wrong in one of two directions. Either there's no program at all and the estimator decides who's "good" from memory, or there's a forty-page questionnaire modelled on a public-sector RFQ that half the subs never finish, so the estimator decides from memory anyway and the forty pages sit in a shared drive.

What follows is a right-sized version for a mid-size GC. Adapt it to your jurisdiction and run it past your insurance and legal advisors, because the details of bonding, workers' compensation and insurance requirements vary by province and state, and this isn't advice on any of them.

What prequalification is actually for

Be honest about the goal. For most mid-size GCs it comes down to three things. Don't award to a sub who can't finish, which is about financial capacity, bonding and workload. Don't put a dangerous crew on site, which is about safety record, workers' compensation standing, and whether a program exists. And don't get surprised by insurance gaps, meaning coverage that meets your contract minimums.

Most of what appears on a typical questionnaire beyond those three rarely changes a decision. It's there because someone once thought it might.

The six-question form

One page. Subs complete it in about fifteen minutes, which is the reason they complete it at all.

Legal name, address, years in business, and trades performed, as cost codes from a list you provide. Largest single contract completed in the last three years, with the GC's name and a contact. Bonding capacity, single and aggregate, and the surety's name; "not bonded" is an acceptable answer for smaller trades. Workers' compensation account number and current clearance, plus the last three years' experience rating or the local equivalent. Insurance: general liability limit, auto, and pollution or professional coverage where relevant, with the certificate attached. Safety: written program, yes or no? COR or equivalent certification? Lost-time incidents in the last three years?

Plus a signature and a date. That's the form.

What to leave off, and why

Financial statements below a threshold. Some GCs set it in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars. Above it, ask for the last year-end statement and look at exactly two things: working capital, and whether revenue is falling sharply. Below it, don't ask.

More than one reference. One completed project with a contact you can actually phone is worth more than ten with nobody to call.

Org charts, quality manuals, equipment lists. Ask for those on the specific job that needs them, from the sub you're about to award to.

And a scoring rubric. Rubrics turn every decision into an argument about weights. Use three states instead: Approved, Approved with limit (a dollar cap on what you'll award), or Not approved, with a one-line reason next to it.

The process

Send the form when a sub joins the list. Something like "we keep this on file so we can award without a scramble; one page, fifteen minutes." Most will do it. Some won't until an award is imminent, and that's fine.

Make it a condition of award, not of invitation. If you gate invitations on prequal, your bid list shrinks to the subs who fill out forms, which is a different population from the subs who do good work. Invite widely, qualify before you sign.

Put the result where bidders get picked. If the form lives in a shared drive and the trade list lives in a spreadsheet, nobody checks. Add three fields to the trade list itself: Prequal status, Limit, Date. The database columns include them for exactly this reason. In a directory tool it's a field on the company record.

Refresh yearly. In your slow season, send the form back to every Approved sub prefilled with last year's answers and ask them to confirm or update. Certificates and clearances expire. Anyone who ignores two refresh requests drops to "Approved, expired" and gets asked again before any award.

Keep job-specific asks with the job. A bond for the sub's scope, a specific insurance endorsement, a project safety plan: ask for those on that job, from the awarded sub, and file them with the job. Mixing them into the prequal file is precisely how it becomes forty pages.

What about the prequal platforms?

BuildingConnected has TradeTapp, Procore has prequalification in its Preconstruction tools, and there are standalone services. They suit large GCs with hundreds of subs and a compliance function to run them. For a mid-size shop they can push you straight back toward the long-form problem, because subs dislike completing a different questionnaire for every GC. If you go that route, check two things: can you shorten the questionnaire to what you actually use, and does the result show up where you pick bidders?

Don't skip the subs you already know

The subs who most need prequalifying are the long-standing relationships nobody thinks to check. The firm whose surety lapsed quietly. The one whose founder retired and whose new owner has never run a job your size. Send them the same one-page form as everyone else and frame it as "we're doing this for everyone," because you are. A well-run business sends it back in a day.

In short

Six questions, one page. Approved, Approved with limit, or Not approved. Status visible on the trade list. Refresh yearly. Job-specific asks stay with the job. Invite widely, qualify before award, and include the old friends.

Prequalification decides who you'd award to. Getting them to bid in the first place is the other half of the problem, and that's what Invite All is for: one tracked invitation per sub from your own inbox, so the approved subs on your list actually see the job and tell you whether they're in.