Subcontractor Onboarding Packet Template
What this is
The document you send a subcontractor the day they are awarded. It tells them who to call, what to return before they can mobilize, how to get paid, and how the job runs.
One packet, sent once, prevents most of the small administrative friction that otherwise consumes a project manager's first month with a new sub.
When you use it
- The day a subcontract is awarded, sent with the agreement
- When a sub you have worked with before starts on a new project, with the job-specific sections updated
- At the pre-construction meeting, as the agenda
- When a sub changes their office staff and the new person does not know your process
How to fill it in
Fill in the contacts before you send it. A packet with blank phone numbers gets ignored, and then the sub calls whoever they met last, which is usually the superintendent, about an invoice.
Be specific about dates, not cycles. "Pay apps due the 25th" is clearer than "monthly". Give the actual cutoff, the actual meeting date, and the actual payment timing under your subcontract.
Name the forms. Attach your lien waiver forms rather than describing them. Subs send their own forms because nobody sent them yours, and then somebody in accounting rejects it three days before the cutoff.
Do not restate the subcontract. The packet is operational instructions. Where the two conflict, the subcontract governs, and the packet should say so in one line.
If a question comes up twice from two different subs, it belongs in the packet. The packet should get slightly longer every year and be rewritten every three.
The template
1. Welcome and key contacts
You have been awarded the _________________________ scope on _________________________.
This packet tells you what we need before you start and how the job runs day to day.
| Role | Name | Phone | Call them about | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project manager | Scope, schedule, change orders, RFIs, submittals | |||
| Superintendent | Site access, sequencing, daily coordination, deliveries | |||
| Project engineer / coordinator | Submittal status, document control, meeting minutes | |||
| Accounts payable | Pay applications, lien waivers, payment status | |||
| Contracts / compliance | Subcontract, insurance certificates, license, W-9 | |||
| Safety manager | Orientation, JHAs, incidents, safety documentation | |||
| After hours emergency | Injury, fire, water, security, anything on site after hours |
Project address: _______________________________________________________________
Job number — put it on every document you send us: _____________________________
2. Documents due before mobilization
We cannot let you on site, and we cannot process a payment, until all of these are on file.
Send them to _________________________ and put the job number in the subject line.
| Document | Due by | Send to | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signed subcontract, all pages | Contracts | [ ] | |
| W-9, current and signed | Accounting | [ ] | |
Certificate of insurance meeting Exhibit ____ | Compliance | [ ] | |
| Copies of required endorsement forms | Compliance | [ ] | |
| Copy of contractor license(s) | Compliance | [ ] | |
| Payment and performance bonds, if required | Contracts | [ ] | |
| Banking / ACH remittance form | Accounting | [ ] | |
| Written safety program | Safety | [ ] | |
| Site-specific safety plan and job hazard analyses | Safety | [ ] | |
| Emergency contact list — after hours, 24 hours | Superintendent | [ ] | |
| Key personnel list — foreman, PM, safety contact | Project manager | [ ] | |
| Schedule of values, broken down by our line items | Project manager | [ ] | |
| Submittal schedule with long-lead items identified | Project manager | [ ] | |
| Competent person designations and certifications | Safety | [ ] |
Key personnel list
| Role | Name | Mobile | On site how often | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project manager | ||||
| Foreman / lead | ||||
| Safety contact | ||||
| Office / billing contact |
3. Getting paid
| Item | This job |
|---|---|
| Billing period ends | ______ of each month |
| Pay application due to us | ______ of each month |
| Format required | Our form, attached. Continuation sheet by schedule of values line item |
| Backup required | Stored material invoices, certified payroll if applicable, updated schedule of values |
| Retention | ______ % |
| Payment terms | Per the subcontract — _____________________________ |
| Lien waiver with the application | Conditional waiver on progress payment, current period |
| Lien waiver with the next application | Unconditional waiver on progress payment, prior period |
| Final payment requires | Unconditional final waiver, closeout documents, warranty, lower-tier waivers |
Both waiver forms are attached. Use our forms. A waiver on your own form, or a waiver signed for the wrong period, is the most common reason a pay application is rejected.
What gets an application rejected
- Received after the cutoff date
- Percentages that do not match the approved schedule of values
- Change order work billed before the change order is signed
- Missing or wrongly dated lien waiver
- Missing lower-tier waivers from your own subs and suppliers
- Certificates of insurance expired as of the application date
- Stored material billed without invoices, or without proof it is on site or insured
If an application is rejected, it is not partially processed. It waits for the next cycle, which usually costs a month. Send it early enough that a problem can be fixed before the cutoff.
Any change to your remittance address, bank account or ACH details must be verified by us over the phone, on a number we already hold in our records, with a person we already know. We will not act on a change requested by email, and we will not call a phone number that appears in the email requesting the change. That number is the fraud. Expect the verification call and expect it to take a day — it is why your money reaches you and not somebody else. If you receive an email that appears to come from us asking you to send payment or change details, call your usual contact directly before doing anything.
4. Site rules and safety
Before any of your people work on site:
- Every worker completes our site safety orientation. Allow
______minutes per person - Foremen hold OSHA 30, field workers hold OSHA 10, or the project equivalent
- Site-specific safety plan and JHAs submitted and accepted
- Competent persons designated in writing for the applicable activities
Daily requirements:
- Sign in and out at
_________________________ - Daily huddle at
______at_________________________ - Hard hat, high-visibility vest, safety glasses, and boots at all times
- 100% tie-off above
______feet - Hot work permit required, obtained from
_________________________ - Report every incident, injury and near miss to the superintendent the same day, before anyone leaves site
Housekeeping, deliveries and parking:
- Your area is cleaned daily by your crew. Composite cleanup is back-charged
- Deliveries scheduled with the superintendent at least
______hours ahead - Parking at
_________________________. Not in the owner's lot, not on the neighbouring street - Laydown area assigned at mobilization. Do not spread beyond it without asking
Drug and alcohol policy, badging, and any owner-specific requirements apply as stated in the subcontract and the project-specific rules attached.
5. Schedule and coordination
| Item | This job |
|---|---|
| Current schedule issued | Attached, dated _____________ |
| Weekly coordination meeting | ______ at ______, location ______________ |
| Three-week look-ahead due | ______ of each week, to the superintendent |
| Manpower report due | With the look-ahead |
| Notice required before mobilizing a crew | ______ days |
| Notice required before a schedule impact | Immediately, in writing |
We expect your foreman or a decision-maker at the weekly meeting. Sending someone who cannot commit to dates wastes the meeting.
If something is blocking you — access, a preceding trade, a missing submittal, a material delay — tell us in writing the day you know. Delay notice given a week late is a delay nobody could have mitigated.
6. Submittals and RFIs
Submittals:
- Due within
______days of subcontract execution, per the submittal schedule - Submit through
_________________________ - Review takes
______days at our end plus the design team's review period - Do not order or fabricate anything until the submittal is returned approved or approved as noted. Material ordered off an unapproved submittal is at your risk
RFIs:
- Submit through
_________________________, one question per RFI - Include your proposed answer and your required response date
- An RFI is a question, not a change order. If the answer changes your cost or your schedule, say so in the RFI and follow with a change order request
7. Change orders
Nothing gets built without a written change order. No verbal direction from anyone, including our superintendent, authorizes extra work.
The process:
- You identify a change and notify us in writing within
______days of learning of it. - You submit a proposal with labour hours by classification, material with quotes, equipment, and any schedule impact stated in days.
- We review, negotiate if needed, and issue a change order.
- You sign, and only then does the work proceed.
- The change order value is added to your schedule of values for billing.
If we direct you to proceed before the price is settled, you will receive a written construction change directive. Track those costs separately and daily, and submit them with the proposal.
Work performed without a signed change order or a written directive is not payable, and the first thing anyone will ask for is the document.
8. Closeout
Start collecting these at 50% complete, not at the end:
- As-built drawings, marked up as you go
- Operation and maintenance manuals
- Warranties, dated from substantial completion
- Training, scheduled with the owner
- Final unconditional lien waivers, yours and your lower tiers
- Consent of surety, where bonds were required
- Punch list completed by
______days from issue
Final payment and retention release follow the subcontract. Missing closeout documents delay retention for everyone, and retention is usually the money that matters.
Notes and common mistakes
Sending the packet after mobilization. It goes out with the award. A sub who is already on site has no incentive to read it.
Leaving the contact table blank. It is the section subs actually use. Fill it in for every job, every time.
Not attaching the forms. Pay application form, both lien waiver forms, the insurance exhibit, the schedule. Referencing a form is not sending it.
Skipping the fraud paragraph. Payment redirection fraud in construction usually arrives as a polite email about updated banking details, often from a compromised mailbox that really does belong to the sub. Read the callout in Section 3 again, and make the verification call a rule that has no exceptions, including for people you know well.
Treating the packet as the contract. It is not. The subcontract governs. Say so, and keep the packet operational.
Related Resources
- Subcontractor Onboarding — workflow from award to mobilization
- Subcontractor Onboarding Checklist — mobilization gate
- Subcontractor Agreement — the subcontract itself