Feature Overview: Subcontractors

The Subcontractors feature allows your organization — the primary instance — to invite and manage outside companies your organization subcontracts work out to. From the backend, you can create and configure subcontractor profiles, assign them inspections or work orders, and collect their completed documentation — all without granting backend access.

Subcontractors continue to complete their work using their own processes. Once finished, they upload the required documentation you define via the Technician Portal (login access) or an Easy Upload link (no login required).

This article provides a high-level overview of the Subcontractors feature from the primary customer’s backend, including setup, invitations, documentation management, job assignment, and review.

🎯 What You Can Do (at-a-glance)

• Invite a subcontractor and choose how they submit work (Portal vs Easy Upload)
• Assign visits (inspections/work orders) to a subcontractor
• Collect documents (report, invoice, work order, custom types) and mark required items
• Control defaults & notifications (sender email, recipients, default invite method)
• Color-code calendar entries and filter by subcontractor

⚙️ Settings

Settings → Subcontractors

• Subcontractors — create/manage subcontractor companies, invite, set visit and trade options
• Documentation — choose which document types subs must upload

Important: This feature must be enabled for your tenant to see the Subcontractors section.

🛠️ Company Settings Defaults

Settings → Company Settings (once Subcontractors is enabled)

• Easy Upload Sender Email — If blank, emails come from no-reply@inspectpoint.com. Set this to send from your own address (e.g., scheduling@yourcompany.com).
• Recipients — Add addresses to receive notifications when subs upload or submit work.
• Default Upload Method — Choose the default for subcontractor creation. You can override this per sub when creating:
  • Technician Portal (login required) 
  • Easy Upload

✉️ Inviting a Subcontractor

1. Go to Settings → Subcontractors → Invite New
2. Enter Company name, Contact name/email/phone, and Calendar color
3. Select Invite Subcontractor or Easy Upload:
   • Invite Subcontractor: contact receives an invite email → confirms info → sets password → signs into the technician portal to view their calendar and upload documents
   • Easy Upload: no login created; when a job is assigned, the contact receives an email with a link where they upload required documents
4. Visit Types — Choose which type of visits can be scheduled to this sub
5. Required Documentation (Optional) — if desired, add required documentation that applies to this subcontractor only 
6. Trades (Optional) 
7. Invite

📧 After you assign a job, the contact you set here gets an email that they’ve been scheduled.

📚 Documentation Types (What Subs Upload)

Settings → Subcontractors → Documentation

• Preloaded types: Inspection Report, Work Order, Invoice
• Deactivate what you don’t need, or add custom categories (e.g., “Receipt”)
• Mark Required to block submission until the documentation is provided
• These settings apply globally to all subcontractors, but you can further customize per subcontractor when sending the invite.

🔗 Related: Subcontractor Documentation

🧱 Set Default Subcontractor at Building-level (Optional)

At a Building, you can set a Default Subcontractor (e.g., always sub out alarm to “B-Easy Fire”).

When you create an inspection and choose “Subcontractor” as the performer, the default sub will pre-fill.

🗓 Scheduling Subcontractors 

Inspections → New Inspection or Work Order → New Work Order

• Who will be performing the inspection? → choose Subcontractor
• Select the Subcontractor (defaults if set at the building)
• Add an optional Note (e.g., “Complete annual alarm inspection and upload report via Subcontractor Portal”)
• Save 
  • Subcontracted jobs are scheduled the same way as any other inspection or work order in Inspect Point

📆 Calendar 

• The visit will show in the calendar color you chose for that sub
• A handshake icon marks subcontractor visits (inspection or work order)
• Calendar filtering supports showing only work assigned to subcontractors

📤 How Subs Submit Work

Two paths—your choice at invite time:

1. Technician Portal (login)
   • Sub sees their calendar and assigned jobs
   • Uploads required documents (e.g., report) from the job’s details via the Technician Portal

2. Easy Upload (no login)
   • You generate/send the upload link for the specific job
   • Sub uploads required files directly from the link

📝 Subs do not complete work inside Inspect Point unless they’re already an Inspect Point customer; they do the work as usual and then upload finished documentation.

🔎 Review & Approve Subcontractor Submissions

• When a sub sends work back:
  • Inspection - visit status is Processing 
  • Work Order - visit status is Waiting Review
• From the Detail Screen, open the visit’s Documentation tab to see uploaded files
• Approve (notify the sub and proceed—e.g., move to complete, publish to portal) or Reject (request fixes) 

✅ Best-Practice Tips

• Choose the right method:
  • Use Invite Subcontractor and subs will submit their documents via the Technician Portal 
  • Use Easy Upload for uploading documents without any login
• Use Required Documentation to prevent incomplete returns
• Select a different Calendar Color for each subcontractor for at-a-glance scheduling clarity via the Calendar