How to onboard a subcontractor

What this app is

Getting a subcontractor cleared to work means collecting the same four documents every time — a W-9, a license, an insurance certificate and a signed contract. Doing that by text and email is the part that eats a week.

This app does the chasing. You add a sub with their phone number, and FieldStone texts them a link, sorts whatever they send back into the right slot, and nudges them about the ones still missing. The sub never makes an account — no password, no app to install, nothing for them to lose.

Step by step

1. 1

   Add the sub

   Open Subcontractor Onboarding, go to the Onboarding tab and press Add subcontractor. Pick or create the contact, give a mobile number, and choose the job. Every sub is asked for the same standard packet, so there is nothing to tick — and you can add a whole roster on one screen.
   BiddingOnboardingDirectory

   Job (required)Oak St reroof

   Delgado Framing

   (269) 555-0142Email (optional)

   + Add another

   Add subcontractor
2. 2

   They get a text

   FieldStone texts the sub a link that is theirs alone. It opens a plain page with the documents still needed and a button to take a photo. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to remember.
   Hi Marco! We’re getting you set up to work with Ridgeline Roofing. To do that, we’ll need W-9, license, insurance certificate, and signed contract. You can text photos right here, or upload them: fieldstoneapp.com/upload/… — no account needed.

   Delivered 8:04 AM
3. 3

   They send documents back

   They photograph the insurance certificate on the dashboard of their truck and send it. FieldStone reads it and drops it into the right slot on your side — they never have to work out which one it was.
   Their phone

   W-9Received

   Insurance certificateStill needed

   Take a photo
4. 4

   You review what arrived

   Arriving is not the same as passing. Once the whole packet is in, the sub moves to Awaiting review and waits for you — a certificate that expired last month arrives perfectly well. Open each document, check the expiry date beside it, and press Approve & clear; leave it and nothing has quietly gone through on your behalf.
   Awaiting review

   Insurance certificateReceived · uploaded Sep 12, 2026 · expires Sep 30, 2026

   View

   Approve & clear
5. 5

   Bounce just one document

   A blurry scan or an out-of-date certificate does not mean starting over. Ask for that one again and the sub gets a fresh link for that document only — everything else they already sent stays where it is.
   W-9Received

   Insurance certificateRequest again

   LicenseReceived
6. 6

   Let it chase for you

   You do not need to remember who has not replied. FieldStone nudges the subs with documents still outstanding, leans harder as the deadline gets closer — two weeks out unless one was set — and marks a sub Stalled when they have gone quiet long enough that you should pick up the phone yourself.
   2 days outReminder sent

   TomorrowReminder sent

   OverdueStalled
7. 7

   Bid the work out first, if you want

   Before you have picked anyone, open the Bidding tab, split the job into trade scopes and invite several subs to price each one. They bid through the same kind of no-login link. The proposals come back side by side so you compare like with like, and awarding one starts their onboarding automatically.
   Framing — 3 bids

   $18,400Award

   $21,900

   $24,150
8. 8

   The second job is faster

   What a sub sent you is kept under Directory. Next time you add them to a job, their W-9 and license carry over and you are only asking for that job's insurance certificate and signed contract. If the sub runs on FieldStone themselves, they keep their own vendor packet under My profile and share it with you in one tap instead of by text.
   On file

   New job — Maple Ave

   W-9Received

   LicenseReceived

   Insurance certificateNot received yet

   Signed contractNot received yet

   Only this job’s paperwork left to ask for.