Add a contractor stage to your jobs (example: an electrical contractor)

Available on Pro and Enterprise

If part of a job is done by another firm, you can make their sign-off a stage the job has to clear. This guide sets one up from start to finish, using a heat pump installer who brings in an electrical contractor for the supply circuit. By the end, the job can’t be marked Installed until the electrician has sent their certificate from a link on their phone and someone in your office has checked it.

The same steps work for any trade: a roofer, a groundworks crew, a plumber, a scaffolder or a DNO consultant. Only the names change.

What you’re building

A contractor stage is four things that work together. You set the first three up once; the fourth happens on every job.

1. A request type for the trade: which steps the contractor’s link walks them through, and whether the office checks their work before it counts.
2. A saved contact for the firm you use, so their details fill in when you send.
3. A checklist item that the contractor completes, set as a gate before the status their work has to be done by.
4. A request sent from the job, which gives the contractor their own link. Their answer completes the checklist item, and the gate opens.

The checklist item and the request type are not tied to each other. The item says what has to be done and when; you choose who does it, and with which request type, each time you send. So one item can go to different firms on different jobs, and one request type can be used for several items.

You need permission to manage settings for steps 1 to 3. Anyone who can update a job can send the request and review the reply.

Step 1: add a request type for the trade

Open Contractor Request Types under Settings, Jobs & Installations, and click Add request type.

1. Name: what your team picks when sending. Here, “Electrical contractor”.
2. Trade: “Electrician”. Your team sees it when picking a contact.
3. Steps on the contractor’s link: leave Acknowledge on, so the electrician confirms they can do the work as briefed (or flags a problem with a photo) before the day. Complete is always on: it’s the step that completes your checklist item. Leave Removal off; it’s for things that have to come away from site later, like scaffold.
4. Office review before the item ticks: turn it on. The item then only counts as done once someone in the office has opened the certificate and accepted it. With it off, the item ticks the moment the electrician submits.
5. Survey sections shown by default: pick the parts of your survey the electrician needs to see, with their photos. For a heat pump that might be Property & Heat Loss and Site Photographs. The list shows the sections from every form your company uses, so some names appear more than once; pick the ones from the forms your jobs actually use. A default is only ticked on a job whose form has that section, and you can change the selection every time you send.
6. Leave Active on and click Save.

Step 2: save the contractor as a contact

Open Contractor Contacts and click Add contact. Enter the person you deal with at the firm:

• Name, Company and Email (all required). The request link goes to this email address.
• Phone, if you like, so the office can call them from the request.
• Trade, for example “Electrician”. You can search on it when sending, so typing “Electric” finds every electrician you’ve saved.

You don’t have to save a contact to send a request; the send dialog also lets you type someone’s details in. Saving them is quicker the second time, and keeps the spelling the same on every job.

Step 3: add the stage to your job checklist

Open Job Checklists & Gates and click Add checklist item. This is the step that turns the contractor’s sign-off into a gate.

The item

1. Item: say what done looks like. Here, “Electrical installation signed off by contractor”. The contractor sees this as the title of their request.
2. Reference: fills itself in from the name. It’s a fixed key every job uses for this item, so it can’t be changed after you save.
3. Description: optional, but the contractor sees it too. For example, “The electrician completes it from their link, with the certificate attached.”
4. Applies to: the installation types that need an electrician from outside. Here, Heat pump and Battery Storage. Leave it empty to put the item on every job.
5. Only when (optional): leave it empty here. Use it if you only bring in an electrician when the survey says so, for example when the consumer unit needs replacing; the item is then marked Not applicable on jobs with any other answer.

The gate

1. Required before: the status the job can’t move into until this is done. The electrician’s work is part of the installation, so choose Installed. If what you need from them is paperwork that comes after the install, choose Completed instead.
2. Choose Block, so nobody can mark the job Installed until the electrician has signed off (people with the override permission can still override it, with a reason). Warn lets the move through and records a warning; it’s a good way to start if your team is new to gates.

Completion

1. How it’s completed: choose By a third party. The line underneath confirms that a contractor completes it through a request sent from the job, and that field operatives can’t tick it in the app.
2. When a contractor completes it: leave Use the request type’s setting, so the office review you turned on in step 1 applies. Choose Always review before it ticks or Tick it straight away if this item should behave differently from the request type; the item’s own setting always wins.
3. Valid for (days): leave it blank. A certificate doesn’t expire. Set a number of days only for things that do, like a scaffold inspection tag; the contractor’s page then also asks them for a Valid until date.
4. Needs evidence: turn it on. The electrician then can’t mark the work complete without attaching a photo or document: a photo of the certificate, or the PDF itself.
5. Shown to operatives: leave it off. Your field operatives don’t tick this one; the contractor does.
6. Leave Active on and click Save.

Click the Heat pump chip at the top of the page to check it: the item sits in the Required before Installed group, marked Blocks and By a third party, with a paperclip for the evidence it needs.

From now on every heat pump and battery job carries the item, including jobs already open: they meet the gate on their next move to Installed. Jobs already past Installed aren’t affected.

Step 4: send it to the electrician from the job

Open the job from Jobs. In our example it’s a heat pump job in Install Scheduling, and its Checklist panel already says Can’t move to Installed yet, with the electrical sign-off at the top.

Click View details and find the item under Required before Installed, then click Send to third party. On the compact panel the same action is in the item’s ⋯ menu. The main button on the item is still Mark done: if the certificate reaches you some other way, the office can tick the item by hand and attach it as evidence.

In Send to a third party:

1. Contact: type “Electric” and pick Gethin Rees · Severnside Electrical Services. Their email, phone and trade fill in. Change picks someone else.
2. Request type: choose Electrical contractor. The line underneath confirms what the link will do: Acknowledge, Complete · office review. The survey sections you set as defaults are ticked further down.
3. Dates (optional): fill in the ones that apply. For an electrician, Ready by with a time is usually the one that matters. The dialog shows the same date fields for every trade, including Erect on, Arrival window, Permit and Planned removal; leave any that don’t apply empty and they won’t appear on the contractor’s page.
4. Quote ref: their quote number, if they gave you one.
5. Include customer name and phone: leave it off unless the electrician arranges access with the customer themselves.
6. Show from the survey: check the ticked sections are the ones they need. They see the answers and photos read-only.
7. Message: anything they need to know, for example “Heat pump supply circuit and isolator. Please upload the EIC when you are done.”
8. Read the They will see line, then click Send.

Gethin gets an email with a button to open his request. On the job, the item now shows With Severnside Electrical Services and the request shows Awaiting reply, with the steps still to come. If you need to change something after sending, use Update brief; see Resend, update, cancel or close.

What the electrician does

Gethin opens the link on his phone. There’s no login and no app: the page carries your company name and phone number, the item, your dates and message, the site address and the survey sections you shared.

1. Acknowledge: he chooses Yes, as briefed and taps Confirm. (If something needs to change, he chooses No, something needs to change with an explanation and a photo, and your office is told straight away.)
2. Mark it complete: once the work is done, he comes back to the same link and fills in Completed on (today or an earlier date), Inspection and handover (for example the certificate number and test results) and any Notes.
3. Photos (required): because the item needs evidence, he has to add at least one file before he can send. A photo of the certificate or the PDF itself both work, plus a photo of the finished work.
4. He checks his name and company (filled in from your saved contact) and taps Mark complete. The page says Thanks, sent for review.

Check the certificate and open the gate

The office is emailed and the job gets an alert. On the job, the Checklist panel turns purple: Waiting on your review, and Installed stays blocked until you accept it.

Click Review. The dialog shows what Gethin sent: the completed date, his handover notes and the files. Open the certificate, then choose:

• Accept: the item is ticked and the job can move on. Add a comment if you like.
• Raise a query: you need something more, like the full certificate rather than the first page. He’s emailed and can send his completion again from the same link.
• Reject: the work isn’t acceptable. He’s emailed to redo it, with your comment.

After Accept, the gate opens. The panel now reads Moving to Installed will warn because two warning items are still open, but nothing blocks the move any more. In View details, the item is ticked and says who completed it and who accepted it; See their response opens the certificate again at any time.

Everything Gethin sent is kept on the job: his answers in the job notes, his files in the request, and the review in the job’s history.

Make it fit your jobs

• Other trades: repeat the three setup steps with a different name. A roofer for “Roof made good after mounting”, a groundworks crew for “Cable trench dug and reinstated”, a plumber for “Heat pump pipework pressure tested”, or a DNO consultant for “Connection approval received”.
• Warn instead of Block: the job can still move on, and the outstanding sign-off shows as a warning on the move and on the panel.
• No office review: turn Office review before the item ticks off on the request type, or set the item to Tick it straight away. The item ticks as soon as the contractor submits, which suits trusted, low-risk work.
• A later gate: for paperwork that arrives after the install, set Required before to Completed, so the job can’t be closed without it.
• Only on some jobs: use Only when to tie the item to a survey answer, for example only when the survey says the consumer unit needs replacing.
• Something that expires: set Valid for (days). The contractor’s page then asks for a Valid until date, and the scheduler won’t book a visit after it runs out.

If something doesn’t look right

• The contractor doesn’t come up when I search: check they’re saved in Contractor Contacts. Search works on name, company and trade. Or use Not listed? Enter their details in the send dialog.
• My request type isn’t in the list: it has been switched off. Turn Active back on in Contractor Request Types.
• The contractor says they can’t mark it complete: the item needs evidence, so they have to add at least one photo or document first. A photo of the certificate is enough.
• The item isn’t on a job: check the job’s installation type is in Applies to, and that an Only when rule hasn’t made it Not applicable. You can’t send a request for an item that doesn’t apply to the job.
• The job moved to Installed without the sign-off: someone with the override permission overrode the gate. Their reason is on the item. The contractor can still complete it afterwards.
• My checklist is empty: you can add your own items like this one at any time. The installHUB defaults are separate and optional: click Add installHUB defaults in Job Checklists & Gates if you want them.

Related guides: Send requests to contractors with a link, Checklist items: evidence, rules and installHUB defaults, Work a job’s checklist.