Good onboarding software for construction companies does three things. It collects the right documents from every subcontractor (licences, insurances, SWMS, ABN, bank details and the signed subcontract). It keeps watching expiry dates after day one. And it passes that information on to your job system, accounts payable and payments, so nobody types it in again. Most tools do the first two well. The third is where builders get caught out, so check it before you buy.
This guide starts with a subcontractor onboarding checklist you can use today, then gives you a checklist to take into software demos, explains the three main types of tools, and shows where the onboarding data needs to go next. If you'd rather have it set up and connected for you, see our subcontractor management software service.
Subcontractor onboarding checklist
Use this list for every new subcontractor, whatever tool you collect it in. Check with your lawyer, insurer and safety adviser what your subcontracts and your state require; the list below covers the common items.
Business details
- Legal name, trading name and ABN
- GST registration status, checked on ABN Lookup (save the result and the date you checked)
- Main contact, phone, email and postal address
- Bank account details, confirmed by calling a phone number you already hold, not one from the email
Licences and qualifications
- Contractor or trade licence for your state (e.g. QBCC in Queensland): number, class and expiry date, checked on the regulator's public register
- Trade tickets and high-risk work licences for the people who will be on site
- General construction induction (white card) details for each worker
Insurances
- Public liability certificate of currency: insurer, cover amount, expiry date
- Workers' compensation certificate, or a note of how the subbie is covered
- Personal accident or income protection, if your subcontract asks for it
Safety
- SWMS for any high-risk construction work they will do
- Your own site induction, booked or completed
- Any plant or equipment records you need (registrations, inspections)
Contract and payment
- Signed subcontract or trade agreement, with agreed rates and retention terms
- How and when they lodge progress claims or invoices
- Supplier record set up in your accounting software with payment terms and the TPAR setting (see the Taxable Payments Annual Report)
- Set up in your job system against the right trades and cost codes
Before you approve
- Someone on your team has checked every item above
- Expiry dates are recorded so reminders go out before anything lapses
- The record shows who approved the subbie and when
There's a printable version of this checklist, with a column for who checks each item and when it expires, at the end of this article.
If you are typing these details into more than one place, that is the part worth fixing. The rest of this guide covers the tools and how the information should flow on.
How to choose subcontractor onboarding software
There isn't one best contractor onboarding software for every business. The right choice depends on the job system you already run, how many subbies you onboard, and how your approvals and payments work today. So start with your process, not a product list: write down who collects the details now, who checks them, and where they get typed in again. Then judge each tool on how much of that it removes.
What to look for
Take this list into every demo and ask the vendor to show you each item, not just tick it on a feature sheet.
- Licence checks. It records the trade or contractor licence that applies in your state (e.g. QBCC in Queensland), with the licence number, class and expiry date. Better still, it links to or checks the regulator's public register rather than relying on what the subbie typed.
- Insurances with expiry alerts. It stores certificates of currency for public liability and workers' compensation (plus personal accident or income protection if your subcontract asks for it). It records the insurer, cover amount and expiry date, and it reminds the subbie, and tells your team, before cover runs out.
- SWMS and inductions. It collects SWMS for high-risk construction work, general construction induction (white card) details and your own site induction records, and it can stop someone being booked on site while these are missing.
- ABN and GST checks. It checks the ABN and GST status against the government's ABN Lookup, at onboarding and again later. If a supplier doesn't quote an ABN you generally have to withhold tax from their payments, so this matters before the first payment.
- Bank details verification. It treats bank details as high-risk information. Changes need approval and a call-back to a phone number you already hold. Fake "our bank details have changed" emails are a well-known scam; Scamwatch advises checking any change using contact details you already have, not the ones in the email.
- Contract and payment-claim links. The signed subcontract, agreed rates and retention terms sit against the subbie's record, and those terms can be used when their progress claims come in. See our guide to progress claims, payment schedules and retention.
- Where the data goes next. Ask how an approved subbie gets into your job system (with the right trade and cost codes), your accounts payable system (supplier record, payment terms and the TPAR setting) and your payments. If the answer is "export a spreadsheet", you will still be retyping.
- An approval step. Someone on your team reviews each submission before it goes anywhere. Self-service removes the typing, not the checking.
- Getting your data out. You can export every record and document if you leave.
Compliance holds on payments
The test that separates good construction onboarding software from a document store is what happens at payment time. If a subbie's public liability or workers' compensation certificate has expired, can the tool tell your accounts team before the payment run? Some tools can put a hold on the supplier, or flag the progress claim, until a current certificate is approved. Others only send an email reminder and leave it to someone to notice. Ask to see it working with your own accounting software and job system, not a demo account.
Questions to ask vendors
- Which job systems and accounting software do you connect to today, and what exactly goes across: the supplier record, bank details, ABN, the TPAR setting, trades and cost codes?
- Is that connection built and supported by you, or is it an export file someone has to import?
- What happens when a certificate expires: a reminder only, a block on site access, or a hold on payments?
- Can we set our own approval steps, for example a safety check and an accounts check before a subbie goes live?
- How are bank detail changes handled, and who has to approve them?
- Can we collect inductions and SWMS in the same place, or does that need another tool?
- How do we get all our records and documents out if we leave?
- What does the subbie see, and do they need to create an account to use it?
If a vendor can't answer the connection questions clearly, plan for the cost of connecting it yourself, or for someone to keep retyping. Our subcontractor management software service covers that connection work, whichever tool you choose.
The three types of onboarding tools
Builders and contractors usually end up with one of three kinds of tool. None is right for everyone; it depends on what you already run.
Dedicated contractor-management platforms
These are built for prequalification, compliance documents, inductions and site access. Australian examples include Cm3, Rapid Global and HammerTech. They are strong on document collection, expiry tracking and site safety. The question to ask is how well they connect to your job system and your accounts, because compliance is their focus, not payments.
Modules inside construction job systems
Many construction management and job-costing systems have subcontractor records, document storage or compliance features built in. They are convenient if your team already lives in that system, and the subbie is already linked to jobs and cost codes. Check how deep the compliance side goes (expiry alerts, licence checks, inductions) and whether supplier and bank details flow on to your accounting software, or only the name and contact details.
Forms and workflow tools
Online forms, document portals and workflow tools can collect the same details at lower cost, especially for contractors who onboard a handful of subbies a month. On their own they collect information and then stop. They work well when someone connects them to the rest of your systems, so an approved form creates the supplier record and the job-system record automatically.
Some businesses find their process doesn't fit any of these, for example several entities, unusual approval rules or a mix of employees, labour-hire workers and subbies. That's when a custom portal, or custom connections between off-the-shelf tools, makes sense.
Why the connection to payments and job costing matters most
In most construction businesses the problem isn't knowing what to collect. It's what happens to the information afterwards.
A typical pattern: a subbie emails back a PDF form with attachments. Someone types the details into a compliance spreadsheet, then again into the accounting software as a new supplier, then again into the job system. Sometimes the bank details are typed a fourth time into the banking portal. This is double data entry: the same information typed into more than one system.
For example, if your team onboards a new electrician, the same ABN, name and bank details might be entered in four places by two different people. Every retype is a chance for a wrong digit or a missed TPAR setting. When the electrician's insurance is renewed, usually only one copy gets updated, and that's how an uninsured subbie gets paid.
The fix is a simple rule: each detail is entered once, by the person who knows it, checked once, and every other system takes it from there.
- Capture once. The subbie enters their own details and uploads their documents.
- Check once. Your team verifies the ABN, GST status, licence and certificates, then approves.
- Send it on. On approval, the supplier is created in your accounting software (ABN, contact and bank details, payment terms, tax and TPAR settings) and in your job system against the right trade and cost codes.
- Agree who owns each detail. For example, onboarding owns licences and insurances, while the accounting system owns payment terms. That stops one system overwriting another.
When it's fixed, it looks like this: a project manager can see before allocating work that a subbie's insurance expires next week. Accounts can see an expired certificate before a payment run, not after. At the end of the financial year the Taxable Payments Annual Report comes straight from supplier records that were set up correctly on day one.
Getting subbies set up against the right cost codes from the start also makes construction job costing far more reliable, and our builder accounting software integration page covers the link between job systems and accounts.
Keeping records current after day one
Onboarding isn't a one-off event. Insurances and licences expire, and businesses change ABNs and bank accounts. Whatever tool you choose should:
- remind the subbie before an insurance or licence expires and ask for the renewal,
- flag expired documents to project managers and accounts before new work is allocated or a payment is made,
- re-check ABN and GST status from time to time, not just at onboarding,
- keep a history of every document and approval, so you can show what you held and when.
If you're comparing options and want help working out what you need, or connecting the tool you choose to the rest of your systems, our subcontractor management software page explains how we approach it. More on how we work with builders is on our construction industry page.
Frequently asked questions
What is subcontractor onboarding software?
It's software that collects and checks a subcontractor's details before they start work: ABN and GST status, licences, insurances, safety documents, bank details and the signed subcontract. Good tools also track expiry dates and pass the approved details on to your job system and accounts.
Which onboarding software is best for contractor management?
It depends on your job system and your process, so we don't think there's one honest winner. The best fit for you is the tool that tracks licence and insurance expiry dates with alerts, collects inductions and SWMS, has an approval step, and connects properly to the job system and accounting software you already use, including putting a hold on payments when compliance lapses. Shortlist two or three tools against the "Questions to ask vendors" list above and ask each vendor to show you those features working with your own systems.
What should construction onboarding software connect to?
At minimum, your accounting software (so the supplier record and bank details aren't retyped) and your job system (so the subbie is set up against the right trades and cost codes). Ideally it also feeds payment runs, so a subbie with expired insurance is flagged before they're paid.
What should be on a subcontractor onboarding checklist?
At minimum: ABN and GST status, contact and bank details (confirmed by phone), the state contractor licence, public liability and workers' compensation certificates with expiry dates, SWMS and inductions, the signed subcontract with rates and retention terms, and the supplier and job-system set-up. The full list is in the subcontractor onboarding checklist at the top of this guide.
Does the same apply to mining and resources contractors?
Yes. Mining services contractors onboard subcontractors the same way, but the checklist is longer: site inductions, tickets and licences, medicals, insurances and site access approvals all need to be current before anyone goes on site. The same rules apply. Collect it once, check it, keep expiry dates in one place, and hold payments when something lapses.
Do we still need to check details if the subbie fills in the form themselves?
Yes. Self-service removes the typing, but someone should still verify the ABN, GST status, licence and insurance certificates before approval. The aim is one careful check instead of several rushed retypes.
Is a contractor-management platform better than the module in our job system?
It depends on where your gaps are. Dedicated platforms usually go deeper on compliance, inductions and site access. Job-system modules are already linked to jobs and costs. Many businesses use one and connect it to the other systems they already run.
How much does connecting onboarding to our other systems cost?
Costs vary widely depending on the size of the business, how many systems are involved and how much needs to be custom-built. That's why we scope every project first and give you a fixed quote after a free initial chat. If you want a full written review of your current systems first, our paid $5,000 Process & Systems Audit covers that.
If your office is still copying subbie details from emails into spreadsheets, your accounts and your job system, it's worth fixing. Book a free initial chat and we'll talk through how you onboard subcontractors now and what connecting it all up would involve.