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What Is a Subcontractor in Construction?

What is a subcontractor, and how do they get access to a project?

A subcontractor is an outside specialty trade hired under contract; they get project-scoped access through a project assignment and a subcontractor portal, created when the GC schedules them onto the work.

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What it is

A subcontractor is an outside specialty company a general contractor hires to perform a defined piece of work, like cabinets, tile, or paint. The GC assigns the responsibility to the sub company; the sub assigns its own crew. A subcontractor participates in a project through a membership tied to their company profile, not to an individual person, and works inside the GC's tenant as a guest with project-scoped access.

Why it matters

Keeping the sub relationship modeled correctly matters for both responsibility and access. The GC decides which company owns a piece of work; the sub decides who physically shows up. Conflating the two, letting the GC pick the sub's individual crew member, puts the GC in the sub's workforce-management seat, which is a category error. On the access side, a sub should see the projects they are assigned to and nothing else, which is exactly what project-scoped membership enforces.

How it works

  1. Onboard the sub company
    Set up the subcontractor profile under the GC's tenant.
  2. Schedule the sub onto the work
    The GC assigns responsibility to the sub company on a scheduled piece of work, the canonical assignment path.
  3. Membership and compliance are created
    Scheduling mints the sub's project membership and seeds the bond and lien-waiver requirements.
  4. The sub works through their portal
    The sub gets project-scoped access to act on the work they were assigned.

Common mistakes

Try
Assigning a sub by picking their crew member
Reality
The GC assigns the company, the sub assigns the labor. Picking the sub's individual crew member crosses the responsibility-versus-labor line.
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Giving subs company-wide visibility
Reality
A sub should see only the projects they are assigned to. Broad access leaks one job's information into another's view.
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Keying the sub relationship to a person
Reality
The membership ties to the sub company profile, not an individual. Keying it to a person breaks when the crew changes.
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No compliance requirements on assignment
Reality
A sub starting work usually triggers bond and lien-waiver obligations. Skipping them leaves a compliance gap from day one.

How Scaftra handles it

Scaftra models the subcontractor at the company level: the GC assigns responsibility to the subcontractor profile, and scheduling auto-creates the Subcontractor Project Assignment, the membership that makes the sub a participant on that project. That assignment is keyed on the profile, not a person, and its creation seeds bond and lien-waiver compliance requirements. The sub onboarding, the company-scoped supplier master, and the commitment-scoped sub portal all ship and run in production.

Scaftra assigns the sub at the company level and creates their project membership the moment they're scheduled, so responsibility, access, and compliance all start together.

Frequently asked questions

How does a subcontractor get access to a project?
Through a project assignment created when the GC schedules them onto the work. The membership is keyed to the sub company profile and grants project-scoped access via the sub portal.
Who decides which crew member shows up?
The subcontractor. The GC assigns responsibility to the sub company; the sub assigns its own labor. Conflating the two puts the GC in the sub's workforce-management seat.
How does Scaftra handle subcontractors?
Scaftra assigns the sub at the company level, auto-creates the project membership on scheduling, and seeds bond and lien-waiver compliance requirements. The sub works through a commitment-scoped portal.

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