Managing subcontractors: compliance, payment, and keeping jobs on track

The subcontractors who cause the fewest problems aren't necessarily the cheapest — they're the ones whose paperwork is current and whose payment terms are clear before the first invoice, not after a dispute.

Compliance paperwork to hold on file, not chase later

• Public liability insurance — check the expiry date, not just that a certificate exists; an expired policy is the same as no policy.
• CIS registration status, since this determines the deduction rate you're legally required to apply.
• Relevant trade certifications (Gas Safe, NICEIC, CSCS cards on site) — these expire on rolling dates that are easy to lose track of across a dozen subbies.
• Method statements and risk assessments for higher-risk trades, kept before work starts, not requested after an incident.

Agree payment terms before work starts, not on the first invoice

A subcontractor who doesn't know your payment terms until their first invoice is late will assume the worst about every payment after that. Setting terms — including any retention you'll apply — in writing before work starts avoids a conversation that's much harder to have once money's already owed.

Watch for concentration risk

Relying heavily on one or two subcontractors for a trade means a single dispute, insolvency, or scheduling conflict can stall a job with no fallback. It's worth knowing, per trade, whether you have a genuine second option — not necessarily using them, just knowing they exist.

Track reliability the same way you track cost

Price is the easiest thing to compare between subcontractors and the least predictive of how a job will actually go. Turning up on the agreed day, invoicing accurately against what was actually done, and raising problems early rather than late are harder to compare but matter more over a run of jobs — worth tracking deliberately rather than trusting to memory.