Subcontractors before the data flows

What day zero looks like

The Subcontractors section starts empty for everyone, and it is honest about it. On day zero the hero count reads zero with the line "Add Data. Your subs appear here as their invoices and COIs come in." The roster row underneath says the same thing in a sentence: "Your subcontractors appear here as their invoices and certificates of insurance come in." Nothing on the page is a placeholder pretending to be data; every row names the artifact that fills it. This article walks the exact steps the section climbs, in order, and what each one buys you, so you can decide how far to take it and in what order.

IQ's opening ask

In the Take Action row, a card titled "Get your subs on the radar" carries the section's opening ask, three ways in, any one of which starts the picture:

• Forward a subcontractor invoice tied to a job. The sub links to the job and their spend starts tracking against your margin.
• Request a certificate of insurance. Add a sub with their email and IQ sends a one-tap COI upload link, from the Certifications section.
• Forward a subcontractor agreement. Set up auto-forward in Connect so agreements and COIs land here automatically.

The card's footer says what all of it is for: "Decisions surface as IQ reads sub compliance, job exposure, and margin drag."

The first time you open the section, a short setup screen also walks you through what it does, what you will get, and what to have handy, ending on the two real ways in: drag a document straight onto the screen, or forward it to your personal IQ inbox address shown right there. Drop a COI on it and IQ reads the dates out in front of you.

The climb, step by step

The section fills in over four steps, cheapest first. The first three are yours to close, and each names its artifact.

1. 1Add one sub and their COI or workers comp expiry date. About 45 seconds, and the artifact is a sub's COI, or a photo of it. This switches on Coverage watch: see whether a sub is covered right now, with a warning before their insurance lapses, so an uninsured sub never works your job. This is the step that matters most, because an uninsured sub who gets hurt on your job turns into your claim, and the warning comes from pure date math on a document you already have.
2. 2Add the subs you use and their trades. The artifact is your sub list, and the step completes once three subs are on the roster. This switches on Roster gaps: who on your bench is missing a COI, W-9, or workers comp, flagged before you schedule them. One covered sub is a data point; a bench is a coverage picture.
3. 3Forward your subcontractor invoices. This switches on Sub cost: what each sub costs you job by job, and where they quietly drag your margin. This is the step that feeds the Jobs & margin tab and the whole cost side of the analysis deck.
4. 4Peer coverage. How your subs' coverage and cost compare to operators like you. This one is different in kind: it appears as more operators contribute, and it is not about anything missing from your data. There is nothing for you to do here and no artifact to send; it is never a task, and the section will never nag you about it.

You do not have to climb in one sitting. After the setup screen, the remaining steps live in the Get IQ up to speed row on the section home, and the row retires on its own once everything you can switch on is on.

If you turned the section off

Sections in Verinode are yours to switch on and off, and Subcontractors may be off if you chose a different focus during onboarding. Switching it back on takes one click: open Subcontractors from the sidebar and, instead of the section, you will see a Switch on Subcontractors panel over a preview of the page. Click the button, it reads "Switching on…" for a moment, and the live section renders in its place. The panel's fine print states the posture: "Data will appear here as it flows in. Nothing is switched on until you say so." How section activation works across the whole platform is covered in section onboarding.

Data sources