"Replacing a sub: alternatives and outreach"

When the Replace tab appears

Open a subcontractor's detail card and you will usually see Overview, Compliance, Jobs and margin, and the rest. A Replace tab joins them only when the sub reads as a drop candidate: their reliability is at risk, their reliability is on watch and you have absorbed real backcharges from them, or their certificate of insurance has expired while they have more than $5,000 of billed work with you. For every other sub the tab simply is not there, because there is nothing to replace. The rule is the same one behind the keep-watch-replace verdict, covered in how the verdict is reached, so the analysis, the card, and your Feed always agree about who is on the bubble.

The tab exists to turn "this sub is a problem" into a concrete next move, in three steps that run down the panel.

Move one: the costed why

The panel leads with the reason this sub is flagged, in one line with the dollars in it: "Reliability at risk, $4k in backcharges." or "COI expired on $18k of work." When there is a dollars-at-stake figure, it sits directly beneath as "At stake," so you can weigh the switching cost against the cost of doing nothing before you touch anything else.

Move two: a stronger sub you already have

Before sourcing anyone new, Verinode checks your own roster. If another sub works the same trade, has a rated reliability, and scores higher than the flagged one, the panel names them: "You already have a stronger Drywall sub: Summit Interiors. Shift work their way first." That is almost always the cheapest fix, no vetting, no paperwork, no new relationship, just a different phone call on the next job. The head-to-head picture behind this, every sub ranked within their trade, lives in the Trade rankings view of the analysis, covered in trade rankings.

If nobody stronger works that trade for you, the panel says nothing here and goes straight to sourcing.

Move three: local alternatives

The third move searches for providers in your area, keyed on the flagged sub's trade. One tap on "Find local Drywall contractors" (the button names the trade) returns nearby providers, each with their name, their Google rating and review count where one exists, their city and state, their distance from you in miles, and a marker when they are preferred by your franchise HQ. Phone and website links sit on each row so you can vet them yourself.

Two honest doors apply here:

• No trade set. The search needs to know what to look for. If the sub has no trade on their card, the panel says so: "Set this sub's trade in Overview to source local alternatives in your area." Set it once and the search lights up.
• A thin directory. The first search reads what is already known about your area, which costs nothing. If it comes back empty, the panel offers "Search live," which pulls fresh candidates from the map. That live pull uses Intelligence Units, and the panel says so before you tap it.

The drafted outreach email

Every provider row carries a "Draft outreach" action. Tap it and Verinode writes a short, professional introduction email for you: it presents you as a restoration contractor expanding your bench in that trade, asks about availability, licensing and insurance (a certificate of insurance), and typical pricing, and proposes a quick call. Anything Verinode does not know about you is left as a bracketed placeholder, your name, your company, your phone, so nothing is invented on your behalf.

You then do one of three things with the draft: read it and move on, Copy it, or Open in mail, which drops the subject and body into your own mail client with the recipient left to you. Sending is always your act, from your address, after your review.

The same panel, with the same three moves and the same drafted outreach, appears on a sub's card on your phone; see Subcontractors on your phone.

Data sources