Keeping Subbie Paperwork Straight Before It Costs You a Job

Most trade businesses take on subcontractors long before they build any system for managing them. The first subbie is someone you know, the paperwork feels like a formality, and everything runs fine. By the time you are using four or five different subbies across a busy month, nobody is sure whose public liability has lapsed, which licence number is current, or why an invoice arrived for work that was never agreed. The problem usually surfaces at the worst moment, when something goes wrong on site or an insurer asks a question you cannot answer.

The paperwork that actually matters

You do not need a filing cabinet for every subbie. You need a short, consistent list. For most trade businesses that means a current public liability certificate of currency, the relevant trade licence or registration for the work being done, workers compensation cover or a personal accident policy if they are a sole trader, and their ABN and GST status. If they are bringing their own crew, you want to know that too.

The reason to insist on all of it is not bureaucracy. If a subbie damages a customer's property and their insurance has lapsed, the customer comes to you, because your name is on the job. If unlicensed work is done under your business, the consequences land on your licence, not theirs.

Check it before the first job, not after

The single habit that prevents most of this trouble is refusing to put a subbie on site until the documents are in hand. It feels awkward the first time, particularly with someone you have known for years, but framing it as standard practice removes the awkwardness. A simple "I need your certificate of currency and licence number before I can book you in" is a normal thing for a business to say, and any professional subbie will have both ready.

What you want to avoid is the pattern where the work happens first and the paperwork is chased afterwards. Once the job is done, your leverage is gone, and the documents tend never to arrive.

Keep one folder per subbie

Whether that is a folder in your CRM, a shared drive, or a labelled folder on your phone, the principle is the same: everything for one subbie lives in one place, and you can find it in under a minute. Include the certificates, the licence details, their bank details, the agreed rates, and any written scope from past jobs.

Scattering this across text messages and email threads is what makes it unmanageable. When you need a certificate of currency for a builder asking for it on a commercial site, you want to forward it, not spend twenty minutes searching.

Set expiry reminders you cannot ignore

Insurance certificates and licences expire, usually annually, and almost always without anyone noticing. When you file a certificate, put its expiry date in your calendar with a reminder a month out. That reminder is what gives you time to ask for the renewal before it becomes urgent.

If you use a CRM, this is worth setting up properly as a recurring task per subbie rather than something you try to remember. The whole point is removing it from your memory.

Agree the scope and the rate in writing

Most subbie disputes are not about dishonesty, they are about two people remembering a conversation differently. A short message confirming what was agreed solves this: the address, the scope of work, the rate or fixed price, who is supplying materials, and roughly when the work is expected.

This does not need to be a contract. A text or email sent before the job starts, confirming the bathroom rough-in at a given address, at their price, with materials supplied by you, starting Tuesday, is enough to settle nearly every argument that might otherwise happen later.

Set your expectations for invoices

Decide what an acceptable subbie invoice looks like and tell people up front. At minimum it should carry their ABN, the job address, a description of the work that matches what was agreed, and the amount with GST shown separately if they are registered. Set a payment term that matches your own cash flow rather than paying on receipt by default.

When an invoice arrives that does not match the agreed scope, deal with it immediately rather than paying it quietly and feeling annoyed. A short conversation on the day is far easier than a pattern that repeats for six months.

When a subbie will not produce the paperwork

Occasionally someone will stall, and it usually means the document does not exist or has lapsed. That is useful information. The right response is to hold the booking rather than to make an exception, because the exception is exactly the job that will go wrong. Good subbies are not offended by being asked, and the ones who are offended are telling you something.

The short version

• Insist on insurance, licence and ABN details before the first job, not after
• Keep one folder per subbie with everything in it
• Diarise every expiry date with a reminder a month ahead
• Confirm scope, price and materials in a short written message before work starts
• Tell subbies what you need on an invoice before they send the first one
• Hold the booking rather than make an exception when paperwork is missing

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a certificate of currency from every subcontractor?

For any subbie doing work on a customer site under your business name, yes. It is the document that shows their public liability cover is active on the day they are working, rather than simply that a policy was taken out at some point. Requirements differ by state and by the type of work, so it is worth checking what applies to your trade and licence.

How often should I recheck a subbie's paperwork?

Once a year is usually enough for regular subbies, tied to the expiry date of their insurance or licence rather than a fixed date in your own calendar. For someone you use only occasionally, checking that the certificate on file has not expired before each booking is safer.

Is a text message enough to confirm the scope of work?

For most day-to-day subbie work, a clear text or email covering address, scope, price and materials is far better than nothing and is usually enough to resolve a disagreement. For larger or longer-running work, a proper subcontractor agreement is worth the effort, and worth getting advice on.