Why prequalify subcontractors?
Most GCs have had a sub go bad mid-job: the crew stops showing up, the supplier liens the project because the sub didn't pay, the sub's safety record gets your site an OSHA visit, or the "bondable" sub turns out to have no capacity left. Prequalification is how you find those problems before you award. It won't guarantee performance, but it does make sure every sub is judged on the same facts. The free subcontractor prequalification form above collects that information in one questionnaire, calculates the safety rates from source data, and scores each sub against thresholds you set.
What the questionnaire covers
| Section | What you're checking |
|---|---|
| A. Company information | Legal entity, years in business (calculated), labor affiliation, certifications, trades self-performed. |
| B. Licenses | License type, jurisdiction, number, classification, qualifier, expiration. Verify every one on the state board's website. |
| C. Bonding | Surety, single-project and aggregate limits, current bonded backlog, calculated available capacity, bond rate, claims history. Ask for a surety letter on the surety's letterhead. |
| D. Insurance | Each coverage's limit against your required minimum. The sheet flags any shortfall, and there are endorsement questions (additional insured, waiver of subrogation, primary and non-contributory). |
| E. Safety program | 16 program elements: written program, orientation, toolbox talks, JHAs, drug testing, fall protection, confined space, LOTO, silica, trenching, incident investigation, and more. |
| F. Experience | Largest projects in the last 5 years with value, scope, and reference contact. |
| G. References | GCs, owners, and suppliers, with a verified-by column and a 1–5 rating that you fill in after the calls. |
| H. Financials | Three years of revenue, backlog, current assets and liabilities, with calculated current ratio, working capital, and backlog-to-revenue. |
| I. Litigation & history | Pending suits, judgments, defaults, failure to complete, bankruptcy, willful/repeat OSHA citations, debarment, liquidated damages. |
| J. Workforce | Employee counts, supervision, crew available for this project, and peak manpower. |
| K. Certification | A signed statement that the answers are true, plus authorization to verify them. |
Safety metrics: EMR, TRIR, and DART from source data
Don't just ask a sub for "your TRIR." Subs calculate it differently, some round in their own favor, and some report the wrong year. Ask for the OSHA 300A summary for each of the last three years and the EMR rating worksheet for each of the last three policy years, then calculate the rates the same way for every sub.
Experience Modification Rate (EMR)
The EMR compares a company's workers' comp claims to what's expected for its industry and payroll size. 1.00 is average, below 1.00 is better, and above 1.00 means higher premiums, and usually more injuries. EMR is based on a multi-year lookback, so one bad year stays on the record for a while. A new or very small company may not have a rating and will show 1.00 by default. Ask why.
TRIR: total recordable incident rate
TRIR = (G + H + I + J) × 200,000 ÷ hours worked, where G, H, I, and J are the 300A case columns: deaths, days-away cases, job transfer/restriction cases, and other recordable cases. The 200,000 is 100 full-time workers × 40 hours × 50 weeks, so TRIR reads as recordable cases per 100 full-time workers per year.
DART: days away, restricted, or transferred
DART = (H + I) × 200,000 ÷ hours worked. DART counts only the more serious cases, where someone lost time or couldn't do their normal job, so it's a better severity signal than TRIR.
The template calculates both for each year and as a three-year hours-weighted rate (total cases ÷ total hours), not an average of three yearly rates, which would give a small, bad year the same weight as a big, good one. There are also cells to enter the Bureau of Labor Statistics benchmark rates for the sub's NAICS code (from bls.gov/iif) so you compare the sub against its own industry.
Weighted scoring with editable thresholds
The Scoring tab pulls 16 criteria from the questionnaire and safety tabs automatically:
- Safety: current EMR, 3-year TRIR, 3-year DART, program elements in place, fatalities
- Bonding: single-project limit and available aggregate capacity
- Insurance: coverages below your required minimum
- Experience: largest completed contract and years in business
- Financial: current ratio, backlog ÷ revenue, and revenue ÷ this subcontract
- Legal: litigation and default questions answered "Yes"
- References: average verified rating
- Workforce: peak field manpower available
For every criterion you control five things: whether lower or higher is better, the target that earns a full 10 points, the pass/fail limit, the weight, and whether it's a knockout. Between target and limit the score slides from 10 to 5, and past the limit it's 0 and marked FAIL. Weights total 100%, so the weighted score is out of 100. A failed knockout (EMR over your limit, no bonding capacity, insurance below minimum, a fatality) makes the sub NOT QUALIFIED regardless of total. Otherwise the result is QUALIFIED or CONDITIONAL based on two minimum scores you set.
Size fit: a good sub on a job that's too big
A lot of sub failures aren't bad companies. They're decent companies that took on more than they could carry. Two ratios on the scoring sheet catch it:
- Revenue ÷ this subcontract. A $2M subcontract is a big share of a $5M company's year, and a delay or a slow-paying owner hits that company hard. Many GCs want the subcontract to be a small fraction of the sub's annual volume.
- Backlog ÷ revenue. A sub already sitting on more than a year of backlog will struggle to staff your job, no matter what the bid says.
Also compare available bonding capacity (aggregate minus bonded backlog), not just the headline program limit.
Running a fair, defensible prequalification process
- Use the same form, criteria, and weights for every sub bidding the same package.
- Verify rather than trust: license lookups, surety letter, COI from the agent, EMR worksheet, signed 300A, and actual reference calls.
- Keep the completed scoring sheet in the bid file with the approval signatures.
- Use conditional approval deliberately: a lower contract cap, a performance bond, a site-specific safety plan, or tighter pay-app review.
- Re-qualify annually and track insurance expirations between reviews with the certificate of insurance tracker.
- On public work, follow any owner or agency prequalification rules. They override your own process.
This template is a screening tool, not legal, insurance, or accounting advice. Have your insurance broker set the required limits and endorsements for your contracts.
After the award
Once a sub is qualified and awarded, you still have to manage them on the job. Field PM keeps subcontracts, certificates of insurance, sub daily reports, JSAs and safety forms, and change orders in one place, so you can see how the sub you qualified actually performs. Start a free 30-day trial, no credit card required.
Related free templates
- Bid leveling matrix: level qualified subs' bids on equal scope
- Certificate of insurance tracker: watch expirations after approval
- Subcontractor daily report: daily manpower and progress from each sub
- JSA template: require task hazard analysis from every crew
- Incident report: document incidents consistently
- Browse all free construction templates
