AI agent · Construction · Chase what is missing
Subcontractor compliance documents
Every subcontract package needs insurance, licences and safety documents in date before work starts, and kept in date until it ends. The agent requests them, reads them, checks them against the package requirements and keeps chasing until the file is complete.
Typical volumes for this process, not a client figure.
Insurance, licences and method statements chased by email, tracked in spreadsheets.
Read and checked for cover and expiry, chased on schedule; gaps flagged before work starts.
Where the time goes today
For each subcontractor on each project, the main contractor has to hold a set of documents: liability and workers' injury insurance certificates at the limits the subcontract requires, trade licences or registrations, company and tax registration, risk assessments and method statements for the work, operative competence cards, and inspection certificates for lifting and access equipment. Some are needed before the subcontractor sets foot on site; all must stay valid until the package closes.
Today a package manager or site administrator emails a list, receives a mix of PDFs, photos and broker letters, opens each one, checks the dates, and records the result in a spreadsheet per project. The checks that take time are the ones that need reading: whether the insured entity is the one that signed the subcontract, whether the limit of indemnity meets the requirement, whether the policy covers the activity being subcontracted.
The failures show up late. Cover lapses mid-project and nobody notices until an incident. Operatives arrive with expired cards and are turned away at induction, losing a day. A method statement for the previous project is sent again with the name changed. At the end of the job, the evidence an auditor or a client asks for is spread across inboxes.
How the agent works
- Build the requirementsFrom the subcontract and your project rules, the agent lists the documents each package needs, the minimum cover limits and how long each document must remain valid.
- Request the documentsIt sends the subcontractor's named contact a specific list with an upload link, stating what each document must show and by when.
- Read and checkIt reads each document: type, entity name, policy or licence number, limits, activities covered, dates, project reference and signatures. It compares each value to the requirement and returns a rejected document with the exact reason.
- Chase and renewIt chases on a schedule, first to the contact and then to the person who signed the subcontract. It tracks every expiry date and requests the renewal ahead of it.
- Update and escalateIt records a status per subcontractor per project in your project system, where induction and the payment run can read it, and escalates to the package manager when a start date approaches without clearance or cover lapses mid-job.
What stays with a person
The health and safety lead judges whether a method statement is adequate for the work. The agent checks that the document is present, current, specific to this project and signed, but not whether the method is safe; that is a competence judgement. Commercial decisions also stay with people: whether a subcontractor may start with a gap under a documented condition, whether a payment is held, and whether cover below the requirement is accepted.
Any override is recorded with the name of the person who made it and the reason, so the file shows at audit why a gap was accepted rather than simply that it existed.
What it reads, what it produces
| It reads | It produces |
|---|---|
| Subcontracts and package requirement schedules | A compliance status per subcontractor per project |
| Insurance certificates and broker letters | Rejection notices stating exactly what a document fails to show |
| Licences, registrations and operative competence cards | An expiry calendar with renewals requested in advance |
| Risk assessments, method statements and equipment inspection certificates | An escalation list for packages starting within the next two weeks |
| Project start dates and the subcontractor master data | An evidence file per package, ready for audit or client request |
Controls that come with it
- The requirement matrix is owned by a named person and versioned
- Cleared status is set only when every required document passes
- The agent flags gaps to the commercial team; it does not hold payments itself
- Every check is stored with the document image and the values read
- A monthly sample of cleared files reviewed by the health and safety lead
- Overrides logged with who, why and until when
How you know it works
- Days from appointment to clearance
- Subcontractors starting work with an open gap
- Days of lapsed cover during projects
- Chasers sent per document
- Administrator hours per package
Is your process ready?
- Written rules: requirements often differ by project manager. Standardise the matrix by package type and value first; the agent applies one set of rules, not the habits of each site.
- Systems: your project or supplier system must let software update a status field, and its licence must permit automated use. A supplier portal with upload helps but is not required.
- Cheap check: most values can be verified against the document image in seconds, and site induction checks operative cards again at the gate.
- Volume: several projects with dozens of packages each repays the build; a single small project does not.
- One description: sites, commercial and health and safety must agree who clears a subcontractor and what cleared means.
The five candidacy checks are explained, with an exam, in the free Module 01.
What goes wrong
- Broker letters summarise cover without stating limits, so the check cannot pass until the schedule arrives.
- Group policies name the parent company, not the entity that signed the subcontract.
- Some competence cards can only be verified on the issuing scheme's website; do this only where the scheme's terms permit automated lookups.
- Second-tier subcontractors are invisible unless the subcontract obliges the first tier to declare them.
Questions we get
Does the agent verify that documents are genuine?
It checks consistency: the entity matches the subcontract, dates and limits agree between certificate and schedule, and the same policy number does not appear on file for a different company. It can confirm cards or registrations against a public register where the register's terms permit it. It cannot prove a certificate is genuine; for high-value packages, your process of confirming cover with the broker directly stays in place.
Can it stop someone entering site?
It sets a status that your induction process reads. Whether a site admits a subcontractor with a gap is your rule, applied by site staff. Most contractors configure the status to block induction for missing insurance and to warn for secondary documents, but the agent itself only reports; people at the gate act on it.
What if a project director accepts cover below the requirement?
The director records the acceptance in the agent's queue, with a reason and an end date. The file then shows the gap, the decision, who made it and until when. When the end date arrives, the agent raises the gap again. Nothing is silently waived, and the audit trail explains every exception.
How does it handle second-tier subcontractors?
Only if you ask for them. When the subcontract requires the first tier to declare its own subcontractors, the agent requests their documents through the first-tier contact and tracks them as a separate line under the package. Without that contractual obligation, the agent has no way of knowing a second tier exists.
Want this agent on your process?
Tell us about your version of this process — volumes, systems, what goes wrong. A person answers with an approach and a price, usually within two working days, or tells you it is the wrong project.