HOW YOU GET ON THE BID LIST.
Getting on a bid list has two halves and contractors usually work only the first. Somebody at the GC has to want you there, which is estimating, project management, and the work you did on the last job. Then somebody in risk has to approve you, and that person never sees your work. They read four documents: a current work in progress schedule, a bonding letter from your surety, financial statements, and a certificate of insurance with the right limits and the right additional insureds. Prequalification packages take 2 to 4 weeks to process at most commercial GCs, so the sub who submits a complete package 30 days before the bid date has a processed relationship when the invitation goes out, and the sub who submits the week of the bid doesn't.
The reason this feels arbitrary is that the two halves of the decision happen in different buildings. The estimator who liked your last pour isn't the person deciding whether your balance sheet can carry a $900,000 scope, and the risk department isn't deciding whether you do good work. They're asking one question, which is whether you'll still be here at closeout. Every input to that question is a document, so the sub with a monthly WIP and a current statement clears while the sub promising to get his accountant on it waits.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A general contractor's bid list is the set of subcontractors that GC will send an invitation to bid, and access to it's decided by a risk review of four documents rather than by the relationship that got you the meeting.
Bid lists also get worked from the inside, and the timing of the ask counts for more than the polish of it. A GC with three subs in your trade who is content with two of them isn't looking for a fourth, and the opening is created by a sub falling off rather than by an introduction. That means the package has to be ready when the phone rings rather than assembled after it. Kept current on a quarterly cycle, the ask costs you nothing but a phone call.
The document that does the most work here is the one most subcontractors don't have. A work in progress schedule tells the GC how much work you already have, how much of it's billed correctly, and therefore how much capacity is left, which is the whole capacity question answered on one page. A sub without one is asking a risk department to take capacity on faith, and risk departments don't do that. The WIP is also what your surety wants for the bonding letter, so one document serves both.
WHY THE PACKAGE GETS DECLINED.
The package gets built the week it's asked for
The GC asks on Tuesday for a bid that closes in ten days, and the scramble starts: the accountant is called, last year's statement is dug out, and the WIP doesn't exist. Internally produced statements assembled on a tight timeline read as just that. Since processing runs 2 to 4 weeks on its own, a package that takes a week to assemble has already missed the bid it was for.
There's no WIP schedule, so nothing proves capacity
Without a work in progress schedule the risk department can't tell what you already have committed, whether it's billed correctly, or whether a new scope fits. That's the one question they exist to answer, so an answer they can't compute becomes an answer they won't risk. Nothing else in the package substitutes for it, and no relationship overrides it.
The insurance certificate is wrong in a way nobody checks
Limits below what the subcontract requires, a missing additional insured endorsement, a waiver of subrogation that was never added, or a certificate that expired last month will stop a submission cold however strong the other three documents are. It's the cheapest of the four to get right and the one most often left to whoever picks up the phone at the agency.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
The WIP schedule answers how much work you already have and whether it's billed correctly, which is the capacity question. The bonding letter answers what your surety will stand behind, which is the size question. The financial statements answer whether the balance sheet can absorb a bad month, which is the survival question. The certificate of insurance answers whether the GC's own risk transfer works, which is the question that stops a submission cold regardless of the other three.
Prequalification packages take 2 to 4 weeks to process at most commercial GC risk departments. A subcontractor who submits 30 days before the bid date has a processed relationship when the invitation goes out. A sub who submits the week of the bid is bidding on hope. Getting that right costs a calendar reminder and nothing else, which makes it the highest return item anywhere in this process.
THE PACKAGE SITS IN A FOLDER.
The work in progress schedule gets produced every month as part of the close, in the format a surety and a GC risk department both accept. That means it's current on the day the request comes in rather than a project. It's also the report that tells you whether your own jobs are billed correctly, so it earns its keep long before a prequal asks for it.
Larger scopes and larger GCs ask for CPA reviewed or audited statements rather than internally produced ones. That's your CPA's product, not ours, and what we do is get the books to the state where a reviewed statement is a short engagement instead of a long one. Clean monthly closes with reconciled banks are what makes that difference.
A bonding letter is only fast if the surety already has current figures, which means the WIP and the statements have been going to them on a cadence rather than at renewal. We keep that flow running, so the letter is a phone call rather than a submission. A surety who has to reunderwrite you before writing a letter won't do it inside a bid window.
Statements, WIP, insurance certificates, the completion history, and the bonding letter all live in one place and get refreshed on a quarter, with expiry dates diarized. Then the ask is a phone call and an email rather than a fire drill, and you can approach a GC the week you hear an opening exists instead of a month later.
THE OUTPUTS, NAMED.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing, no payroll, and no add-ons.
Pricing
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the job costing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
